By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 3 (IPS) – The spreading global financial crisis – which has taken a heavy toll of international bankers, investors and speculators – is also having a devastating impact on some of the most vulnerable and marginalised groups in society, including women and children.
The crisis will “push millions into deeper poverty and result in the deaths of thousands of children,” warned a new study released Tuesday by the Paris-based U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
Kevin Watkins, one of the authors of the study, declared: “Aid donors could clearly do far more to protect the world’s poorest people from a crisis manufactured by the world’s richest financiers and regulatory failure in rich countries.”
The impact of the crisis on women is also one of the themes of the two-week session of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) which began Monday.
Addressing the CSW, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Sha Zukang said: “Historically, economic recessions have placed a disproportionate burden on women.”
He pointed out that women are more likely than men to be in vulnerable jobs; to be under-employed or without a job; lack social protection; and to have limited access to and control over economic and financial resources.
The most widespread negative impact could be in the Asia-Pacific region which has one of the highest ratios of women of working age. And, among working women, about 65 percent are in vulnerable employment, largely in the region’s informal sector.
Many of them have no benefits – such as maternity leave and pensions – or job security, and are at great risk of falling into poverty in economic downturns, according to the Bangkok-based U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).
Women’s unequal access to decent and productive employment opportunities costs the Asia-Pacific region about 42 to 47 billion dollars a year.
Thelma Kay, director of ESCAP’s Social Development Division, told IPS that in many families, household expenditures, such as for food and child-rearing, are managed by women.
“Women dependents are having to care for their entire families on less income, and working women are having to support families with their wages alone, which, on average, are lower often considerably than men’s,” Kay said.
On top of that, she said, food prices have spiraled over the last two years, forcing women to make difficult financial choices.
“And where school costs become unbearable, it is the girl-children who are more likely to be taken out of the classroom,” Kay said.
Last week, Navi Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that women and girls are often exposed to greater risk of violence in times of hardship, and that their economic and social rights may also be jeopardised.
“They see their job opportunities shrink, are forced to accept more marginal and ill-paid employment, and forego basic services to secure food and shelter,” she pointed out.
Read More