Defeminization of poverty

       DEFEMINIZATION OF POVERTY

Women are half the sky - Chinese proverb

Even if anyone disagrees with the above you must admit women are half of the world’s population if not more. Secondly history and life generally have not been kind to most women.  According to Brian Tracy the first rule to writing a book is for one to start with a message, Idea, story that you really want to share with other people. For years I have observed and absorbed people’s stories. From an early age  I learnt to listen and counsel people around me family, friends ,school mates but the greatest resource is my being a woman from a developing country who has had to face all kinds of obstacles some still insurmountable .How can I and other like minded individuals and groups uplift the lives of other women, promote their fundamental human rights ,protect their strengths and weaknesses ,preserve their dignity, change their mindset, empower them to play more active roles in improving their families, communities and nations.

I have an over abundance of ideas coursing through my mind and an even larger cache of ideas on how to improve the lives of womenfolk or at least reduce the challenges we face on a daily basis.

Rayuwa-life journal and this group are about women. Every kind of woman, Women who are also perhaps mothers, sisters, wives, friends, entrepreneurs, lovers, workers, gardeners, even grandmothers. In short-a person trying to be everything to everybody and still have a life.

   According to James Browns song, “it’s a mans world”.

      Life is hard enough, survival just is not easy but it’s doubly hard for women in     developing countries

 Women in some Developing Countries:

• traditionally own no property
• are generally illiterate
• lack basic health knowledge

Coupled with poverty, violence against women thrives in these conditions. When women are given a voice from knowledge gained in training and, with peer support:

• women's status advances and they are more involved in community decision making
• their families' diet and health improves
• they have fewer births
• they send their children to school in greater numbers

Feminization of Poverty

The “feminization of poverty” is a phenomenon that is unfortunately on the increase. Basically, women are increasingly the ones who suffer the most poverty.
‘’At the same time that women produce 75 to 90 percent of food crops in the world, they are responsible for the running of households. According to the United Nations, in no country in the world do men come anywhere close to women in the amount of time spent in housework. Furthermore, despite the efforts of feminist movements, women in the core [wealthiest, Western countries] still suffer disproportionately, leading to what sociologists refer to as the “feminization of poverty,” where two out of every three poor adults are women. The informal slogan of the Decade of Women became “Women do two-thirds of the world’s work, receive 10 percent of the world’s income and own 1 percent of the means of production.”

— Richard H. Robbins, Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism, (Allyn and Bacon, 1999), p. 354

This then also affects children, which makes the dire situation even worse. For example, even in the richest country in the world, the USA, the poorest are women caring for children.^.

Poverty, trade and economic issues are very much related to women’s rights issues due to the impacts they can have. Tackling these issues as well also helps to tackle women’s rights issues. And, tackling gender issues helps tackle poverty-related issues.

Secretary Hillary Clinton speaking at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said that her department will “invest” in the potential of women in developing countries to bring about economic and political change.

Women and girls are one of the world’s greatest untapped resources. Investing in the potential of women to lift and lead their societies is one of the best investments we can make. Studies  have shown that when a woman receives even just one year of schooling, her children are less likely to die in infancy or suffer from illness or hunger, and more likely to go to school themselves.

Clinton mentioned that women are more safe and less of a risk when given credit. She drew applause from the audience when she said:

Well, you know the proverb, “Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, but teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime”? Well, if you teach a woman to fish, she’ll feed the whole village.