Integrating Anti-Poverty Work into Advocacy for South Asian Survivors of Domestic Violence

08/24/13 Sujata Warrier, PhD Chic Dabby, API Institute E-mails: [email protected]; [email protected]

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Outline

 Introductions  Terms: Definitions, Clarifications  Gender Analysis:  Data and statistics  Inequality + Violence = Increased Vulnerability  Lifetime Spiral of Gender Violence  One Woman’s Experience  Programs: From Economic Literacy to Asset Development 08/24/13 2

Learning Objectives

As a result of this workshop, you will be better able to:  Discuss the role of gender in economic analysis  Identify how gender based violence affects women’s participation in economic life  Address economic abuse and advocacy in your programming  Develop advocacy tools that account for vulnerabilities and marginalization in program development  Address ways in which economics is made accessible for women.

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An Old Berber Song… So vast the prison crushing me, Release, where will you come from?

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I. Terms

 What is equality?

 What is equity? Parity? Justice? Security?  Why economic empowerment?  How is women’s economic empowerment defined? What does the term women’s economic empowerment encompass?

Equality

 Equality is not simply a matter of catching up, or narrowing the gap towards an ideal. It is in fact a radical demand marked by fundamental shifts in the access to and distribution of power, wealth and resources.

 Differences across class and gender? 

Terms:

Which is it? economic empowerment, equality, equity, parity, security, justice?

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Terms, cont.

 Economic security is having enough money to afford basic necessities like housing, food, utilities, emergency savings and childcare expenses, but no room for extras.

 Economic Equality = All are equally wealthy, have same status & access in the economy  Economic Equity = Fairness: apportionment of resources and goods is fair  Economic Justice = Redress, righting wrongs  Economic empowerment is process, pathway to goals 08/24/13 7

Wealth is Not the Same as Income

 Wealth is the sum of important assets a family or person owns – home equity, pension funds, savings, education, inheritances and investments.

 Wealth is better than income because it is more durable  People use income to meet daily expenses  People use wealth to accumulate it, for emergencies, to take advantage of opportunities – those that usually build more wealth. Shapiro, Thomas.

The Hidden Cost of Being African American: How Wealth Perpetuates Inequality.

Oxford University Press, 2004 08/24/13 8

II. Gender Analysis

 Women constitute half the world’s population  Perform nearly 2/3 of its work hours  Receive 1/10 of the world’s income  Own less than 1/100 of the world’s property  The majority of women –nearly 80%–still work in fewer than 20 of more than 400 occupations © Sujata Warrier, PhD 2006 08/24/13 9

Gender Analysis

 A gender analysis of the economy looks at the different roles men and women play in society. Economic policies may intentionally or unintentionally rely on these differences. Much of the work women do in the home and in the community is unpaid work but is neither counted nor valued.  Women’s work – both productive and reproductive- is invisible; intersectionality has different impact on different women.

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Gender Analysis: Data & Statistics

Women’s Work Exposed: A Snapshot

 Globally, women earn 20-30% less than men. (ILO)   Women remain at the end of the segregated labor market and continue to be concentrated in a few occupations, to hold positions of little or no authority, and to receive less pay than men. (UNDESA) Women’s unpaid household labor accounts for about 1/3 rd of the world’s economic production. (UNFPA) 08/24/13 11

Women’s Work Exposed: A Snapshot

 In developing countries, women’s work hours are estimated to exceed men’s by 30%. (UNFPA)  Whereas men are more likely to be hired in core and better-paid positions, women are increasingly hired in peripheral, insecure, less-valued jobs including home-based, casual and temporary work. (ILO)  At times of economic crisis, women are the first to withdraw from wage and salaried work; they may be forced to enter the informal economy as a result. (ILO) 08/24/13 12

Women’s Work Exposed: A Snapshot

 Women are working, but poverty is not being eradicated: of the 550 million working poor in the world, approx, 330 million are women.

 Women make up 85% of the workforce in Bangladesh’s garment sector (75% of the country’s export earnings). These women migrate from rural areas, seeking cash employment, independence and better opportunities. They work 11-16 hours/day, 7 days a week and are paid $1.54/day © Sujata Warrier, PhD 2006 08/24/13 13

Taxes

 The top 1 percent of households - average income $1.5 million - will save a collective $79.5 billion on their 2008 taxes, reports Citizens for Tax Justice. That's more than the combined budgets of the Transportation Department, Small Business Administration, Environmental Protection Agency and Consumer Product Safety Commission.  Tax cuts will save the top 1 percent a projected $715 billion between 2001 and 2010. And cost us $715 billion in mounting national debt plus interest.

