Spillin' The Tea: Foreign Aid and Women's Empowerment
Wednesday 15 August 2018
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Let's get real. Aid isn't helping empower women in developing countries.
In fact in a lot of ways it is perpetuating the existing inequalities of society. Have you ever come across a charity which aims to lift women out of poverty by selling their hand made goods, or providing artisanal jobs to a community? It is more than likely that you know exactly what I'm talking about. Charming bracelets, or hand woven goods like diaries, blankets or purses. All these consumable goods aim to achieve two things. The first being to provide women with a livelihood. The second objective is often narrated as a protection or even cultivation of the local art and culture. While this is noble, its not effective.
Why?
Traditional gender roles are still dominant in the Global South, where men are viewed as breadwinners and women continue to be relegated to the sphere of domesticity. This has very obvious consequences. Among them is the simply dependent status of women. Projects aimed at empowering women through economic independence hope to alleviate this dependency. Yet, these activities focus on livelihoods with limited transferable skills. Aid projects which focus on creating and selling artisanal goods keep women in a sphere with limited upward mobility. Maybe I am being cynical but really, how much economic power can an individual accumulate from making small goods. And what skills do these "jobs" equip women with. I'm not referring to the artistic skills, rather I mean broader skills of negotiation, literacy, problem solving. These skills can help women in all aspects of their lives not simply their jobs and they are not being cultivated through artisanal jobs. Also, in no way am I trying to negate the importance of cultural craft and traditions. Every society needs artists, but not everywomen needs to be one. I am simply pointing out that the very aim of empowering women is unmet by these programs. If NGO's want to make a real impact and empower women beyond an extended domestic sphere, I believe it is necessary to focus on training skills which are transferable like computer literacy, Public speaking, leadership skills, among others. This is significant because it would provide woman with the opportunity to have careers- not just jobs. This gap in NGO activity is also indicative of how aid is distributed between the genders. Men often receive practical skills training in developing countries, the impact of which is tangible. Opportunities for economic advancement is presented to those with higher skills, that's just a fact. So why do NGO's continue to keep women in a marginalized position while claiming to be empowering?
& thats the tea,
F.
