Publication:
How Do Women Weather Economic Shocks? What We Know

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (1.11 MB)
736 downloads
English Text (43.1 KB)
91 downloads
Published
2011-01
ISSN
Date
2012-08-13
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Do women weather economic shocks differently than men? First-round impacts of economic crises on women's employment should be more prominent in this recent economic downturn than historically because of women's increased participation in the globalized workforce. Second-round impacts result from the strategies that vulnerable households use to cope with declining income, which can vary by gender. In the past, women from low-income households have typically entered the labor force, while women from high-income households have often exited the labor market in response to economic crises. Evidence also suggests that women defer fertility during economic crises and that child schooling and child survival are adversely affected, mainly in low-income countries, with girls suffering more adverse health effects than boys. These impacts underscore the need for providing income to women in poor countries to help household's better cope with the effects of economic shocks.
Link to Data Set
Citation
โ€œSabarwal, Shwetlena; Sinha, Nistha; Buvinic, Mayra. 2011. How Do Women Weather Economic Shocks? What We Know. Economic Premise; No. 46. ยฉ World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/10113 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.โ€
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    How Do Women Weather Economic Shocks? A Review of the Evidence
    (2010-12-01) Sabarwal, Shwetlena; Sinha, Nistha; Buvinic, Mayra
    Do women weather economic shocks differently than men? The evidence shows this to be the case, especially in low-income countries. The first-round impacts of economic crises on women's employment should be particularly salient in the current downturn, since women have increased their participation in the globalized workforce and therefore are more directly affected by the contraction of employment than in the past. Crises also have second-round impacts, as vulnerable households respond to declining income with coping strategies that can vary significantly by gender. In the past, women from low-income households have typically entered the labor force, while women from rich households have often exited the labor market in response to economic crises. In contrast, men's labor force participation rates have remained largely unchanged. Evidence also suggests that women defer fertility during economic crises and that child schooling and child survival are adversely affected, mainly in low-income countries, with adverse effects on health being greater for girls than for boys. In middle-income countries, by contrast, the effects on children's schooling and health are more nuanced, and gender differences less salient. Providing women in poor households with income during economic downturns makes economic sense. This paper reviews workfare programs and cash transfers and finds that the former provide poor women with income only when they include specific design features. The latter have been effective in providing mothers with income and protecting the wellbeing of children in periods of economic downturn.
  • Publication
    Investing in Gender Equality : Looking Ahead
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-07) Buvinic, Mayra; Lunde, Trine; Sinha, Nistha
    The financial crisis of 2008-09 has highlighted the need for greater attention to gender, both to address the vulnerability of countries to global shocks and to reach growth and poverty reduction goals. Investments in girls and women need to be scaled up substantially in response to this and other recent crises and, looking ahead, to alleviate demographic stresses and harness demographic opportunities for growth. This is the case because the fate of women and girls, especially in low-income countries and low-income households, is closely linked to the economic prospects of these countries and these households.
  • Publication
    Violent Conflict and Gender Inequality : An Overview
    (World Bank, Washington, D.C., 2013-02) Buvinic, Mayra; Das Gupta, Monica; Casabonne, Ursula; Verwimp, Philip
    Violent conflict is a pervasive feature of the recent global landscape which has lasting impacts on human capital and these impacts are seldom gender neutral. Death and destruction alter the structure and dynamics of households, including their demographic profiles and traditional gender roles. To date, attention to the gender impacts of conflict has focused almost exclusively on sexual and gender-based violence. The authors show that a far wider set of gender issues must be considered to better document the human consequences of war and to design effective postconflict policies. The emerging empirical evidence is organized using a framework that identifies both the differential impacts of violent conflict on males and females (first-round impacts) and the role of gender inequality in framing adaptive responses to conflict (second-round impacts). War's mortality burden is disproportionately borne by males, whereas women and children constitute a majority of refugees and the displaced. Indirect war impacts on health are more equally distributed between the genders. Conflicts create households headed by widows who can be especially vulnerable to intergenerational poverty. Second-round impacts can provide opportunities for women in work and politics triggered by the absence of men. Households adapt to conflict with changes in marriage and fertility, migration, investments in children's health and schooling, and the distribution of labor between the genders. The impacts of conflict are heterogeneous and can either increase or decrease preexisting gender inequalities. Describing these gender differential effects is a first step toward developing evidence-based conflict prevention and postconflict policy.
  • Publication
    Promoting Women's Economic Empowerment : What Works?
    (World Bank Group, Washington, DC, 2014-11) Buvinic, Mayra; Furst-Nichols, Rebecca
    A review of rigorous evaluations of interventions that seek to empower women economically shows that the same class of interventions has significantly different outcomes depending on the client. Capital alone, as a small cash loan or grant, is not sufficient to grow women-owned subsistence-level firms. However, it can work if it is delivered in-kind to more successful women microentrepreneurs, and it should boost the performance of women's larger-sized SMEs. Very poor women need a more intensive package of services than do less poor women to break out of subsistence production and grow their businesses. What works for young women does not necessarily work for adult women. Skills training, job search assistance, internships, and wage subsidies increase the employment levels of adult women but do not raise wages. However, similar interventions increase young women's employability and earnings if social restrictions are not binding. Women who run subsistence-level firms face additional social constraints when compared to similar men, thus explaining the differences in the outcomes of some loans, grants, and training interventions that favor men. Social constraints may also play a role in explaining women's outcome gains that are short-lasting or emerge with a delay. The good news is that many of the additional constraints that women face can be overcome by simple, inexpensive adjustments in program design that lessen family and social pressures. These include providing capital in-kind or transacted through the privacy of a mobile phone and providing secure savings accounts to nudge women to keep the money in the business rather than to divert it to non-business uses.
  • Publication
    Equality for Women : Where Do We Stand on Millennium Development Goal 3?
    (Washington, DC : World Bank, 2008) Buvinรญc, Mayra; Morrison, Andrew R.; Ofosu-Amaah, A. Waafas; Sjรถblom, Mirja
    There is compelling evidence of the importance of gender equality for poverty reduction and sustainable growth. So it should come as no surprise that most development actors-international agencies, bilateral donors, and most developing countries, have an official policy for promoting gender equality. Millennium Development Goal 3 (MDG3) on gender equality and women's empowerment is shared global commitment. With only seven years remaining until the end date for the MDGs, it is an opportune time to take stock of where the world stands in terms of progress toward gender equality. This volume documents trends both on the official MDG3 indicators and on an expanded set of indicators that provide a more complete measure of gender equality, especially in the area of women's economic empowerment. The message that emerges is both hopeful and sobering: progress toward equality in capabilities has been considerable, but progress toward equality of opportunities for women's economic livelihoods leaves much to be desired. Beyond tracking trends toward gender equality, the volume reviews different measures of gender equality and estimates the financial resources required to achieve this objective. While necessarily imprecise, such estimates can provide a rough guide as to whether the level of effort devoted by international donors and developing countries is adequate in the area of women's economic empowerment.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files