Poverty and women's rights
March 8, 2011 marks 100 years of International Women's Day.
Again and again, ActionAid's research has shown that unjust treatment of women creates poverty.
Below, six inspirational women from the around the world tell their story of how they are fighting for equality - and how equality is the best way to end poverty. Forever.
Landlessness affects millions worldwide, but it hits women much more than men. In Africa and south Asia, women are denied their rights to cultivate, own or control property.
When women like Adama Mgane from Senegal are allowed to own and cultivate their own land, they can help to tackle hunger and poverty among their community.
One in three women is raped, beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her life. Each year during conflicts, tens of thousands of women and girls are raped, abducted, made pregnant or
enslaved.
In India, activists like Asha Singh are fighting to stop violence against women - for example, working to persuade people to value daughters as much as sons.
Income in the hands of women has a dramatic impact on the wellbeing of their families, since they spend a significant proportion of it on children’s food, health and education.
But the majority of roles that fall to women – small-scale agriculture, animal rearing, water collection and childcare – are unpaid.
ActionAid trains women like Hawa Conteh to get the skills to run their own businesses.
Increasing women’s involvement in local decision-making and politics is critical for bringing about change. But village leaders and chiefs, and heads of government, are still overwhelmingly male.
Research in India has found that, when a third of leadership positions in village councils were reserved for women, there was a smaller than average gender gap in school attendance, improved roads and better healthcare facilities.
ActionAid is helping women like Mercedes Urizar in Guatemala get the skills and confidence to take part in local politics.
Around 50 million women give birth each year without medical help, and roughly 358,000 die in the process – women in sub-Saharan Africa have a 1 in 16 chance of dying in pregnancy or childbirth.
In rural areas, cultural norms mean husbands and family elders often decide whether a woman may have healthcare.
But there is good news. For example, Bangladesh has reduced its under-five mortality rate by 64% since 1990 through tens of thousands of female health workers.
And in Cambodia, ActionAid is helping women like Sophat Soarn get access to traditional healthcare.
Education is a basic human right, yet girls are missing out. The children of a woman with five years’ primary education have a survival rate 40% higher than that of women with none.
Barriers to girls’ education are plentiful. Long walks to school increase girls’ vulnerability to attack. Pregnant girls (including those made pregnant through rape) are frequently excluded from education. Many girls are sent to work or kept at home to look after siblings or relatives.
Cultural traditions such as female genital mutilation (FGM) also push girls to drop out of school. But thanks to ActionAid's work, girls like Tegla Natao in Kenya are saying no to FGM.
photo : ©ActionAid
photo : ©Candace Feit/ActionAid
photo : ©Sanjit Das/ActionAid
photo : ©Aubrey Wade/ActionAid
photo : ©ActionAid
photo : ©Nicolas Axelrod/ActionAid
photo : ©Sven Torfinn/Panos/ActionAid
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