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The Role of Women in Growth and Recovery in Urban Economies�Maria Fornella-Oehninger, Soroptimist International UN Representative NY

WOMEN AND HABITAT AFRICA WORKING GROUP (WHAWG)

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CITIES: NEW FRONT IN STRUGGLE FOR GENDER EQUALITY

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  • From now until 2050, the UN estimates that the world’s urban population will expand by 2.5 billion,
  • more than 1.5 million people will be added to cities every week, the vast majority in developing countries
  • Nearly half of these new urban residents will be women, the new front in the struggle for women’s equality and empowerment in development is in cities.
  • this concentration of human talent could spur job growth and economic development, improving women’s participation in the economy and consequently, their empowerment.

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Urbanization drives economic growth

  • Economic Growth (defined as an increase in aggregate production and therefore a rise in higher national income)
  • its concentration of economic activities and interactions, human capital, and resources (capital goods and technology).
  • higher population density facilitates
  • matching between workers ‘skills and jobs, more specialization, higher levels of knowledge
  • higher labor productivity

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Cities and Positive knowledge spillovers

  • In this environment, people benefit from positive knowledge spillovers
  • Not only from formal education
  • Importance of:
  • Informal forms of knowledge
  • knowledge-sharing
  • which stimulates creativity and innovation
  • Rights awareness (problem of non-take-up Rights)

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Laws/Public Policies: Key to Women’s productivity

  • Legal Protections
  • Control of Resources and of their own health and bodies

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  • Accessibility to Public Services for women (Social Protection, Health, Education, childcare, etc.)

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  • Affordable, safe and secure housing

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  • Connectivity (transportation and digital)

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  • A safe environment, free of V and H

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WOMEN PROSPERING IN THE URBAN WORKFORCE: A bigger boost to growth

  • Women contribute to economic growth and development directly and indirectly.
  • Direct Women/Economic Growth relation is through participation in the labor force, which boosts production and thus income at household, community, and national levels.
  • Women bring different skills and perspectives to the workplace, different attitudes to risk and collaboration.
  • The extent to which women contribute to the economy depends on how many women enter the paid workforce, and how tall the barriers they face
  • Productivity depends on education, training, and health plus other supports.
  • Average work participation rate by women across countries is still 20% points lower than male rate due to GENDER GAPS in wages and access to opportunities.

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Gender Equality: Economic Impact

Women represent 40 percent of the global labor force and more than half the world’s university students, so overall productivity will increase if their skills and talents are fully used.

Elimination of barriers against women working in certain sectors or occupations could increase output by raising women’s participation and labor productivity by as much as 25 percent in some countries through better allocation of their skills and talent

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CHALLENGES OF URBANIZATION FOR WOMEN

  • BENEFITS OF URBANIZATION MUST OUTWEIGH THE COSTS
  • HOW URBAN SETTINGS IMPACT THEIR TIME AND THEIR FAMILY LIFE
  • Loss of traditional extended family and community support for care responsibilities means more hours of unpaid care work
  • A major Barrier: Violence and Harassment from domestic to public spaces to the workplace

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  • For Policymakers:
  • Challenge of designing and implementing policies that
  • Support gender equality:
  • Economic empowerment of women is central not only to the Economy itself (all benefit) but also for the realization of women’s rights

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Women’s Economic Empowerment: Removing Barriers through legislation

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  • Gender-unequal laws affect women both in developing and developed countries:
  • 2.7 billion women are legally restricted from having the same job choices as men
  • Over 59 economies have NO LAWS on sexual harassment in the workforce and only 32 countries have ratified ILO Convention -190 and its recommendation 266 for the Eradication of V and H in the World of Work.
  • Removing barriers through enactment of laws to ensure Equal Rights�Access and control of economic resources: right to own land and access credit
  • Tax reform (individual taxation, tax credits)
  • Decent Work
  • Control over their own time and lives, including their health, sexual and reproductive rights.

