During the 1980s, the United Nations reported that in spite of the fact that women made up half of the world’s population and performed nearly two-thirds of the work, they received only one-tenth of the world’s income and owned less than a hundredth of the world’s property. In an attempt to level out this gross inequality, the think-tanks of the world adopted the concept of gender mainstreaming — the promotion of gender equality. In 1995, the Fourth World Conference on Women which took place in Beijing declared that the empowerment of women was the single most pressing action required, if the goals of equality, development, economic prosperity and, ultimately, world peace were ever to be achieved. Thus, the concept of gender mainstreaming through empowerment gained momentum and surfaced as one of the main priorities in the agenda of the Millennium Development Report at the start of this century. Today, in Saudi Arabia, women’s empowerment is at the heart of the new five-year plan, unveiled last week by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah.
Women’s empowerment initiatives aim to analyze, review, and reform policies and regulations that discriminate against their advancement into the economy of nations. Empowerment initiatives can only succeed if practitioners approach the process by affirming two interlinked assumptions. The first is women’s ability to have control over resources (material, financial and human) to which they are disadvantaged relative to their male peers. The second is that a dominant gender ideology entrenching social, cultural, economic and political manifestations of gender inequality permeates most policies and regulations. By being aware of these assumptions, practitioners can objectively address issues of rights and entitlements, which ensure equal access to assets, resources, and services, as well as the capacity of women to control the benefits ensuing from such access.
Reforming economic policies requires policy-makers to think creatively out of the box. The need to deconstruct previous assumptions that stereotyped women as homemakers and men as income generators is necessary if people are to venture into the economically challenging future of the WTO era. At a time when most countries are going through economic crisis as evidenced by high rates of unemployment and economic stagnation, the opening of markets and the advent of fierce competition can only make matters worse. To overcome this, governments not only need to transform economies from resource-based to skill-based, and from government-led to private sector-driven. But they also need to create jobs for a fast-growing young male and female labor force.
A World Bank study has estimated that within the next 10 years, the Middle East and North Africa region will need to create 47 million new jobs to absorb the influx of young people into the labor force; by the year 2025 that number will increase to 100 million. It is a massive challenge, all the more so given that women’s actual participation in the labor force in the region is just 32 percent.
History has yet to show a region in the world that has ever before faced such a daunting challenge as this one. Arab countries, more than any other in the world will have to find ways in which to empower their female citizenry so as to achieve equitable growth. However, despite that low employment rate of 32 percent, Arab women have made considerable progress over the decades. The 2002 and 2003 Arab Human Development Reports show that the Arab region has had the fastest improvement in female education in the world. Female literacy is three times what it was in the 1970s and primary and secondary school enrollment double. Yet, in spite of these advancements, Arab women are still marginalized in the economy.
Women’s integration through employment and enterprise creation is one of the critical factors that can make the difference between a vibrant economic growth and social advancement on the one hand and a continued slide in standards of living on the other. Advocating women’s integration into the economy is both a solid investment for all those concerned, men as well as women, and good business practice.
Thanks to technological breakthroughs, nations are moving from industrialized to knowledge-based economies, from utilizing a national labor force as a resource, to utilizing the intellectual capital of a nation as its asset. Cerebral power — as reflected in ideas, creativity and innovation — is replacing physical might. With competition on the rise, nations, like corporations, need cerebral power to constantly reinvent themselves and their competitive advantage so as to survive financially.
By virtue of their position as homemakers, women are powerful economic enablers. Recent surveys in a variety of countries show that women make 80 percent of their families’ purchasing decisions. This means that the prime clients of major commercial enterprises are female. Companies that employ women will have the added competitive advantage of understanding “the woman consumer”. Companies that employ women are able to enter new markets, develop new products and better compete in a global marketplace.
Saudi Arabia’s national development plans have always highlighted the importance of empowering its female citizens. Its significant investment in women’s education has enabled many Saudi women to achieve their productive potential and capacity to earn. But the very low levels of female participation in the labor force means that the Kingdom has not been able to capture a large part of the return on this investment.
The low participation of Saudi women in the labor force has a high cost to the economy and a high cost to the family. Studies reveal that the economic well-being of a population is determined not only by how much each working person earns, but also by what proportion of the population works. If Saudi women were able to have access to decent jobs, their extra income would increase household earnings by as much as 25 percent. For many families, such increased earnings are the ticket to being middle class. For others, it is the means to education, health, child care and a decent living.To tap the potential of Saudi women’s public contribution to the economy, measures must be taken to ensure that they are provided with the same opportunities as men so they can become skilled employees, creative entrepreneurs, visionary investors and effective producers.
This process can only be achieved through gender mainstreaming initiatives. However, the success of such initiatives requires a major paradigm shift: Cultural stereotypes that portray men as breadwinners, women as homemakers need to be rethought. Traditionally, women were encouraged to stay out of the work force because families could live well on one income. This assumption no longer holds; families increasingly need two incomes to make ends meet.
Another paradigm needing to shift is the common stereotype of what a woman should do. This assumes that certain professions such as social work, nursing and teaching are for women while others such as engineering and law are for men. If women are to share the responsibility of economic development equally with men, they need to have the same opportunities in education and vocational training as men.
Within the context of this new economic model, a supportive infrastructure that facilitates women’s participation in the public arena must be created. Women are more constrained by their immediate physical environment than men. An investment in standard infrastructure for public transportation and telecommunication is critical. The more public mobility women have, the better their access to markets, information and communication. In a competitive world, isolation from knowledge can carry a heavy cost.
Private sector development is about promoting growth, reducing poverty and helping people improve their quality of life.
In order for sustainable and equitable growth to occur, the need to understand and be aware of all the relevant issues in economic policy and gender sensitivity is key. That can be achieved through training, networking, and knowledge sharing. It is important for all stakeholders to understand how economic policies impact on men and women differently, and to work for more equitable outcomes that will maximize benefits for all.
Forty-seven million new jobs need to be created in the Arab region within the next 10 years; there is no better time to start than now.
(Fatin Yousef Bundagji is director of Women Empowerment & Research at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce & Industry.)
