Informed development policymakers and
practitioners already know that increasing women’s participation in the formal
economy benefits not only women but also their families, communities and
countries.
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Women in Madhya
Pradesh, India work to build a pond to better meet
their farming and
water storage needs.
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How can the
development community help women contribute to — and benefit from — economic
growth? Your “to-do” list requires only one word: access.
Women’s
access to the following is an essential ingredient for success:
Banks
• Women
typically account for a minority of bank staff, with most in junior positions.
• Banks
send few women to training courses to advance professional skills.
• Women
need access to more equitable hiring practices and career pathways to demystify
the banking sector.
Business
development services
• Women
need good and consistent access to accurate and timely information as well as
capacity building and learning opportunities.
• Women
need access to information about business registration, business planning,
financial analysis, market demand, technical advances, packaging and customer
service, to name just a few.
Credit
• Other
than microcredit, women are unable to obtain loans without collateral.
• Women
lack ownership and control of financial and real assets required for
collateral.
• Loan
officers are often male, which may discourage women from applying.
• Some
loans are only issued to businesses that have already been operating for a
period of time.
• Loan
officers cite women’s lack of financial literacy and property ownership as
reasons for denying women loans.
• Financial
services and credit programs should be designed to enable women to start and
expand small, medium and large enterprises by lowering requirements and
increasing women’s knowledge and skills.
Education
and Training
• During
secondary school, girls need access to information about career options and the
qualifications required to pursue them. The options should not be limited to
traditional occupations.
• Textbooks
and other materials at all levels should not reflect women serving only in
domestic or traditional roles.
• Teacher
training should include gender awareness to minimize gender stereotyping.
• Outside
of formal schooling, technical and vocational training institutes that recruit
female instructors and students, encourage a technical focus not based on sex,
and provide placement services would greatly promote women’s employment
success.
• Prior to
applying for positions, women need training in preparing a resume, interview
skills, how to dress and other job-seeking skills.
Experience
• The
overwhelming challenge for young women is landing their first job.
• Employers
want people with experience.
• In the
absence of experience, employers should be encouraged (or subsidized) to send women
with interest and aptitude for training and provide ongoing professional
development in essential skills.
Facilities
• This
includes transport, clean women’s bathrooms, a working space not too near men,
other female employees and an office (or factory, etc.) in a secure location.
• Some
provision for daycare would be invaluable.
Internships
• Women
need access to internships or apprenticeships to gain practical, on-the-job
experience.
•
Educational institutions, businesses and development programs can create
internship programs that provide training, with stipends, for women to learn by
doing.
Markets
• Women
need the benefit of market research and quality control to be competitive.
• To be
competitive in one’s own market is usually necessary to compete
internationally.
• Women’s
products need to be given a high profile and a branding strategy to highlight
“Made by women from (name of country).”
• Women
need assistance finding buyers and creating market linkages that could
facilitate access to external markets and provide trade logistics support.
Mobility
• Where
safe, affordable, reliable transport is unavailable, women need access to
employee-provided transport to and from work.
Networks
• Women are
not part of the “male network” of doing business.
• Even
family connections often flow from father to son.
• Effective
women’s business associations and networks are urgently needed.
Political
will
•
Commitment to women’s affordable and otherwise unfettered access to the
opportunities that will facilitate their economic growth must be demonstrated
at the highest leadership levels.
•
Translating that commitment into policies and strategies that can be
implemented both within the workplace and throughout the social, political and
economic spheres is essential to move from rhetoric to reality.
Recruitment
— female-friendly
• Websites
and newspapers tend to be the primary formal channels connecting job seekers
and employers. Virtual listings are often unavailable to women.
• Job
announcements may request “experienced males” and “attractive females.”
• A
significant amount of hiring occurs in “old boys’ clubs,” where men tend to
hire other men.
• Job
placement services are needed to work with educational institutions,
governments and the private sector to ensure widespread links to employers.
• Employers
need to reach out to women’s organizations and other community centers women
frequent, to advertise their employment vacancies.
• Setting a
certain percentage of positions for women has worked well in some settings;
typically, the percentage is critical mass, or 30 percent, at all levels
including leadership.
Role
models
• In
untraditional fields in particular, women lack female role models.
• Women who
are successful in such fields could be encouraged to visit girls’ schools or
videotape messages to girls explaining what their professions involve and what
is required to qualify for them.
• Learning
materials and field trips featuring women in a wide variety of occupations
would help dispel notions of limited female roles.
The above
are essential but not necessarily sufficient for women in all contexts to
succeed. But if they were provided with this access in good faith, women would
grab it and run as fast and as far as they could.
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