IT IS believed that the most lethal killer in the world is coded: Z59.5. In simple terms, it means the widening gap between the rich and the poor, and the discrimination on the basis of population, age groups and sexes. In the development jargon, they call it ‘the feminization of poverty’. The reason being that in spite of the world having made an incredible progress in the last century, millions of women are still condemned to live in abject poverty. They are poor, uneducated, jobless, unskilled, pregnant, and dispossessed.
Unfortunately, this is not a recent phenomenon. Those who have studied the problem, in the historical context, have found that there is a correlation between private property and poverty. Anthropologists argue that men and women were equal partners in the early stages of human evolution. Women were respected members of their tribes, revered for their capacity to give birth and nourish the young. Paternity still lay undiscovered and it was believed that women bore fruit like trees. Childbirth was considered something exceedingly miraculous — nevertheless vital — and it was women who were envied as the productive half of the population.
Dr Tahira Khan, a gender specialist says: “The reversal in gender status began with the advent of the agrarian phase. In the hunting and horticultural society, women were equal partners in work. But the equality disappeared in other matters. It was the women who were required to stay at home and take care of children, livestock and do other domestic chores like cooking, washing and fetching water etc. Repeated pregnancies made them physically unfit for tough agriculture jobs such as ploughing the fields, sowing and harvesting. This change in the mode of production resulted in the ‘domestication’ of women. And the trend went on to intensify with time.” She adds: “Thus women started to be counted among land and slaves as the first private property of men along with other material goods.”
By this time men became aware of their role in the reproduction process and owned their progeny. Due to surplus agricultural produce and barter system, men now owned wealth, which they wanted to transfer to their future generations. It developed the concept of virginity and chastity for women and society developed different laws to control adultery and fornication. Elaborating her point further, Dr Khan says: “The same rules were passed on to the feudal system, which was the next stage of human evolution. Meanwhile, the advent of different monotheistic religions incorporated the idea of chastity of women and along with cultural and tribal tenets, religion also confined their movements.”
It was in the 18th century that the French Revolution brought an end to the feudal system and the human society entered the industrial age. Again, the modes of production were changed and industries producing goods on a large scale captured the industrial scene. The rapid growth of industrial sector resulted in shortage of labour, which compelled men to bring women back into the labour force. The cool, calculating industrialists would prefer women workers over men because they (women and children) provided cheap labour and were meek and weak compared to more demanding men. Thus, ‘more profit and fewer wages’ became the motto of the capitalists. This was how women made their entry into the labour market after a long, long time.
Even in the most developed countries the picture is still not very rosy. A recent report by the United Nations Development Fund for Women mentions that women are still the poorest of the poor, representing 70 per cent of 1.3 billion people who live in poverty. It has been estimated that nearly 900 million women in the world subsist on an income of less than a dollar a day. In the US alone, women who earn about 50 per cent more are likely to be poorer than men and poverty among women has been steadily rising since the ’50s.
Another related factor is the gender wage gap. The ‘glass ceiling’, which many women have to face, has set them back economically, socially and psychologically. A credible study on the subject concludes that for every dollar a man earns, a woman earns 75 cents. It also says: “Child-bearing decisions still profoundly affect women’s career path and the glass ceiling, though ‘cracked in places’ remains firm.”
Women also suffer due to their lack of access to education and healthcare. Lower levels of nutrition combined with less healthcare reflect cultural and social bias. Illiteracy reinforces their exclusion from labour and credit market and legal systems. The only way for them to avoid the death-trap of poverty is to keep themselves bound in wedlock. But as more and more women are opting out of it, preferring independent lives, the scenario is becoming bleaker.
In a country like Pakistan where the patriarchal system, feudalism and tribal phenomenon are still prevalent and an irrational blend of cultural norms and religious tenets are being used to suppress women, the scenario is really heart-breaking. Statistics reveal that our land of the pure has lowest sex ratio, a low life expectancy at birth for women, almost non-existent primary school enrollment rate for girls, and they are the victims of ill-health and premature deaths. Pakistan’s maternal mortality rate is highest in South Asia and women constitute only 2.9 per cent of the labour force. Their over all literacy rate is 35 per cent as against 61 per cent for men. According to Dr Asad Saeed, a famous economist: “The modern definition of poverty not only includes access to resources and assets but it also includes women’s right to healthy and successful life and free choices. But in our country both these factors are still a distant dream because women neither have access to resources and assets, and society as a whole exert its influence in the form of religious, societal and cultural prejudices and pressures.”
Dr Saeed adds: “Women’s access to income-generating activities is very restricted and even educated women are not allowed to work outside their homes by their kith and kin. They don’t get their share in inheritance and don’t own assets in their names. This weakens their financial position, which in turn makes them vulnerable and all that creates a misbalance in the gender relationships.”
There is a supply and demand factor in female education. The prevailing culture gives more importance to their reproductive capacities rather than their productive ones, which discourages investment in their education.
Articulating his thoughts on gender inequality, Akbar Zaidi, an eminent social scientist and economist, says: “There is an urgent need to increase awareness and consciousness among women regarding their rights. And this can be done when there are opportunities for them to acquire education.”
Zaidi firmly believes it to be the key to success because it has been observed that educated women are more aware of their rights. “They do not marry very early, have fewer children, take better care of the family in terms of nutrition and hygiene, enter job market and take keen interest in decision-making regarding family and self,” says Zaidi.
In his view, education is the most vital tool in eliminating discrimination and prejudice. According to him, though there are some women organizations that are doing fine work, there is still a need of a mass women movement at the grassroots level. In this regard he considers the induction and inclusion of women in the local bodies, national and provincial assemblies as a great step. “The results of these developments will be seen after, say, eight to 10 years,” he asserts.
Zaidi says: “There is an urgent need to repeal all anti-women and discriminatory laws such as the Hudood Ordinances, the Law of Evidence, the Qisas and Diyat Laws, as well as enforce new laws on karo-kari and honour killings and, of course, on rape, domestic violence and sexual harassment.”
It would be safe to say that in a country like Pakistan all stake-holders including the NGOs, civil society, political parties and concerned individuals, must make collective efforts, to change the mind-set regarding women issues. It is important that male dominance is replaced by gender equality. If we are to be counted among the civilized and developed societies, men and women must work in harmony, which would make us realize the ultimate dream of making this world a better place for our children.
IT IS believed that the most lethal killer in the world is coded: Z59.5. In simple terms, it means the widening gap between the rich and the poor, and the discrimination on the basis of population, age groups and sexes. In the development jargon, they call it ‘the feminization of poverty’. The reason being that in spite of the world having made an incredible progress in the last century, millions of women are still condemned to live in abject poverty. They are poor, uneducated, jobless, unskilled, pregnant, and dispossessed.
