Invest in laws, budgets and allyship to accelerate women’s progress

The annual International Women’s Day (IWD) 2024 is here. This year’s theme is "Invest in Women to Accelerate Progress," a theme that addresses the stickiest manifestations of gender inequality that has historically adversely affected women.

I like that the theme presupposes some salient actions in the two verbs used: ‘invest’ and ‘accelerate.’

Why is investing in women critical for social justice and flourishing economies? What does investing in women entail in the Kenyan context?

In this article, I will present the business case of investing in women and the actions that are needed to promote investment in women.

First, to put at rest some of the questions that are often projected when conversations of women’s empowerment are discussed: Why are we ‘always’ talking about women and girls? What about men and boys? Are we not discriminating?

These questions are valid from a standpoint of the inquirers, but they are sometimes floated to call the bluff to pro-women actions.

The status of gender inequality characterised by marginalisation, deprivation, exploitation, and violation of women in all critical sectors of development paints a picture of systemic and historical inequalities that necessitate some correction.

Focusing on women therefore is an effort to correct what corpus of research evidence has laid bare - that women are left behind and some targeted actions are needed to correct that. 

Discriminative drawbacks

Research evidence tell us that women are more vulnerable to poverty at household level; that some cultural beliefs and practices exclude women and girls from education, health, nutrition, land ownership and access to market and production resources; that all forms of violence including intimate partner violence, economic violence such as denial of right for productive mobility, and denigration of women's work cause economic losses; take a study by OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) carried out in 2016 among OECD countries for example: Due to gender discrimination in formal and informal institutions is estimated to cause a loss of about USD 12 trillion. Sub Saharan Africa alone incurs USD 340 billion losses.

These losses accrue from lost opportunities, underutilisation of skills and intellectual capacity of some women, lost time, and ensuing lost incomes.

Economies cannot operate to their full potential when half of the world’s population face such discriminative drawbacks. 

Women's reproductive responsibilities such as childbearing and childcare and other domestic care duties go unappreciated and unpaid.

When women are expected to carry out reproductive roles, income generating roles as well as community roles, they face what is called triple work burden.

Triple work burden presents mental health risks and makes women's contributions suboptimal. This scenario also leads to discriminatory workplace practices where young women of childbearing age are denied opportunities for work or promotion because they are a business risk if they get pregnant.

Yet, reproduction in itself is the foundation of economies as it ensures a supply of human resources in the most natural way.

Empowered women

Women also have limited access to time and energy saving technologies; limited access to digital tools and are underrepresented in governance boards and leadership positions in both government and private sector. 

So, what is the business case of investing in women? What is in it for the greater good of our social and economic progress? Investing in women benefits all - when women have access to income, it is likely to be used for family basic needs.

Children raised by empowered women are more likely to have positive health outcomes and to escape poverty. Countries with high rates of gender equality have higher GDP; Investing in women allows the tapping of a wide pool of skilled and innovative human capital talent; gender equality measures improve business outcomes.

In Kenya’s agriculture sector for example, a study showed that when women are empowered, and included in crop production decisions, income decisions, asset co-ownership and were members of cooperatives, crop yields increased by 15-35 per cent.

The potential benefit of investing in women can contribute to positive outcomes in all areas including education, health, governance and politics.

Time and space fail to present an example of progress made by Homabay’s first female governor, Gladys Wanga. She has done more within a year than was done in the last 10 years.

What did it take to invest in a woman like Gladys from her childhood to the present day where we get to enjoy her leadership skills, political acumen, and development-centric spirit? 

Investing in women needs multifaceted approaches including investing in policies and laws, investing through budgets, and investing in goodwill and allyship.

Unconscious biases

Some of the ways we can accelerate progress include gender responsive budgeting that ensures differentiated experiences, contributions, needs and interests of men and women are considered in financing and budget allocations.

Additionally, enacting, supporting, and enforcing policies and laws that correct the historical gender injustices will accelerate progress.

As a country, we have laws that entrench equality, yet their enforcement is weak and little gain has been achieved. We also need to invest in collaboration and allyship, particularly with men allies who spearhead the cause of investment in women.

Indeed, men are brothers, fathers, uncles, spouses and friends of women and any investment for women should include them as key stakeholders. Indeed, the benefit is for all.

We need to invest in listening to conditions of other people beyond our own comfort zones - this will prevent the denigration of women’s empowerment efforts because of our ignorance on what some women go through.

We need to be aware of our own unconscious biases which derail social justice efforts or perpetuate gender inequalities.

We need to declare that gender inequalities that harm women end with us. Let’s invest in women to accelerate progress.