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What determines Women’s employment? Privilege/Need

  • Female Labor Force Participation generally follows a U shape trend as a highest participation is observed at either end of the income spectrum.
  • Educated women enjoy more secure employment and higher wages (as much as 10 to 20% for each additional year of schooling according to World Bank).
  • Less educated, lower income women work out of need
  • In the middle, women tend to stay outside the labor force
  • Urban labor markets offer more job opportunities but also require
  • higher-level skills
  • Extra effort for women to compete for the safest and highest-paying jobs.
  • Disincentives: Cost of childcare; tax structure

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Pay Gap still harms women’s earnings and pensions

  • Half a billion women have joined the world’s labor force over the past 30 years
  • Women now account for more than 40 percent of workers worldwide
  • Unprecedented reduction in levels of fertility
  • Higher education levels
  • Yet globally, women are paid less than men: Gender wage gap is estimated to be 23%

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Women have less access to Social Protection, including old age pensions

  • Women also support the economy in two other very important and unrecognized ways:
  • Informal jobs (outside government regulation, off the books, no Social Protection)
  • Unpaid care jobs: essential to the functioning of the economy but not included in GDP; unvalued and unrecognized

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Rights and Voice

  • Almost every country in the world has now ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
  • Yet, in many countries, women (especially poor women) have less say than men when it comes to decisions and resources in their households.
  • Women are also much more likely to suffer domestic violence—in developing and rich countries.
  • In all countries, rich and poor alike, fewer women participate in formal politics, especially at higher levels.

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Spillover effect of women controlling resources: Children benefit

  • Greater control over household resources by women, either through their own earnings or cash transfers, can enhance countries’ growth prospects by changing spending in ways that benefit children.
  • Evidence from countries as varied as Brazil, China, India, South Africa, and the United Kingdom shows that when women control more household income—either through their own earnings or through cash transfers—children benefit as a result of more spending on food and education (World Bank, 2011).

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MISSING LINK: Unpaid care work and the value of time

  • TIME IS A LIMITED RESOURCE to be divided between work and leisure, productive and reproductive activities, paid and unpaid work.
  • It is both an economic activity and
  • An indispensable factor in the well-being and emotional fulfilment of families, communities, and societies.
  • But it is left out of policy agendas: difficult to measure? Less relevant?
  • Every minute women spend in care work represents less time to dedicate to their education or to labor market, compensated activities.
  • By ILO estimates, Unpaid care work represents USD 11 trillion (9% of the global economy)
  • In the US it was estimated at $470 billion in 2023

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Women in Local Government can make a difference

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gender-responsive budgeting

  • At the local level, increasing women’s representation can fundamentally reshape important outcomes through
  • the allocation of government expenditures,
  • tax collection,
  • public services delivery,
  • managing land usage,
  • maintaining city infrastructure,
  • creating and implementing public policies.

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�Budget allocations reflect priorities

  • Data from Brazilian municipalities found that women mayors allocate government expenditures differently than men mayors.
  • Women mayors allocate more expenditures to policy areas that disproportionately affect women,
  • This indicates that they are prioritizing the needs of women above other issues, and engaging in substantive representation
  • Percentage of women city councilors impacts expenditure decisions despite the fact that the council has little direct influence over municipal budgets. A larger percentage of women councilors results in greater expenditures in traditionally feminine areas overall, as well 

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Percentages of Women in local government

  • Worldwide, women make up less than 5% of mayors and 20% of city councilors.
  • This percentage almost doubles when it comes to women as leaders of capital cities in places as disparate as Tunis, Freetown, Baghdad, Paris, Bucharest and Washington DC. 
  • Women Mayors overall (2019)
  • 12% in Brazil
  • 25% in the US

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Conclusion

  • Gender equality is important on its own right.
  • Gender equality enhances economic efficiency and improves other development outcomes.
  • Our fight for Equal Rights needs to continue in all fronts, including taking responsibility for leadership and governance
  • Key for cities to prosper:
  • Empowerment of Women and Youth

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MARIA FORNELLA-OEHNINGER�SOROPTIMIST INTERNATIONAL �

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Sources used

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