Livelihoods

Towards a (re)Conceptualisation of the "Feminisation of Poverty": Reflections on Gender-Differentiated Poverty from The Gambia, Philippines and Costa Rica

Citation:

Chant, Sylvia. 2010. “Towards a (re)Conceptualisation of the ‘Feminisation of Poverty’: Reflections on Gender-Differentiated Poverty from The Gambia, Philippines and Costa Rica.” In The International Handbook of Gender and Poverty: Concepts, Resarch, Policy. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Author: Sylvia Chant

Topics: Economies, Poverty, Gender, Women, Households, Livelihoods, Post-Conflict Regions: Africa, West Africa, Americas, Central America, Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Costa Rica, Gambia, Philippines

Year: 2010

The International Handbook of Gender and Poverty: Concepts, Research Policy

Citation:

Chant, Sylvia, ed. 2010. The International Handbook of Gender and Poverty: Concepts, Research Policy. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. http://www.e-elgar.com/shop/the-international-handbook-of-gender-and-poverty?___website=uk_warehouse.

Author: Sylvia Chant

Abstract:

In the interests of contextualising (and nuancing) the multiple interrelations between gender and poverty, Sylvia Chant has gathered writings on diverse aspects of the subject from a range of disciplinary and professional perspectives, achieving extensive thematic as well as geographical coverage. This benchmark volume presents women’s and men’s experiences of gendered poverty with respect to a vast spectrum of intersecting issues including local to global economic transformations, family, age, ‘race’, migration, assets, paid and unpaid work, health, sexuality, human rights, and conflict and violence.

(Edward Elgar Publishing)

Topics: Armed Conflict, Economies, Poverty, Gender, Women, Men, Health, Livelihoods, Political Economies, Sexual Violence, Violence

Year: 2010

Social Security and the Family: Coping with Seasonality and Calamity in Rural India

Citation:

Agarwal, Bina. 1990. “Social Security and the Family: Coping with Seasonality and Calamity in Rural India.” The Journal of Peasant Studies 17 (3): 341–412. 

Author: Bina Agarwal

Abstract:

This article examines how poor rural families in India cope with the food insecurity associated with seasonal troughs in the agricultural production cycle, and with calamities such as drought and famine; the effectiveness of the coping mechanisms they adopt; the intra-household sharing of the burden of coping; and the appropriate state and nonstate interventions that would strengthen the survival mechanisms adopted by the families themselves. The family is seen here as a bargaining unit, the ability of different members to command food (among other resources) depending on their relative bargaining strengths, determined in turn by their ownership endowments (of land, labour, etc.), exchange entitlements, and external social and communal support systems. Gender and age both form the basis of intrafamily inequality in this respect. While seasonality reveals a face of the family which is one of cooperation, famine mirrors one of disintegration. In both contexts, the burden of coping falls disproportionately on female members within poor households, traceable to women's already weak and further weakened (during calamity) bargaining position within the family. A re‐interpretation of existing facts about the 1943 Bengal famine illustrates the process of family disintegration and the abandonment of wives and children during a severe calamity. State efforts complemented by nonstate interventions therefore need to be directed to programmes that ‘empower’ poor families and the more vulnerable members within them.

Topics: Age, Agriculture, Class, Environment, Environmental Disasters, Food Security, Gender, Women, Livelihoods Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India

Year: 1990

Towards Victim-Centred Transitional Justice: Understanding the Needs of Families of the Disappeared in Postconflict Nepal

Citation:

Robins, Simon. 2011. “Towards Victim-Centred Transitional Justice: Understanding the Needs of Families of the Disappeared in Postconflict Nepal.” International Journal of Transitional Justice 5 (1): 75–98. doi:10.1093/ijtj/ijq027.

