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6.1 Gender Equality and Women’s Economic
Empowerment
6.1.1 Introduction
Women, men, girls, and boys experience the impacts of natural disaster and conflict
in different ways. A gender-sensitive approach to livelihoods and economic recovery
programming in crisis and post-crisis situations acknowledges the ways that gender
influences the challenges that people face. The needs, concerns, and voices of women
and girls—and those of men and boys—may not be taken into account properly unless
a gender-responsive approach is applied to programme design, implementation, and
monitoring.
In many, but not all, respects, women and girls are disadvantaged relative to men and boys
in accessing livelihood assets. Crises tend to exacerbate these disadvantages. The following
are some of the challenges that commonly affect males and females in different ways:
• Social and cultural norms and values may limit women’s and girls’ mobility, their
access to information, and their ability to participate in society. In turn, this can limit
access by these women and girls to economic opportunities and their ability to register
for and benefit from programmes for social protection, rehabilitation/reintegration,
and livelihoods and economic recovery.
• Women tend to have lower levels of skills and formal education than men. This
places these women at a disadvantage in competing for scarce employment opportunities.
• Gendered divisions of labour can restrict economic opportunities. Both women
and men contribute to their household and national economies in many ways, but
their contributions are often not equally recognized and valued. In addition to their
contributions through employment and income generation, women and girls typically
contribute through unpaid household work, the care economy, and “reproductive
work,” in which they reproduce and nurture the future labour force. these women
and girls are often engaged in labour-intensive and time-consuming activities that
are critical for their households, such as fetching fuel and water, gathering fodder for
livestock, and preparing food. These responsibilities, which often increase in crisis and
post-crisis situations, can leave women and girls with little time for other productive
activities, including training, education, and participation in livelihood programmes.
Fetching water and fuel also place these women and girls at a heightened risk of
sexual and gender-based violence.
• Gender role reversals, creating new opportunities and/or risks, are common in both
crisis and post-crisis situations, especially when people experience displacement, family
separation, or the death or injury of family members. For example, boys and men who
are widowed may have to engage in household and care-giving responsibilities that
are unfamiliar to them. Women and girls may also take on roles that were traditionally
carried out by men before the crisis occurred.
• Vulnerability to sexual and gender-based violence tends to increase dramatically
for women and children in crisis and post-crisis situations. The threat of violence can
prevent these women and children from participating in economic activities and in
relief, rehabilitation, and livelihoods programmes.
• Women are often disadvantaged in terms of land, property, and inheritance
rights. When crises result in the displacement or death of male family or household
members to whom land titles and property are formally ascribed, women may face
Livelihoods & Economic Recovery in Crisis Situations