New Database Additions  Short Summary Title Gender Assessment for Malawi Author Mathiassen, A., et. al. Publication Date January 2007 Publisher Statistics Norway Summary This report highlights gender disparities in Malawi and makes suggestions on how to improve the situation for women. It focuses on six key areas: education, work and employment, agriculture, female-headed households, violence and HIV/AIDS. The main findings of are: • Education: Only about half of the adult female population can read and write in their mother tongue or English, compared to three out of four men • Work and employment: women work more hours than men but spend considerably less time than men on income-generating activities, earn less than men for similar work, or are engaged in informal sector activities, such as selling produce in markets, which generates less income than men's paid employment • Agriculture: women have limited access to, and control over essential elements of agricultural productionsuch as land, agricultural inputs, and technology. • Female-headed households: Women shoulder the main burden of domestic duties and caring responsibilities, with this work load particularly high for women who are separated, divorced or widowed • Violence: There is a high incidence of domestic violence, particularly for married women • HIV and AIDS: The HIV prevalence is more than four times as high for females as males aged 15-24 The report recommends practical solutions, including: • making sure women receive financial rewards equal to men's for their productive labour, and that they can access credit to assist other financially productive activities, such as small businesses • improving local facilities such as water provision to lessen women's domestic work load investing in awareness programmes that challenge domestic violence as a culturally accepted practice, and empower women to speak out against violence; • providing financial support for female-headed households which tend to be particularly vulnerable because they have to generate all the household income in addition to carrying out their domestic work loads. [adapted from source] Complete Document View PDF (Portable Document Format)