Author: Simon Robins

Abstract:

Despite many transitional justice processes claiming to be ‘victim-centred,’ in practice they are rarely driven by the needs of those most affected by conflict. Indeed, in many contexts the views of victims are not sought by those driving the transition. In this article, the needs of a representative sample of 160 families of people disappeared during Nepal’s decade-long Maoist insurgency are studied in an effort to understand what such families seek from the transitional justice process. The study shows that victims emphasize the need for the truth about the disappeared and for economic support to help meet basic needs. Whilst families of the disappeared would welcome justice, this is not their priority. Nepal’s transitional justice process remains still-born and discussions are polarized between a human rights community that prioritizes prosecutions and a political class that seeks to avoid them. An understanding of victims’ expectations of the process can potentially break this deadlock and allow policies to be driven by the needs of those most affected.

Topics: Gender, Women, Justice, Transitional Justice, Livelihoods, Post-Conflict, Rights, Human Rights Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Nepal

Year: 2011

Gender-Based Violence in Conflict and Displacement: Qualitative Findings from Displaced Women in Colombia

Citation:

Wirtz, Andrea L., Kiemanh Pham, Nancy Glass, Saskia Loochkartt, Teemar Kidane, Decssy Cuspoca, Leonard S. Rubenstein, Sonal Singh, and Alexander Vu. 2014. “Gender-Based Violence in Conflict and Displacement: Qualitative Findings from Displaced Women in Colombia.” Conflict and Health 8 (10).

Authors: Andrea L. Wirtz, Kiemanh Pham, Nancy Glass, Saskia Loochkartt, Teemar Kidane, Decssy Cuspoca, Leonard S. Rubenstein, Sonal Singh, Alexander Vu

Abstract:

Introduction: Gender-based violence (GBV) is prevalent among, though not specific to, conflict affected populations and related to multifarious levels of vulnerability of conflict and displacement. Colombia has been marked with decades of conflict, with an estimated 5.2 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) and ongoing violence. We conducted qualitative research to understand the contexts of conflict, displacement and dynamics with GBV. This as part of a multi-phase, mixed method study, in collaboration with UNHCR, to develop a screening tool to confidentially identify cases of GBV for referral among IDP women who were survivors of GBV.

Methods: Qualitative research was used to identify the range of GBV, perpetrators, contexts in conflict and displacement, barriers to reporting and service uptake, as well as to understand experiences of service providers. Thirty-five female IDPs, aged 18 years and older, who self-identified as survivors of GBV were enrolled for in-depth interviews in San Jose de Guaviare and Quibdo, Colombia in June 2012. Thirty-one service providers participated in six focus group discussions and four interviews across these sites.

Results: Survivors described a range of GBV across conflict and displacement settings. Armed actors in conflict settings perpetrated threats of violence and harm to family members, child recruitment, and, to a lesser degree, rape and forced abortion. Opportunistic violence, including abduction, rape, and few accounts of trafficking were more commonly reported to occur in the displacement setting, often perpetrated by unknown individuals. Intrafamilial violence, intimate partner violence, including physical and sexual violence and reproductive control were salient across settings and may be exacerbated by conflict and displacement. Barriers to reporting and services seeking were reported by survivors and providers alike.

Conclusions: Findings highlight the need for early identification of GBV cases, with emphasis on confidential approaches and active engagement of survivors in available, quality services. Such efforts may facilitate achievement of the goals of new Colombian laws, which seek to prevent and respond to GBV, including in conflict settings. Ongoing conflict and generalized GBV in displacement, as well as among the wider population, suggests a need to create sustainable solutions that are accessible to both IDPs and general populations

Keywords: gender-based violence, Intimate partner violence, conflict, displacement, Colombia, humanitarian settings

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Forced Migration, IDPs, Domestic Violence, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Humanitarian Assistance, Livelihoods, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Sexual Violence Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2014

The Front Line Runs Through Every Woman: Women and Local Resistance in the Zimbabwean Liberation War

Citation:

O’Gorman, Eleanor. 2011. The Front Line Runs Through Every Woman: Women & Local Resistance in the Zimbabwean Liberation War. Woodbridge; Zimbabwe; Rochester, N.Y.: James Currey ; Weaver Press ; Boydell & Brewer.

