Essays On Gender And Governance - United Nations Development ...
Essays On Gender And Governance - United Nations Development ...
Essays On Gender And Governance - United Nations Development ...
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The Impact of <strong>Gender</strong> Inequality on <strong>Governance</strong><br />
<strong>Gender</strong>-discriminatory inheritance laws across much of South Asia,<br />
usually falling under personal or religious legal systems and largely<br />
interpreted to grant women a lesser share than men, undermine<br />
women’s capacity to maintain themselves independently outside<br />
marriage or other male-centred family formations. Stagnation in<br />
the interpretation and application of such laws often means that<br />
there is no provision to accommodate changing social and economic<br />
realities, including where women themselves are compelled to take<br />
on the responsibility for accumulating and redistributing essential<br />
material resources. In Bangladesh, for instance, Islamic law<br />
presumes that a son will look after his ageing mother and is<br />
therefore entitled to twice the inheritance of his sisters. However,<br />
social and economic changes mean that daughters rather than sons<br />
are now often solely responsible for taking care of aged parents,<br />
but they continue to inherit only half the share of a man (UNDP,<br />
1999:26). Discriminatory allotments may apply even in situations<br />
of class privilege (where there are ample material resources to<br />
ensure equal inheritances regardless of gender) or where women’s<br />
material and labour investments in family property would entitle<br />
them to a share commensurate with their investments. Such laws<br />
also compromise women in the context of political participation.<br />
Since women are, in general, less likely to be financially<br />
autonomous than men, they are less likely to have independent<br />
monetary resources for electioneering, and are further<br />
disadvantaged when inheritance laws deny them access to family<br />
capital to support their work. 5 In addition, the example of Sri Lanka<br />
given earlier contravenes any automatic positive correlation<br />
between more liberal inheritance laws and women’s access to<br />
positions of public decision making.<br />
Literacy’s Worth<br />
Women (and often men) at all social and economic levels have often<br />
identified literacy and education as critical prerequisites to any<br />
type of effective engagement in public or political space. 6 Poor<br />
5<br />
For the example of Pakistan, see Shahla Zia and Farzana Bari (1999:88). This report draws<br />
on several sources, including prior studies on women’s political participation by Shirkat<br />
Gah.<br />
6<br />
All the country reports in Tambiah, ed. (2002) attest to this.<br />
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