Unit 2: Gender issues in the world of work
Emerging gender issues in the Asia Pacific region
Poverty
Gender and Poverty in Fiji
[Excerpt from National Report on Women in Fiji: Situation, Analysis and Strategies, prepared by the Government of Fiji for the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, September 1995] I Review and Appraisal at the National Level Poverty is a complex issue and difficult to define. For ease of analysis a poverty line based on income is usually drawn. The poverty line in Fiji was defined by a Poverty Task Force in 1991 as at $58.11/week for a family. Those who work with the poor currently utilise an informally set line somewhere between 4F58 to $F74 a week total income, per family. In the early eighties, two analyses were made of the results of the national Household and Income Expenditure Surveys (HIES) of 1977 and 1983... Access to things associated with ordinary everyday life that define the absence or presence of poverty include: ...Cameron’s analysis identified 9% of all households in Fiji as being in poverty in 1977. Often poverty in rural settlements and villages, and particularly among women may not be obvious or evident, because of extended family support. Nearly all the major NGOs that work closely with the poor in Fiji express concern at a sharp increase in poverty in the last seven years. All attest that by far the greater majority of the poorest of the poor are women. The number of families in any given month now being served food rations by one of these organisations has increased by more than 10% since 1985. By far the majority of these (64%) are headed by women, who are either deserted, or unmarried, or are nursing sick husbands... The Fiji government recognised the need to address poverty and established a Poverty Alleviation Program. Government has also increased grants to several welfare organisations that serve the poor. This includes doubling its grant from 1990 to 1991 for housing of poor families through the Housing Assistance and Relief trust (HART). HART serves the housing needs of the very poor. The maximum income of those they serve is $60/week. Some 80% of those they regularly process are women. Over the last seven years, HART has witnessed a sharp increase in demand for its houses¾
particularly from deserted women with families and those unemployed.... Unfortunately statistics on recipients of (destitute) allowances are not gender-disaggregated. However it would appear from a count of those in categories obviously of female (e.g. deserted wives, widows, unmarried mothers) that at least 50% of those on destitute allowances are women. Figures show 24% increase in numbers of families on such allowances from 1987 to 1991.... The average annual increase of 8% that this represents is extremely high. This has been at a time when job creation has also increased¾
particularly in the industrial sector where women predominate in garment manufacturing. However, many women in garment making earn well below the poverty line... for working 45 hours or more a week. The families get caught in a vicious circle of poverty¾
that restricts access to good health and good education¾
both necessary conditions for finding better employment and escaping from the poverty cycle.... To help poor women break the poverty cycle requires attention ion several important needs, which include the following: A sample survey of poor households in 1989... showed that poor women and men do make maximum use of limited opportunities for improving cash earnings.... Encouragement of those involved in... informal employment activities is a necessity to help the poor break out of the poverty cycle. Promotion of income generating captivities need to be accompanied by small credit schemes and assistance with upgrading skills, quality control, and market procurement. Employment creation... need to be accompanied by fair wages and conditions of work for women¾
including reasonable working hours. The repercussions of long working hours on women on the physical and psychological health of their families, and therefore of the society cannot be ignored. Unemployed women increased as a total of all those registered as unemployed from 32% in 1976 to 43% in 1896. Unemployed is defined as those who are actively looking for work. In 1986, the proportion of females registered unemployed was higher in rural areas (49% of the unemployed) than in urban areas (40% of the unemployed). The high unemployment situation encourages exploitation of women labour as evident in farm labour work and for household or domestic workers. These workers have little protection of their rights. Domestic workers, for example, are not legally defined as workers. In the main, they are females.... Encouragement of women’s membership of unions for collective bargaining is an important step towards improving the working conditions of women. This is well illustrated by the women in the Bank Employees Union, who have negotiated favourable conditions for themselves in that sector. Membership of that union by sex in 1993 and 1994 is as follows: As at March 1993
Males 40%
Females 60%
As at March 1994
Males 38%
Females 62%
The poor often remain poor because of lack of saleable skills. This is usually more true of poor women. Such a problem may be addressed by offering equal vocational training opportunities for girls as for boys. In the latter eighties enrolment of girls in technical and vocational courses markedly increased. Enrolment in agricultural training in the same period was however exclusively male. This needs to be addressed as female participation in the agricultural sector¾
both for subsistence and in commercial agriculture¾
is significant. For example, 605 of the current 1,079 or 56% of FDB loans to women are for agriculture. According to the 1991 Agricultural Census individual women farmers totalled 4,857 or 5.2% of all farmers in that year. Provision of male and female extension officers in the government’s agricultural services reflects this proportionate gender ratio of farmers. Since 1989 the share of women extension officers has increased from 6% (13 out of 200 officers) to 9% (19 out of 219) in 1993. The lack of women intake into agricultural vocational courses will exacerbate the disadvantaged situation of women in rural areas.. While only 5.2% of formally defined farmers are women, their role in subsistence farming and as unpaid farm labourers is much more substantial. Lack of service to them affects not only the subsistence situation of rural families but also employability of women in agricultural activities. Rural unemployment for women in the early eighties (1976-1986) has risen while that for males decreased. A proper analysis of the HIES of recent years is necessary to establish the current extent and geographical distribution of poverty. However, in terms of clean water supply, a high percentage of the rural population (20% in 1993) remain without access to clean water.