 |
 |
|
|
| Search / Search Results | |||
|
|
||
| Date Added to Site: 27th June 2008 | ||
| Short Summary | Long Summary | ||
| Title | Mainstreaming Gender in Social Protection for the Informal Economy | |
| Author | Kabeer, N. | |
| Publication Date | January 2008 | |
| Publisher | Commonwealth Secretariat | |
| Donor | Commonwealth Secretariat | |
| Long Summary |
How can the money spent on social protection measures make more of a difference to the lives of women workers? It is in the informal sector where the majority of women, and indeed the poor, are to be found yet this is where official efforts for social protection have been most limited. Women from low-income households working in the informal sector are over-represented in such precarious and poorly paid jobs. This book explains how the need for social protection is also shaped by the gender-related constraints that limit women's ability to overcome labour market disadvantages through their own efforts. Women's unpaid domestic and care work is part of this 'story of injustice'. If social protection measures are to work for poor women, their design needs to be based on a framework which appreciates the interaction between gender inequalities within and outside the home. Such a framework would expose the nature of risk and vulnerabilities faced by women in the informal sector, the life course variations in women's needs and constraints as well as the inter-generational dynamics of inequalities. There has been some considerable success with social protection measures such as conditional cash transfers and feeding programmes to provide incentives for mothers to send children to school. But evaluations of these programmes raise questions as to whether they would have more impact if they could better incorporate women's needs as workers as well as mothers. To this end, public provision of childcare support to working mothers recognises both roles - it can ensure children are cared for while allowing their mothers to earn the income desperately needed to support their families. One clear message from this book is that in the context of poor countries with a large informal labour force, it does not make sense to design social protection measures around 'risk episodes'. As Naila Kabeer states, 'Instead, such efforts should be designed to promote as well as to protect livelihoods, to encourage decent working conditions and to enable all workers to organise for greater voice in the collective arrangements that govern their lives'. Such an approach offers hope to women workers in the informal economy if combined with measures which take into account women's role as carers and the barriers women face in the labour market. You can purchase this book from the IDS Bookshop: E-mail: Publications@ids.ac.uk Publications Office Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex Brighton BN1 9RE, UK Tel: +44 1273 678269 Fax +44 1273 621202/691647 Alternatively copies are available from the British Library of Development Studies (BLDS) which offers a document delivery and inter-library loan service, see: http://blds.ids.ac.uk/docdel.html |
|
| Complete Document |
 http://www.ntd.co.uk/idsbookshop/details.asp?id=1000
|
|
|
|