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Supporting a Family

 In 2001, a couple with 2 children earning minimum wage ($5.15/hr) needed 3.3 full time job  In 2005, a single parent with 2 children needed to earn $26/hour  In 2008, 2 full-time minimum wage jobs ($8/hr) could not support a family in

any

county in California  In 2011, a family of 4 needed to earn $10.92/hr in a county with the lowest cost of living in the country 08/24/13 15

Gender Analysis, cont.

Home is a Dangerous Place

 One In Three: 35.6% of women will experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. 30% of women worldwide have been attacked by male partners they share their lives with. 38% of murders of women worldwide, are carried out by intimate partners. (WHO Report, 2013)  41-60% of Asian women experience domestic violence over their lifetime. (Facts & Stats Report, Asian & Pacific Islander Institute on Domestic Violence, 2010) © Sujata Warrier, PhD 2006 08/24/13 16

In a study of 436 homeless and housed mothers

 83% experienced severe physical &/or sexual violence during their lifetime  63% experienced severe physical violence by a childhood caretaker  42% reported childhood sexual molestation  61% experienced severe physical abuse by a male partner, and over half had death threats 08/24/13 Browne, Angela and Shari Bassuk

Intimate Violence in Lives of Homeless and Poor Housed Women: Prevalence and Patterns in an Ethnically Diverse Sample.

American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 67(2) April 1997 © Sujata Warrier, PhD 2006 17

Writing in lots of stuff to cover up this logo so that it can’t be seen

Lifetime Spiral: Effects

  Abused women’s inequality in the economic sphere is not only due to domestic violence in adulthood. Women’s productivity and healthy functioning in economic life is marred by violence and devaluation over their lifecourse.

Constraints Immigrant Women Face

 Immigration status, or lack of U.S. credentialing, or family expectations that prohibit or discourage women from working outside the home.

 Isolation means there is no one who can help out during a bad patch  Lack of English skills to function in the labor market, or exploitation of this language barrier to keep women in low-paying jobs.

 Lack of access to public benefits 08/24/13 20

Economic Abuse Undermines Women



What types of economic abuses do South Asian women experience?

 The cruelty of batterers cannot be underestimated.

 Options for help-seeking or leaving decrease, given risk of becoming homeless or jobless  Systems manipulation & ability to hire lawyers  loss of custody, child support, economically damaging divorce settlements 08/24/13 21

 Abandonment  legal settlements lack of access to redress,  Marry and dump  no community property  Jewelry and gifts at marriage are lost  Other?

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Video by Manavi

 One Woman’s Story  Discussion 08/24/13 23

Why economic advocacy matters

Economic advocacy is a gateway to services & long-term security

: It opens the door for survivors to: • Obtain job training, and to increase their readiness to enter the labor market • Build up their savings • Get or complete an education • Obtain respite childcare or elder care • Sign up for and obtain healthcare • Get health insurance for their children 08/24/13 24

• Repair credit through small, zero-interest loans • Obtain tax refunds (which are often the most significant source of funds in a year) • Enforce child protection orders and child support payments • Protect their assets, and the confidentiality of their information (passwords, accounts) • Build English fluency through ESL classes • Access many other benefits and services.

Program Approaches

 Obtaining public benefits  Economic Literacy  Economic empowerment programs in South Asian organizations  Asset development in the community development world  Individual Development Accounts (IDAs)  Community Reinvestment Act monies  API Institute’s Initiative 08/24/13 26

Integrated economic empowerment

 First: opportunities for education and literacy  Second: guarantee sexual health and reproductive rights  Third: Infrastructure to reduce time burdens  Fourth: inheritance and property rights  Fifth: gender inequality  Sixth: political representation  Seventh: VAW © Sujata Warrier, PhD 2006 08/24/13 27

Women’s Economic Empowerment

 Working with women makes good business sense. When women have the right skills and opportunities, they can help businesses and markets grow.  Women who are economically empowered contribute more to their families, societies and national economies. It has been shown that women invest extra income in their children, providing a route to sustainable development.

© Sujata Warrier, PhD 2006 08/24/13 28

Women’s Economic Empowerment

Definition:

A woman is economically empowered when she has both the ability to succeed and advance economically and the power to make and act on economic decisions.  To

succeed and advance economically,

women need the skills and resources to compete in markets, as well as fair and equal access to economic institutions.  To

have the power and agency

to benefit from economic activities, women need to have the ability to make and act on decisions and control resources and profits.

