Empowering Women in the Developing World

by Suzanne Marks, AARPCV President I am here today to talk to you about empowering women in the developing world, from my perspective as a RPCV, a public health specialist, and an economist. I joined the Peace Corps in 1983 at the age of 23, after completing most of my MA degree in Economics, with a specialty in economic development theory. I was selected for PC service in Togo, West Africa, to work with women's small business groups. After my service, I returned to the US and decided to continue my education in public health, since, as a result of my PC experience, I saw the inextricable link between economic well-being and health. Now, I work for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as an epidemiologist, where I analyze socioeconomic and other factors related to tuberculosis, which is the number one killer of persons with HIV in the world. Global Facts: In most developing countries, women work an average of 12-18 hours/day compared with 10-12 for men. Women care (provide food, clothing, education, health care) for their families. Women spend more of every $1 of income on her family than men. Women comprise more of the world's population (51%) and live on average 4 years longer than men. Yet, women receive less formal education than men. 64% of women are literate, compared with 80% of men. And, women hold only 12% of legislative positions in governing institutions. The theory behind support for women in development projects is that the provision of the means to own or produce wealth translates into better health and well-being for them as well as their families. As a PCV in Togo, I worked on a WID project started by the National Council of Negro Women (a US NGO), USAID, and The Feminine Condition Togolese Government Agency. Those organizations had selected 3 activities (weaving, soap making, and dry-season gardening) and begun 22 groups with a total of 400 rural women in a northern region of Togo. The purpose of the groups was the production of cloth, soap, and nutritious vegetables for use by the women or for sale for additional income. My job was to serve as small business advisor, teaching basic bookkeeping and organizational management skills. Once the groups were established and had working bookkeeping systems, they could obtain accounts at the credit union and potentially receive loans for additional income generating projects. The realities of life for rural women in Togo are daunting. Girls from the age of 4 are quickly incorporated into household production activities. They bring water from the pump or wood for cooking to the home, carrying it on their heads often several kilometers, they help harvest the fields, they care for younger siblings often carrying them on their backs, and they help prepare the food for their families. This productive activity is highly valued and is considered by families in the decision to send them to school (regardless of mandatory school attendance policies). In Togo, 6 girls for every 10 boys attend primary school; only 1 girl for every 3 boys attends secondary school. Only one third of all females over age 15 are literate. When girls reach puberty, they enter a time of non-stop childbearing until menopause. Contraceptives, including condoms, are available to only the privileged few who know what they are, where to obtain them, and have the money to buy them. Lack of access to condoms is almost criminal in a country with a high incidence of HIV (9% of adults). Lack of family planning directly affects the poverty of the household and the environment in many countries. More children means more need for food, water, wood to fuel stoves, clothing, health care expenses, and expenditures for school materials. Almost 1 in 10 infants die. Often families wait until they are sure a child will survive until they decide to spend resources on that child. In my village, this meant that children under age 2 weren't clothed. Children who survive childhood and find paying jobs in the city are expected to send money home to support their parents and siblings, since social security and welfare are virtually nonexistent. Women work nonstop from sunup to well after sundown. They cook the family meal at 5:30 am, which is no small feat using a wood or coal stove and no modern appliances to cut, grate, or pound the food. Then, they tend the family's fields; women are responsible for cultivating the vegetables to be eaten by the family (whereas men farm and sell the cash crops). On market day, women often sell the cash crops for the men. They return to the home to prepare the evening meal and care for the children, often working until 9 pm every evening. In Togo, most of the ethnic groups are patriarchal, which means that most women do not have the legal right to own land or other property. What they arn is immediately absorbed into the household, which often means it is taken by the men who decide how to spend it. How did these realities affect my work with the rural Togolese women in my groups? It meant that: The women comprising the groups were mostly illiterate (did not speak, read, or write French, the official language of Togo). I constantly had to work through a translator. And, since some of the groups were composed of several ethnic groups who spoke different languages, it sometimes took 20 minutes to convey one sentence. And, the quality of the translation depended on my French, my translator's French and local language, and my translator's willingness to correctly convey what I said. All of these factors had a large margin for error. This also meant that teaching basic bookkeeping, which was a requirement for establishing the groups, was a major challenge, only to be solved by bringing in a literate woman to join each group. Money earned by the group had to be kept in a central location and not incorporated into a household's finances, lest it be spent by the men on other things. Since the groups didn't yet qualify for bank accounts, this meant keeping a locked money box which needed to be counted in front of all group members at regular intervals. It also left the potential for the group's money to be stolen. In one of my groups, the government official liaison stole over a year's worth of the group's profits. Children were ubiquitous. Young children were tied to their mother's backs, with frequent work breaks needed to feed or care for the children. I poignantly remember a presentation I gave to a group during which a child became ill while strapped to her mother's back, a dog came to eat the vomit, and a woman slapped the dog which knocked down my picture poster presentation. All of us roared in laughter and I think I gave up on the presentation. I remember another visit to a different group and remarked that one of the women was missing. When I inquired about her, I was told that she had died in an attempted abortion. You see, she was in her early twenties and already had 5 children-she didn't want or could not afford another child and had no other options. The women fit the additional income-earning activities into their already overburdened work schedules. Time in the fields directly competed with the time and efforts they could give to earning income for themselves. Frequently, I visited the groups only to find them working to harvest the village chief's fields, or planting because of rain the night before. I said that realities of life for these rural Togolese women were daunting, but these women were undaunted. What kept me going was seeing the shear will and happiness of these women to achieve something for themselves, to change their current circumstances for the better. We organized several meetings that brought representatives from each group together to share their successes and failures. It was incredible to see women of 12 different ethnic groups with different cultures and languages communicate and arrive at a plan of action for their group activities. They had insightful ideas for income generating projects once they qualified for the necessary loans. They planned additional activities that would benefit the groups' members, such as literacy and nutrition projects. It was even more uplifting to see the commitment of one woman in particular who supervised all the groups and advocated with local merchants and government agencies on behalf of their needs. These were exceptional women, empowered by their commonalities despite all their differences. As is the case for most RPCVs, I will tell you that I learned much more than I taught these 400 women. My only hope is that they became successful entrepreneurs and improved their lives, despite the AIDS epidemic which is currently devastating most of Africa.