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RESPECT for Women seminar
Thursday 9 September 2004
Global Perspectives Panel
Presentation by Dr Anna Ciccarelli, Executive Director, International
and Development, University of South Australia
Theme on the transformative power of education for girls, women,
their families and communities
Nexus between Education and Poverty in developing countries
- Women are poorer than men because they are often denied equal
rights and opportunities, they also carry the burden of reproductive
and care work and represent the majority of unpaid labour; hence
greater vulnerability of women to chronic poverty.
- Seven out of ten of the world's hungry are women and girls.
- In one in three households around the world, women are the sole
breadwinners.
- Although it is often stated that labour is the poor’s most
abundant asset, women are relatively time poor and much of their
work is socially unrecognized since it is unpaid. Thus, women on
average work more, but have less command over income as well as
assets.
- Concept of increased time poverty, gender relations and
inequalities cause women and men to experience poverty differently
within households.
Education and Training of Women as a factor in economic development
- In countries where there is significant under-representation of
primary or secondary enrolment, GNP per capita is roughly 25 per
cent lower than elsewhere.
- An estimated two thirds of the 300 million children without
access to education are girls, and two thirds of the some 880
million illiterate adults are women.
- Education, in particular that of women, has a larger impact on
infant and child mortality than the combined effects of higher
income, improved sanitation and modern-sector employment.
- Botswana, Kenya and Zimbabwe, with the highest levels of female
schooling in sub-Saharan Africa, show the lowest levels of child
mortality.
- One study on agricultural productivity showed that four years of
primary education increased farmers' productivity by up to 10
percent. A World Bank study concluded that if women received the
same amount of education as men, farm yields would rise by between 7
and 22 percent.
International education as a force for cultural change
- Participation of women in international education is growing
- Women take up the opportunity to explore options in terms of
gender roles and cultural change
- Motivation of young women vis a vis men in cultural exchange
programs
- Insufficient preparation for re-entry and return to their
families, cultures lack of acceptance of changes in roles,
perspectives and career aspirations, workforce participation,
marriage etc
Senior Women in University cultures
- Improved participation of women in the top three levels in a
study of the ATN universities however, achievement is fragile
- Issue of engagement of younger women in climbing the career
ladder
- Research highlighted themes of:
Reticence
- Women still don’t put themselves forward
- It is critical for male and female managers to identify and
encourage women to apply for promotion
- Recent migrants or bicultural women are not participating at
the same levels
Resistance
- Work/ life balance
- Questioning around what it takes to be ‘successful’
(Chesterman, Ross, Smith, Peters 03)
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