Publication: 'Missing Women' in the South Caucasus: Local Perceptions and Proposed Solutions
Loading...
Files in English
941 downloads
Date
2015-02
ISSN
Published
2015-02
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This report, Europe and Central Asia - Missing Women in the South Caucasus : Local perceptions and proposed solutions, discusses research conducted on skewed sex ratios in the South Caucasus. It discusses (i) the factors that encourage sex selection in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, (ii) whether and how these might be changing; (iii) public awareness of and attitudes regarding skewed sex rations; and to propose potential policy responses. The report examines the following: factors contributing to smaller families and unbalanced sex rations in the South Caucasus, the reasons for underlying son preference, attitudes toward daughters, factors that make women vulnerable to pressures to produce sons. It also describes how intergenerational and gender relationships are starting to change and proposes some recommendations for addressing the factors that underlie unbalanced sex rations.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Dudwick, Nora. 2015. 'Missing Women' in the South Caucasus: Local Perceptions and Proposed Solutions. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/22506 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Women's Voice and Agency : The Role of Legal Institutions and Women's Movements(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014)Global events like the Beijing Women s Conference of 1995 have resulted in the creation of strong international frameworks that set standards for women s rights around the world. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Platform for Action, and other international norms define the scope of universal rights for women and girls, and have opened new spaces for regional and national legal reform. Bottom-up engagement with these international laws and institutions by local and transnational women s movements has catalyzed widespread changes in lawmaking and transformed standard-setting documents into tools for reform. The following paper discusses four important pillars of women s voice and agency (while recognizing that there are others which are beyond the scope of this review): freedom from the risk of violence; freedom of movement; freedom to make decisions on family formation and the freedom to shape policy. It will examine the ways in which these freedoms impact women s voice and the ways in which women are working to reform law and policy to ensure these four freedoms are accessible to all.Publication Women's Movements, Plural Legal Systems and the Botswana Constitution : How Reform Happens(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-11)Collective action by women's networks has been a strong driver of legislative change in many countries across the world. Women's groups in Botswana have used advocacy tools such as testing the implementation of gender equality principles in the national court system. In 1992, women's legal networks in the Unity Dow case successfully challenged discriminatory statutory citizenship laws. This victory triggered far-reaching reforms of the citizenship law, family law, and even the Constitution itself. Two decades later, another successful "test" case, the Mmusi case, has challenged the customary law practice of favoring male heirs as contrary to constitutional principles of equality. The paper explores the role that judges and national courts play in implementing gender equality principles and upholding state commitments to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. The paper also highlights the role of governments in taking on the concerns of their citizens and cementing the principle of equality in national legal frameworks. The backdrop to this process is a plural legal system where both customary and statutory laws and courts exist side by side. How women negotiate their rights through these multiple systems by coalition building and using "good practice" examples from other countries is important to understand from a policy perspective and how this "bottom-up" approach can contribute to women's economic empowerment in other national contexts.Publication Women’s Legal Rights over 50 Years : What Is the Impact of Reform?(World Bank, Washington, D.C., 2013-09)This study uses a newly compiled database of women's property rights and legal capacity covering 100 countries over 50 years to test for the impact of legal reforms on employment, health, and education outcomes for women and girls. The database demonstrates gender gaps in the ability to access and own property, sign legal documents in one's own name, and have equality or non-discrimination as a guiding principle of the country's constitution. In the initial period, 75 countries had gender gaps in at least one of these areas and often multiple ones. By 2010, 57 countries had made reforms that strengthened women's economic rights, including 28 countries that had eliminated all of the constraints monitored here. In the cross-section and within countries over time, the removal of gender gaps in rights is associated with greater participation of women in the labor force, greater movement out of agricultural employment, higher rates of women in wage employment, lower adolescent fertility, lower maternal and infant mortality, and higher female educational enrollment. This paper provides evidence on how the strengthening of women's legal rights is associated with important