Women in the Developing World

Women produce half the food in some parts of the developing world, taking most of the responsibility for household which may include caring for the sick, house maintenance and such vital work as taking care of children, preparing food and brining fire and water. Yet, because of women’s limited access to education and other opportunities, their productivity remains law and definitely far from their full potential.

In now days, gender and particularly the role of women is widely recognised as vitally important international issue. Many international organizations have been paying particular attention to women due to their crucial role in subsistence agriculture and family life, and therefore to overall development planning. There have been significant advances for women in many parts of the world in relation to several very important areas such as health, education and employment over the past decade. And the first step was creation of the World Bank’s “Women in Development” programs that pay very close attention to women’s issues with focus on increasing women’s productivity in agriculture, opening labor markets to women, and improving women’s access to health care and education. As a result of these programs, girls’ enrolment at schools visibly increased (partly due to reduction in costs of education as well as improvement in home technologies which allow girls to go to schools instead of taking care of the housework). There also has been a clear improvement in women’s health care. The low costs of preventing illnesses, safe pregnancy programs and nutritional supplementation have made women’s health better as well as significantly decreased avoidable female deaths.

Unlike the strategies in education and health, those that concern with increase of women in the labor market, in my opinion, are less proven and harder to realise. However, there still have been changes. In many Third World countries, women have been provided with broader childcare facilities so that mothers do not have to compromise on the types of jobs they accept. Governments in many countries also started to ensure gender neutrality in job vacancies, as well as male-female equality in earnings.

Accept Women in Development programs, there are some other organisations working in developing incorporated advocacy and empowerment for women into their work. A notable example is Wangari Maathai's environmental organization, the Green