Engendering Human Rights: Women and Poverty - a Human Rights Approach Sandra Fredman Oxford University

Engendering human rights ‘For too long, it was assumed that development was a process that lifts all boats... and that it was gender neutral in its impact.’ ‘Human development if not engendered, is endangered.’...Step beyond Human rights will continue to exclude women unless expressly engendered

Engendering Human Rights "In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets, and steal loaves of bread.” (Anatole France) Take account of power relations in which rights are exercised and interlocking sources of disadvantage. Expand feasible options available to women Recognise and value care, responsibility, solidarity Not just women: gendered relationships. Women’s equal participation in workforce = men’s equal participation in home.

Gendered poverty Primary responsibility for child-care and unpaid work Imbalance of Power within family: lack of agency Violence Health-care: Maternal mortality; reproductive complications Education Precarious work in formal sector; predominance in informal sector and agricultural work

Role of law in constructing gendered poverty Absence of property rights: women precipitated into poverty on widowhood or divorce Absence of protection against violence: interferes with health, education, paid work, entrepreneurship Lack of mobility interferes with poverty alleviation

Interlocking factors Early marriage and teenage pregnancy Lack of education Violence Lack of property rights, customary law, access to capital Lack of agency; secondary poverty Health; maternal mortality

Engendering the Right to Education Teenage pregnancy and early marriage Violence en route and at school Sanitation at school Syllabus Opportuniti es for paid work

Engendering the right to work Hours of work Equal rights for precarious and informal workers Job segregatio n and women’s work Equal pay for work of equal value Education and training Parental rights and child-care Violence and sexual harassment at work

Formal Equality before the law Equal property rights: customary law and statutory law Rule of Law: protection against violence Minimum age of marriage Freedom of movement Equal right to vote

From formal to substantive equality Formal equality Same treatment: antecedent disadvantage not relevant Male norm Relative: equally poor? Abstracted from social context Substantive equality Different treatment may be necessary to redress disadvantage (quotas) Structural obstacles Improve conditions for all Power/cultural norms

Substantive equality Break the cycle of disadvantage associated with status groups (allows quotas etc) Promote dignity and worth, redressing stereotyping, stigma, humiliation and violence Transformational: Aim to achieve structural change Participative: Facilitate full participation in decision-making

Interaction between dimensions ‘Redressing disadvantage’ can cause stigma: welfare recipients Focus on stigma alone can leave disadvantage untouched Redressing disadvantage may not be sustainable without structural change Women’s voice must genuinely redress disadvantage: elite v poor women?

Poor Women: agents of change or bearing burden of development? Conditional Cash Transfer: Redressing disadvantage: cash transfer, but less agency; time; Addressing stereotyping: women primarily as mothers; fathers ignored Structural change: Poor quality services Participation: Often missing Alternatives: Universal good quality services; unconditional cash transfers

Microfinancing

Substantive Equality and microfinancing Redressing disadvantage: Small unprofitable businesses; empowerment unproved Addressing stereotyping: Women as efficient users of resources but cultural obstacles unchanged, violence Transformation: Structures unchanged: diverts State responsibility for rights to market Participation: From group solidarity to individual consumers.

Challenges ahead Engendered human rights: rights in context of complex social structures Substantive equality for women and men Positive duties on State and all with power: Universal high quality services