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Women’s Economic Empowerment

    

Resources

are the building blocks women can draw on to succeed economically or to exercise power and agency. Resources can be at the individual or community level. They are more than financial or monetary in nature, and include: • Human capital (e.g., education, skills, training) • Financial capital (e.g., loans, savings) • Social capital (e.g., networks, mentors) • Physical capital (e.g., land, machinery) © Sujata Warrier, PhD 2006 08/24/13 30

Women’s Economic Empowerment

Framework for Women’s Empowerment in Different Spheres of Life



Power Within

: enabling women to articulate their own aspirations and strategies for change 

Power To

: enabling women to develop the necessary skills and access the necessary resources to achieve their aspirations 

Power With

: enabling women to examine and articulate their collective interests, to organize to achieve them and to link with other women’s and men’s organizations for change 

Power Over

: changing the underlying inequalities in power and resources that constrain women’s aspirations and their ability to achieve them.

Mayoux 200 08/24/13 © Sujata Warrier, PhD 2006 31

Tools for Advocacy

 How would you apply a “gender analysis” to your own economic situation? And that of other women in your community and nation?  What are some of the most critical issues facing women in your community that connect to global policies? 08/24/13 (C) Sujata Warrier, PhD 2006 32

Tools for Advocacy

 Past decade the UN and many nations, as well as trade institutions such as the IMF, World Bank and WTO agreed to shape an international agenda that encompassed among different thing an global development agenda  Followed by WSSD+5 and Beijing+5. MDG 2015 etc 08/24/13 (C) Sujata Warrier, PhD 2006 33

Tools for Advocacy

 Given intersectionality, how can aid distort a communities’ intentions for a project? Do you have an example?

  How can money provide support in a way that further women’s economic leadership?

How do differences in women’s experience aggravate economic vulnerabilities? Which women are more vulnerable to economic crisis than others? What can you do?

 How can you bring your concerns to others working on economic and social justice? 08/24/13 (C) Sujata Warrier, PhD 2006 34

Tools for Organizing

 What was the role of the government at these meetings?  What plans has your local government made for implementing commitments and how can they be monitored?

 How might you challenge your local government to implement commitments? 08/24/13 (C) Sujata Warrier, PhD 2006 35

Tools for Organizing

 How are economic changes like plant closings, downsizing or outsourcing in your community or county affecting women? What is the link between this and violence?

 How are national economic policies affecting food production patterns and food security in your area?  How are they affecting small farmers and women farmers?  What urban/rural alliances can be built to guarantee food security for all and secure livelihood for farmers? 08/24/13 (C) Sujata Warrier, PhD 2006 36

Tools for Organizing

 How are differential wages across borders feeding a “race to the bottom” in terms of wages in your area?

 How might cross border alliances challenge such practices?

How can multi-racial/ethnic campaigns challenge the use of sweatshops and the targeting of racially marginalized women for low wage work? 08/24/13 (C) Sujata Warrier, PhD 2006 37

Tools for Organizing

 What are the ways in which women are organizing both in trade unions and other associations in your community?

 What is the status of campaigns for pay equity? How can alliances be made to support these?

 How can you or your agency support quality public services locally and nationally?

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Tools for Organizing

 How can we make economic issue accessible and understandable for women?

 Where would you begin?

 What actions would you take?

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Resources

Allstate Foundation

:

Moving Ahead Through Financial Management

www.allstatefoundation.org/financial empowerment-curriculum

Assets for Independence (AFI)

: Strategies for partnerships between the asset building and domestic violence services communities. DHHS, Office of Community Services (OCS) and the Family Violence Prevention and Services Program. www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ocs/afi/index.html

BankOn:

A national initiative that links economic abuse victims with a troubled banking history to “second-chance” accounts; or allows survivors to use a post office box address. http://joinbankon.org

Center for Survivor Agency and Justice

: Focus is on using civil protection orders as a tool for economic justice. www.csaj.org

Resources, cont.

National Resource Center on Domestic Violence: Building

Comprehensive Solutions Project

provides training and technical assistance to community-based-organizations. www.nrcdv.org

Sakhi for South Asian Women

:

Economic Abuse: The Untold Cost of Domestic Violence

http://www.sakhi.org/wp content/uploads/2012/10/Economic-Abuse-Untold-Cost-of DV.pdf

U.S. Department of the Treasury

:

Exploring the Intersection between Financial Capability and Domestic Violence

www.treaury.gov

Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW)

: Family Economic Security Program has tools and data that advance policies to assist low-income families. www.wow.org

Some thoughts

 Awareness will not produce equality   Gender responsive budgeting Formulaic linear attempts at change for not work – power is dynamic   Strategies should reflect where power lies Collective definition of problem     Gender analysis at every stage Substantive alternative policy proposals We cannot change the world by ourselves Strategies should be based on lived realities 08/24/13 (C) Sujata Warrier, PhD 2006 42

In conclusion……

 “It seems utopian, but the world must recover its capacity for dreaming and in order to start, a new paradigm is required…..” Cecilia Lopez © Sujata Warrier, PhD 2006 08/24/13 43