development outcomes.Publication Gender, Mobility, and Middle Class in Europe and Central Asia(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-10-16)New qualitative fieldwork in eight countries of Europe and Central Asia (ECA) indicates that the dramatic declines in poverty in much of the region over the last decade do not appear to be registering very favorably with men and women on the ground. This paper provides a gender analysis of findings from equal numbers of sex-specific focus groups with employed and jobless individuals. The methodology featured a standardized package of semi-structured data collection tools, which enabled systematic comparative analysis of the datasets from 37 urban and rural communities across eight countries in the region. While lack of jobs and the rising cost of living are central concerns for both women and men across the sample, the qualitative data highlights important gender differences in how men and women are responding to these challenges that quantitative survey approaches appear to miss. Throughout the sample, women are widely reported to be doing everything they can to pull their households out of poverty or to maintain their families in the middle class, while men voice deep frustration with their weak economic opportunities and the need for additional household members to contribute economically. Women’s increased economic participation in the face of men’s hardships with breadwinning - and the stress on gender roles and relations that this entails - are crucial for making sense of frustrations on the ground despite the region’s significant social and economic development.Publication Gender and Economic Growth in Kenya : Unleashing the Power of Women(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007)This report examines the legal, administrative, and regulatory barriers that are preventing women in Kenya from contributing fully to the Kenyan economy. Building on the 2004 Foreign Investment and Advisory Service (FIAS) report, "Improving the Commercial Legal Framework and Removing Administrative and Regulatory Barriers to Investment," this study looks at the bureaucratic barriers facing women in Kenya through a gender lens. The report makes specific recommendations to address gender-related barriers in the context of ongoing government and donor initiatives to encourage private sector development as the key driver of poverty reduction and economic growth, in line with Kenya's Economic Recovery Strategy for Wealth and Employment Creation 2003-2007 (ERS). Addressing these constraints will not only allow women to make a full contribution to the economy but also improve their livelihoods and those of their families and help create a more enabling environment for all businesses in Kenya.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication World Development Report 2006(Washington, DC, 2005)This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.Publication Argentina Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.Publication Lebanon Economic Monitor, Fall 2022(Washington, DC, 2022-11)The economy continues to contract, albeit at a somewhat slower pace. Public finances improved in 2021, but only because spending collapsed faster than revenue generation. Testament to the continued atrophy of Lebanon’s economy, the Lebanese Pound continues to depreciate sharply. The sharp deterioration in the currency continues to drive surging inflation, in triple digits since July 2020, impacting the poor and vulnerable the most. An unprecedented institutional vacuum will likely further delay any agreement on crisis resolution and much needed reforms; this includes prior actions as part of the April 2022 International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff-level agreement (SLA). Divergent views among key stakeholders on how to distribute the financial losses remains the main bottleneck for reaching an agreement on a comprehensive reform agenda. Lebanon needs to urgently adopt a domestic, equitable, and comprehensive solution that is predicated on: (i) addressing upfront the balance sheet impairments, (ii) restoring liquidity, and (iii) adhering to sound global practices of bail-in solutions based on a hierarchy of creditors (starting with banks’ shareholders) that protects small depositors.Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.Publication Global Economic Prospects, June 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-06-11)After several years of negative shocks, global growth is expected to hold steady in 2024 and then edge up in the next couple of years, in part aided by cautious monetary policy easing as inflation gradually declines. However, economic prospects are envisaged to remain tepid, especially in the most vulnerable countries. Risks to the outlook, while more balanced, are still tilted to the downside, including the possibility of escalating geopolitical tensions, further trade fragmentation, and higher-for-longer interest rates. Natural disasters related to climate change could also hinder activity. Subdued growth prospects across many emerging market and developing economies and continued risks underscore the need for decisive policy action at the global and national levels. Global Economic Prospects is a World Bank Group Flagship Report that examines global economic developments and prospects, with a special focus on emerging market and developing economies, on a semiannual basis (in January and June). Each edition includes analytical pieces on topical policy challenges faced by these economies.