Women & Economy

Pacific Nations Women Promised a Better Deal

By Catherine Wilson
Leaders of 15 Pacific Island nations have pledged to remove barriers to women’s economic empowerment, end violence against women and pave the way for their increased political representation, at the conclusion of the 43rd Pacific Islands Forum in Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, last week. The meeting was also attended by the Executive Director of UN Women, Michelle Bachelet.

Women Take up Care of Tohoku Elders

By Suvendrini Kakuchi
Yumiko Yonekura, who survived last year’s massive earthquake and tsunami that devastated Tohoku in northeast Japan, has just launched ‘Hot Care Kesenuma’, a welfare company that provides special care for feeble elders in the affected region.

Women Spend 40 Billion Hours Collecting Water

By Thalif Deen
As the weeklong international conference on water concluded Friday, it was left to one of the keynote speakers from the United Nations to focus on a much neglected perspective on water and food security: the role of women.

Bangladesh ‘Fixes’ Grameen Microcredit

By Naimul Haq
Laboni Vhoumik’s lingerie manufacturing unit in the Gopai village of Noakhali district, about 180 km outside the capital, is a forceful argument in favour of the Grameen Bank microcredit model that fosters female entrepreneurship and also relies on it.

Q&A: Microcredit Bank “Incorporates Women in the Benefits of Development”

By Estrella Gutiérrez
“Our raison d’etre is incorporating women in development, and especially in the benefits of development,” says Nora Castañeda, an economist who has headed the Banmujer bank in Venezuela since it was founded in 2001.

Rescuing an Art to Save a People

By Marisabel Bellido
Sitting on the floor, deep in concentration, Marta Llampa interlaces red and black threads that converge in sinuous shapes, gradually forming khurus or mythical creatures through a unique, age-old technique rescued from extinction by the Jalq'a people.

Many Chilean Women Keep Mum About Unequal Wages

By Marianela Jarroud
"I know that my male colleagues earn more than I do and work the same amount or even less. And my employers keep me in a non-managerial post, even though I do tasks at that level,” said Pamela, a Chilean professional who holds a doctorate in economics.

Schoolgirls Beat Taliban

By Ashfaq Yusufzai
Far from fears that female education is on the decline after the Taliban campaign against girls’ schools, female students outclassed their male counterparts in the secondary school examination for 2012.

Deck Stacked Against Women’s Land Rights in Asia

By Ethan Freedman
Women across Asia are being shut out from prosperous forestland because of a paradigm geared towards male ownership, according to a new report by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), an environmental non-governmental organisation.

Officials Decry “Appalling Gaps” in Global Data on Women

By Carey L. Biron
The World Bank and U.S. government on Thursday each announced major new initiatives aimed at expanding knowledge on the experience of women around the world, while acknowledging that much remains to be done on filling the global “data gap” on women.

Family Planning Essential for Development

By Julio Godoy
Improving family planning to avoid unwanted pregnancies in developing countries, as well as assuring girls’ access to education, and women’s participation in the economy, are essential components of a sound development policy, according to Western experts and African activists.

Vietnamese Girls Grapple With Changing Sexual Climate

By Helen Clark
Conservative attitudes toward women die hard in Vietnam, as seen in the country’s worsening sex ratio at birth (SRB). Yet, social mores have relaxed sufficiently for women to tune in to late night TV talk shows to learn about the acceptability of one-night stands.

Green Bricks Pave Future for Female Workers

By Naimul Haq
At first glance the smart young women in white overcoats, black rubber boots and protective face masks seem out of place in impoverished Bangladesh’s dirtiest industry – brick making. 

Some Nurses Take Flight, Others Take to the Streets

By K. S. Harikrishnan
Nurses in India are up in arms against the deterioration of the nursing profession in the country, including unfair wages and the policies of private hospital managements.

Will the World Listen to Women?

By Zofeen Ebrahim
What does birth control have to do with reducing global emissions?

Rio+20: Creating a Future Girls Want

By Busani Bafana
On a wall in the Rio conference centre is an unusual, brightly coloured tree. It is made of sticky notes, arranged so that the tree's branches extend down and out. On these notes, delegates passing by the World Association of Girl Guides and Girls Scouts (WAGGGS) have been asked to write down the futures they envision.

Saving the Mangroves Front

By Marwaan Macan-Markar
On a humid islet covered with mangroves, Lucena Duman and her neighbours have found a route out of poverty. They work as conservationists and tour guides in this isolated corner of the Philippines.
Michelle Bachelet. Credit: Courtesy of UN Women

Q&A: Women Must Be at the Forefront of Rio+20, and Beyond

By Isabelle de Grave
Unlocking women's energies and allowing them to become drivers of change could fuel the motor of sustainable development.
Mozambican entrepreneur Lucia Bebane has a budding peanut business despite the challenges for small businesspeople. / Johannes Myburgh/IPS

Building a Company in Mozambique – One Peanut at a Time

By Johannes Myburgh
When you board Mozambique’s national carrier, Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique, you will most likely be given small blue packets of peanuts to munch as the jet whisks you from the country’s capital, Maputo, to as far afield as Europe. Sugar, salt or chilli flavour. Take your pick.

Women Look for a Place in New Egypt

By Mel Frykberg
"It was so frustrating but so exciting at the same time," recalls 15-year-old Mariam Assam, a year-10 student in Cairo. Assam was recalling the days she tried to join protestors during the Egyptian revolution in January 2011 but was intially prevented by her parents who said street protests were no place for a girl to be.
Mohamed Beavogui

Q&A: The World Must Learn From Smallholder Farmers

By Rousbeh Legatis
As Africa's Sahel region faces a new food crisis, smallholder famers hold the key to making future development policies sustainable.
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