1 Objective of the Book
This book sheds light on the progress made in empowering women in Africa over the last decade and the challenges that remain. It contributes to the discourse on women empowerment in Africa by providing a fresh perspective and strong multidisciplinary research evidence on diverse, timely, and relevant gender issues in various (and contextually different) African countries. The book is a collection of literature reviews, empirical studies, and policy discussions that inform policymakers and academics who are interested in the fifth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG ), which promotes gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls; this is an issue that was not fully addressed during the era of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The following questions are answered in some of the chapters: What policies have worked and not worked during the MDGs era? What can be said about the effect of climate change on gender equality? What role does access to resources such as land and financial services, and migration play in determining the empowerment of women in Africa? What are the global and continental trends influencing the gender debates and action in contemporary Africa? Other chapters use new data and/or innovative methods to (re)examine the determinants of observed gender differences in specific areas and identify individual socioeconomic characteristics and hard-to-remove societal barriers that constrain women from realizing their full potential. In addition, other chapters assess the benefits that could be attained through womenâs economic, social, and political participation and empowerment. Policy recommendations are made based on quantitative and qualitative evidence obtained using secondary and primary data.
Expert African scholars and non-African scholars who understand the contextual and societal drivers of gender inequality in Africa have prepared the chapters. Most importantly, a significant number of the contributors are African women scholarsâmore than 98 per cent have PhD degreesâand they are based in either the continent or in the diaspora (but with strong links to their home countries). We believe that these women are well positioned to understand the causes and the meaning of the discriminatory norms that negatively shape the economic and political potential of many African women. The diversity of expertise and experience among these high-profile scholars provides a unique opportunity for the book to go beyond anecdotal and data-based evidence and capitalize on contextual perspectives. Although we study and discuss in the bookâs chapters various facets of womenâs economic, political, and social empowerment in Africa, the discourse itself is not intended to be exhaustive, given the breadth of the subject matter. Further research is still needed to build a comprehensive evidence base that informs the policies and actions aimed at enhancing gender equality.
The scope of the book is a large oneâalthough not all issues can be covered in one volumeâwith a focus on the following issues: (1) climate change and gender, (2) womenâs land rights and agricultural productivity, (3) maternal health and education, (4) labour market participation and unpaid care work, (5) womenâs bargaining power and their householdsâ well-being, and (6) women in politics and society. Crosscutting issues such as domestic violence, migration, discriminatory social norms, and harmful practices are also addressed in some of the chapters.
2 Progress and Challenges During the MDGs Era: What Have We Learnt about Women Empowerment in Africa?
The third goal of the MDGs was dedicated to gender equality and the economic, social, and political empowerment of women. The Africa Human Development Report 2016 (UNDP 2016) finds that many African countries responded positively to the MDGs by crafting a number of policies aimed at enhancing gender equality and empowering women and girls. One such success is the increased number of girls enrolled in primary education, thereby equalizing access to this level of education across the two genders in many countries. In addition, between 1990 and 2013, the maternal mortality ratio decreased by 49 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa and 57 per cent in Northern Africa (United Nations [UN] 2015). In the same period, the proportion of women using contraception increased from 13 per cent to 28 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa and from 44 per cent to 61 per cent in Northern Africa. It is worth noting that the share of women involved in non-agricultural wage employment in sub-Saharan Africa also increased by ten percentage points (from 24 per cent to 34 per cent), whereas it remained stagnant at 19 per cent in North Africa (UN 2015). Likewise, many African governments have promoted womenâs political participation and increased their opportunities to attain leadership positions. Rwanda, Seychelles, and Senegal are among the countries that have recorded the highest levels of representation of women in their national assemblies, surprisingly surpassing many of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD ) countries.
Yet progress towards gender equality is not just about metrics; it is also about mind-set, requiring changes in individual beliefs, social norms, and institutionsâaspects that still hinder women empowerment. Therefore, many African countries have formalized and implemented laws against those customary and informal rules and practices that affect womenâs and girlsâ daily lives and deprive them of autonomy inside and outside the home. Some of these laws have, for instance, targeted early and forced marriage, unfair inheritance and parental authority, and restrictions on access to resources and formal finance.
Despite these achievements and gains in gender equality and women empowerment during the MDGs era, Africa is far from closing the persistent gender gap. Girls and women remain disadvantaged in terms of access to income and non-income opportunities. African women lag far behind, achieving only 87 per cent of their male counterpartsâ human development level (see UNDP [2016]). An examination of the widely known Gender Inequality Index (GII), which measures gender inequality based on reproductive health, empowerment, and economic activity, shows that among the 45 African countries for which data are available, the best score is 0.4 for Rwanda (see UNDP [2016]). The GII is measured on a scale ranging from 0 to 1, with the higher value indicating more gender inequality. The poor performance of African countries on the GII indicates that most of the countries in this region have not yet achieved gender equality and their full potential for higher and sustainable human development.
In the education sector, the high school dropout rates for girls, coupled with low transition rates from primary to secondary education, reduce the representation of girls in secondary and tertiary education and hamper their learning achievements. Turning to the health sector, maternal mortality in Africa is still high, and barely more than half of women access skilled personnel during birth (UN 2015). There are also significant disparities in maternal health-care service delivery between rural and urban areas (UN 2015). Womenâs participation in the labour market is also undermined by the persistent gender gap in wages, with women in Africa earning 30 per cent less than men earn (UN 2015). In terms of political empowerment, the low presence of women in top-level local government positions can affect local service delivery. In India, studies have found that local governments with more women leaders are inclined to prioritize womenâs needs in public goods and service delivery (Bhalotra and Clots-Figueras 2014), and this is an issue that still needs to be researched in Africa.
Although important advances have been a...