Towards an inclusive development policy

Women in Development:

by Indeewara Thilakarathne

It is, by now, a universally acknowledged fact that development is not possible without the participation of women. Womens contribution to the economy both informal and formal sectors are multiple as they play diverse roles as mothers, workers.

In Sri Lankan context, womens involvement in the development process is still minimal compared with other countries. Out of 225 seats in parliament, women parliamentarians occupy only 11 seats accounting for less than five percent in representation. Womens participation at provincial level is less than two percent.

According to Quarterly statistical review by the Department of Census and Statistics, womens participation in labour force is 33.2 per cent compared with their male counterparts participation accounted for 68.1 per cent indicating serious demographic gap between male and female participation in labour force.

The survey findings also revealed that the estimated economically active population (or labour force) was about 7.5 million in the first quarter 2007 and of the economically inactive population 30 percent were male and 70 per cent were females.

Considering the structure of employment sector wise, 65 per cent of employed persons are in the informal sector with agriculture accounting for 85 per cent of the informal sector while 41 per cent engaged in service sector.

The total number of employed persons in Sri Lanka is estimated to be about 7.0 million. Even among the employed women, it has been estimated that 5.2 per cent women are under employed.

Among the unemployed women, women above the age of 30 accounted for 3.9 per cent compared to 1.4 per cent in the male category. Unemployment is acute among GCE (A/L) qualified women more than men in the educated category accounting for 12.3 per cent and 7 per cent and 18 per cent for male and female respectively.

Womens involvement in diverse sectors namely agriculture, industrial and service, are relatively lower than mens in the same sectors.

For instance, in the service sector 71 per cent of employed persons are male with female accounted only for 28.3 per cent and large numbers of women are employed in agricultural sector accounting for 41 per cent of the total employment.

Reforms in overall development policy

It is imperative if Sri Lanka really wanted to achieve millennium development goals, the present development policy has to be reformed and re-designed, encouraging women participation in the sphere of development.

However, given the high level of literacy rate and level of education on the part of women in Sri Lanka, quota system would not be appropriate as it could be counter productive. It should be a development policy which is inclusive and assimilates women in diverse sectors into the mainstream economy and production process.

Radical reforms should be brought about in the spheres of education, employment and the recruitment policy in both Government and private sectors.

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Global position:

Economic decision-making facts and figures

Only 1% of the world's assets are in the name of women.

Men in the Arab states have 3.5 times the purchasing power of their female counterparts.

70% of people in abject poverty living on less than $1 per day are women. Among the developed countries, in France only 9% of the workforce and in the Netherlands 20% of the workforce are female administrators and managers.

Among the developing countries, in Ecuador and the Bahamas, 33% of the workforce is comprised of women administrators and managers.

Women's participation in managerial and administrative posts is around 33% in the developed world, l5% in Africa, and 13% in Asia and the Pacific. In Africa and Asia-Pacific these percentages, small as they are, reflect a doubling of numbers in the last twenty years.

Seventy percent of the 1.3 billion people living in poverty around the world are women and children.

Two-thirds of the 876 million illiterate adults worldwide are women. Two-thirds of the 125 million school-aged children who do not attend school worldwide are girls, and girls are less likely to complete school than boys.

More than three-quarters of the world>s 27 million refugees are women and children. Every Day 1,600 women die needlessly during pregnancy and childbirth There are only 5 women chief executives in the Fortune 500 corporations, Governing the most valuable publicly owned companies in the United States.

These include the CEOs of Xerox, Spherion, Hewlett-Packard, Golden West Financial, and Avon Products.

In Silicon Valley, for every 100 shares of stock options owned by a man, only one share is owned by a woman.