Author: Eleanor O'Gorman

Abstract:

A Zimbabwe-specific study, focusing on the lives of women in a small locale (Chiweshe) during the anti-colonial insurgency, this book is also a challenge to established and still current modes of thought and research orientations which over-simplify the complex realities women face in the full range of violent conflicts, both past and present. By contextualizing the voices of women of Chiweshe, not only is an important and under-developed aspect of Zimbabwean and African history revealed, but a new approach to comprehending the highly-tensioned lives of women in war is presented, which is characterized here as Gendered Localised Resistance. This is examined through the prism of life in the Protected Villages in Chiweshe experienced in everyday social relations, revolutionary roles, and food security. It traces how women forged strategies of survival and resistance in the middle of guerrilla warfare pitted between the forces of the state and the revolutionary resistance movements. The book can be read as a unique and richly detailed account of the lives of women during the Zimbabwe civil war and liberation struggle; as a wider argument about how researchers can approach and incorporate lived experience into accounts of larger dynamics (war/revolution); and as a substantial and important contribution to feminist historiography and writings on women and war. (Abstract from Publisher)

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, National Liberation Wars, Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Livelihoods, Security, Food Security Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Zimbabwe

Year: 2011

Water Rich, Resource Poor: Intersections of Gender, Poverty, and Vulnerability in Newly Irrigated Areas of Southeastern Turkey

Citation:

Harris, Leila M. 2008. “Water Rich, Resource Poor: Intersections of Gender, Poverty, and Vulnerability in Newly Irrigated Areas of Southeastern Turkey.” World Development 36 (12): 2643–62.

Author: Leila M. Harris

Abstract:

The provision of water for drinking and irrigation is often assumed to alleviate poverty, though results are likely to be mixed for different individuals. This paper examines the intersections of gender poverty, livelihoods, landlessness, and related considerations in the context of large-scale water development in Turkey’s Southeastern Anatolia region, particularly exploring what such an analysis allows for an understanding of variable and differentiated effects of ongoing changes. Findings suggest that certain populations experience enhanced vulnerabilities, and considerable losses, in addition to any gains and benefits of ongoing changes (particularly the landless, poor, some women, and those who previously engaged in animal husbandry). This discussion contributes to a growing gender and water literature, arguing for an intersectional analysis that understands gender as necessarily conditioned by poverty, livelihoods, and other factors. Further, I argue for the need to further enrich analyses of differentiated benefits and vulnerabilities of water-related changes through consideration of geographic, spatial, and place-specific dimensions.

Keywords: Gender, water, irrigation, poverty, development, middle east, Turkey

Topics: Economies, Poverty, Gender, Infrastructure, Water & Sanitation, Livelihoods Regions: MENA, Asia, Europe, Southern Europe Countries: Turkey

Year: 2008

Identity Reconfigured: Karimojong Male Youth, Violence, and Livelihoods

Citation:

Stites, Elizabeth Howland. 2013. "Identity Reconfigured: Karimojong Male Youth, Violence, and Livelihoods." PhD diss., Tufts University. 

Author: Elizabeth Howland Stites

Abstract:

This dissertation examines internal violence among the once-unified Karimojong population of northeastern Uganda and argues that the intensification and increase of this violence over the past three decades is best understood through an analysis of both its gendered nature (i.e., male) and livelihood components. The dissertation uses primary data to review and discuss four hypotheses on the causes of violence associated with cattle raiding in pastoral areas: violence as linked to the acquisition of cattle for bridewealth, violence due to the collapse of traditional authority structures, violence as part of the competition over scarce natural resources, and violence as fueled by the commercialization of cattle raiding. This study finds that while elements of each of these hypotheses have some relevance for understanding violence among the Karimojong in the 1980s and 1990s, violence as experienced since 2000 is primarily a manifestation of the quest for respect, status and identity on the part of young men. Social, political and economic changes in Karamoja have gradually eroded the means through which males were able to establish and maintain a socially recognized masculinity; many of these changes were brought on by the very violence under examination. Faced with the erosion of traditional rites of passage marked by initiation and marriage, young men increasingly turned inward to their peer group in search of solidarity and worth. However, many of the means to establish and maintain status and reputation within the group themselves entail violence. Ultimately, this study finds that violence has become embedded within a cycle of maladaptive livelihoods and serves to perpetuate conflict, undermine the livelihoods base for the broader society, and upend the official and unofficial processes through which young men can achieve a normative masculine identity.

