Women & Economy

Kenya’s Ogiek Women Conquer Cultural Barriers to Support their Families

By Robert Kibet
Just two years ago, Mary Ondolo, a 50-year-old mother of nine from Kenya’s marginalised, hunter-gatherer community, the Ogiek, used to live in a grass thatched, mud house. She'd been living there for decades. 

Can ‘Womenomics’ Stem the Feminisation of Poverty in Japan?

By Suvendrini Kakuchi
Fifty-four-year-old Marlyn Maeda, an unmarried freelance writer living in Tokyo who never held a permanent job, is now watching her dream of aging independently go up in smoke.

Uganda’s Youth Discover the Beauty in Farming

By Amy Fallon
Before she entered the Miss Uganda beauty contest, 24-year-old Fiona Nassaka was a farmer.

Human Rights and Gender Equality Vague in Post-2015 Agenda

By Ida Karlsson
With the United Nations’ post-2015 development agenda currently under discussion, civil society actors in Europe are calling for a firmer stance on human rights and gender equality, including control of assets by women.

Women – the Pillar of the Social Struggle in Chile’s Patagonia Region

By Marianela Jarroud
In few places in Chile are women the pillars of community, grassroots rural and environmental movements as they are in the southern wilderness region of Patagonia. It is a social role that history forced them to assume in this remote part of the country.

With Sewing and Sowing, Self-reliance Blooms in Central Asia

By UN Women
In the small rural village of Svetlaya Polyana, not far from the city of Karakol in Issyk Kul Province, north-eastern Kyrgyzstan, there is no sewage system and 70 percent of households lack access to hot water.

Nepal Landslide Leaves Women and Children Vulnerable

By Naresh Newar
Living in a makeshift tarpaulin shelter, which barely protects her family from the torrential rainfall or scorching heat of this remote village in southern Nepal, 36-year-old Kamala Pari is under immense stress, worrying about her financial security and children’s safety.

Bangladeshi Girls Seek Equal Opportunity

By Naimul Haq
Until five years ago, Shima Aktar, a student in Gajaghanta village in the Rangpur district of Bangladesh, about 370 km northwest of the capital Dhaka, was leading a normal life. But when her father decided that it was time for her to conform to purdah, a religious practice of female seclusion, things changed.

Caregiving Exacerbates the Burden for Women in Cuba

By Patricia Grogg
Hortensia Ramírez feels like she needs more hands to care for her 78-year-old mother, who suffers from arteriosclerosis, do the housework, and make homemade baked goods which she sells to support her family.

Gender Equality Gains Traction with Pacific Island Leaders

By Catherine Wilson
A pledge by political leaders two years ago to accelerate efforts toward closing the gender gap in the Pacific Islands has been boosted with the announcement that three women will take the helm of the regional intergovernmental organisation, the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, headquartered in Suva, Fiji.

OPINION: For Nigerian Girls, Education Is the Key That Opens Doors to Progress

By Nnenna Agba
I grew up in Nigeria, in a culture where bearing a son validates a woman and her family, and a male innately holds the superior position in society over a female. At 11 years of age, I escorted my mother to deliver her fifth baby girl, my youngest sister, and watched our mom die in the hands of an unfit doctor.

Cash Transfers Drive Human Development in Brazil

By Fabíola Ortiz
Every day, Celina Maria de Souza rises before dawn, and after taking four of her children to the nearby school she climbs down the 180 steps that separate her home on a steep hill from the flat part of this Brazilian city, to go to her job as a domestic. In the evening she makes the long trek back up.

Outlawing Polygamy to Combat Gender Inequalities, Domestic Violence in Papua New Guinea

By Catherine Wilson
New legislation recently passed in the southwest Pacific Island state of Papua New Guinea (PNG) outlawing polygamy has been welcomed by experts in the country as an initial step forward in the battle against high rates of domestic violence, gender inequality and the spread of AIDS.

India’s Great Invisible Workforce

By Neeta Lal
According to census data released this month, a whopping 160 million women in India, 88 percent of who are of working age (15 to 59 years), are confined to their homes performing ‘household duties’ rather than gainfully employed in the formal job sector.

OPINION: Why Asia-Europe Relations Matter in the 21st Century

By Shada Islam
Hopes are high that the 10th Asia-Europe Meeting – or ASEM summit – to be held in Milan on October 16-17 will confirm the credibility and relevance of Asia-Europe relations in the 21st century.

Reproductive Rights to Take Centre Stage at U.N. Special Session

By Thalif Deen
As the United Nations continues negotiations on a new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for its post-2015 development agenda, population experts are hoping reproductive health will be given significant recognition in the final line-up of the goals later this year.

Young Latin Americans Face Spiral of Unemployment, Poverty

By Marianela Jarroud
In Latin America, young people are the main link in the chain of poverty leading from one generation to the next. Civil society groups, academics and young people themselves say it is imperative to strengthen the connection between education today and decent employment tomorrow.

OPINION: Unleashing African Young People’s Potential

By Adebayo Fayoyin
An African proverb says “a child that we refuse to build today will end up selling the house that we may build tomorrow.”

Shea Harvesting Good for Income, Bad for the Environment in Ghana

By Albert Oppong-Ansah
The shea tree, a traditional African food plant, represents a major source of income for women in Ghana's Northern, Upper West and Upper East regions, but they are helping to destroy the very resource that gives them money by cutting it down to produce charcoal.

Zimbabwean Girls Venture into Technological Innovation

By Mary Kashumba

For 22-year-old Moselyn Muchena, a final year computer science student at the University of Zimbabwe, it seemed obvious to create a mobile application offering easy access to services in the local catering industry, largely because of the huge number of female entrepreneurs in that sector.

OPINION: Obama’s Quick Fix Won’t Solve the Regional Refugee Crisis

By Michelle Brané
In recent months, an unprecedented surge of refugee women and children has been traveling alone to the United States to seek protection at our southern border.
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