Topics: Age, Youth, Armed Conflict, Gender, Men, Masculinity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Masculinism, Livelihoods, Post-Conflict, Violence Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Uganda

Year: 2013

Learning in a Militarized Context: Exploring Afghan Women’s Experiences of Higher Education in ‘Post-Conflict’ Afghanistan

Citation:

Akseer, Spogmai. “Learning in a Militarized Context: Exploring Afghan Women’s Experiences of Higher Education in ‘Post-Conflict’ Afghanistan.” PhD diss., University of Toronto, 2015.

Author: Spogmai Akseer

Abstract:

This study examines the repercussions of the war on terror and subsequent occupation of Afghanistan, on the daily (gendered) life experiences of Afghan women. I argue that such wars are markers of the shifts in global capitalist accumulation processes, from exporting ‘goods’ to the Global South, to now exporting capitalism. Specifically, the war on terror is the latest manifestation of monopoly finance capitalism, which leverages wars and insecurity in the Global South as lucrative sites for accumulating profits and (re)investments. Democratic ideals provide a ‘moral’ justification for mass militarism, human rights violations, torture and erosion of existing social and economic inequalities. Notions of freedom, equality or classlessness, which are important objectives of formal democracy, as well, colonialist and racist ideologies of Others have become effective mechanisms forcapitalism to sustain and reproduce capitalist class relations. Education is an important site for socializing citizens toward accepting and participating as human capital in monopoly finance capitalism. Through the World Bank, higher education reforms in Afghanistan are endorsing neoliberal policies, even as these policies continue to contradict and exacerbate existing inequalities. Specifically, female education has become a key strategy in continued militarization and occupation in the country.
 
In this study, I examine the contradictory ways in which female university students navigate through an increasingly militarized, violent and patriarchal terrain. Guided by a transnational feminist approach and a dialectical historical materialist framework, 19 female university students from 5 public and private universities were interviewed in Afghanistan. Findings suggest that the university is a contradictory site where participants mobilize new and old strategies for addressing gendered constraints in their lives, while simultaneously creating new ones. The implications of these findings suggest a need for extensive institutional and ideological support for women’s learning, and also improving home-school connections. The participants’ desire to learn and their concerns over increasing violence and insecurity, reveal the militarized nature of their learning, as well, the possibility for critical and transformative learning against imperialism, patriarchy and class relations.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Education, Gender, Women, Men, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Livelihoods, Militarized Livelihoods, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarization Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan

Year: 2015

Gendering Livelihoods in Protracted Conflict

Citation:

Kulatunga, S. T. K., and R. W. D. Lakshman. 2010. “Gendering Livelihoods in Protracted Conflicts.” Paper presented at 2010 Annual conference of International Association for Feminist Economics, Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 22-24.

Authors: R. W. D. Lakshman, S. T. K. Kulatunga

Abstract:

Protracted conflicts give rise to particularly stark gender biases in livelihood of at risk populations. This paper examines how at risk populations maneuver their livelihood assets which are constrained by protracted conflict, to generate livelihoods outcomes. Probing—along the lines suggested by feminist scholars—revealed that there are interesting differences across the ways female and male headships pool resources to cope with protracted conflict. The fieldwork (January-April 2008) conducted in the Anuradhapura district in Sri Lanka involved a sample of 82 households. We find that limited livelihood strategies and insufficient assets to female household heads had impoverished and pauperized them more than their male counterparts. This is supported by rigorous quantitative work as well as meticulous qualitative work. The asset quality of male headships was consistently better that for females. For instance, while 53 percent of male heads of households had passed grade ten only 20 percent of female heads had achieved the same feat. The salience of such asset imbalances in favor of male headships was reflected in the household incomes. Interestingly the lucky few among the female headships who escaped poverty relied on conflict related government assistance such as pensions for war widows.

Keywords: civil war, Sri Lanka, livelihoods, Gender, livelihood strategies, vulnerability

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Men, Gendered Power Relations, Households, Livelihoods Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Sri Lanka

Year: 2010

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