UNSC STUDY GUIDE

Women, Peace and Security:

Women as Active Agents in Peace
and Security

Background
Although women constitute over half of the population of the
world, their contribution to economic activities, growth and
welfare is distinct below its potential, with serious
macroeconomic results. The unused potential of women remains
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as a lost opportunity for growth in economies and global

development. Increasing the economic empowerment of women
promotes enterprise development at the micro and medium
enterprise levels, agricultural productivity and it also enhances
business management by returning on investments. In spite of
significant progress in recent years, labor markets in the world
remain divided along gender lines leaving women to pursue
informal economic activities or being overrepresented in some
occupations. Women are mostly employed in unpaid work while
their male counterparts account for paid employment. They
endeavour wage differentials compared to their male colleagues.
They are also overrepresented in the informal sector being among
the poor since in especially developing regions, distortions in the
labor market constraints the options of women for paid work. In
accordance with the projections of the International Monetary
Fund (hereinafter referred as IMF), female representation in
senior positions and entrepreneurship facilities also remains low
The challenges of job creation, growth and inclusion of women
are intimately associated. As stability and growth are necessary to
give women the opportunities they are in need of, the
participation of women in the labor market induces the stability
equation and growth. In particular, broader opportunities for
women may contribute to human development in developing
regions, through higher levels of school enrollment for girls,
reduced discrimination in societies and so forth Although, it is
well-known that the economic growth and the empowerment of
women in the labor market are closely related, women face many
barriers in their attempts while entering into the business sector.
This varies from the employment opportunities, social
discrimination, overrepresentation in some occupations, parental
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duties, educational attainment, lack of social protection services

to infrastructural obstacles, lack of land property and inheritance
rights and many more xviii. Therefore, a comprehensive approach
to gender-based obstacles in the economic empowerment of
women is needed.

1. Employment Opportunities
Despite the improvement in lives of women in past 20 years in
reaching health services, education, infrastructure and so forth,
gender inequality in employment remains as it is. Globally,
women earn up to 30% lower wages than men. Moreover, they
are led to “women’s occupations”. Men usually dominate
occupations which require strength as in the example of
construction, transport and mining whereas women more closet
in public administration, education, health and so forth. In
accordance with the statistics, a male-dominated industry consists
of 25 percent of fewer women in total employment. This leads
women to be highly overrepresented in service, clerical and
health-related occupations. For example in Canada, the
proportion of women in the construction industry remains 11.2%
while, in mining, it is 19 percent. On the other hand, women are
more likely to interrupt their careers for child rearing reasons in
longer periods compared to men, which leads to skills
obsolescence. In such cases, maternity leave services ensure job
security for women by maintaining their salaries and benefits
during the parental leave and guaranteeing their return to work
after a period of time. However, in developing countries the
period for maternity protection is rather short or does not exist,
which leads to the loss of employment for women. Supporting
fathers to take equal parts in parental duties is necessary though,
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consistent with International Labour Organization (ILO) studies,

no cases of paternity leave exists Remedial policy needs to
address the reversals in convergence as well as the set of
demographic, economic and behavioural factors which is leading
to the gender-based gaps in the labour market. Also according to
International Labour Organization (ILO) the policy
recommendation may be only country-specific and should
integrate economic, cultural and sociological factors. So as to
increase the rate of women participation into labour market, ILO
proposes a set of solutions varying from reducing the burden of
housework with better infrastructure services, and unpaid care
work through provision of care services -child care- as well as
balancing the share of parenting with fathers, compensating the
career breaks through paid leave and right of return for women,
changing the taxes and transfers to encourage dualearner
families, public campaigns for gender stereotypes and proper
implementation of legislation against discrimination.

2. Social Protection
According to the statistics in 2011, more than 50% of the
employed women are in vulnerable employment. Also, most of
them are being unprotected by labour legislation in comparison
with the ratio 48.2 percent for men, worldwide . In North Africa,
the proportion of vulnerable jobs 55 percent for women whereas
it is 32 percent for men. As for the Middle East, it is approximately
42% versus 27% and sub-Saharan Africa 85% versus 70%.Women
and men face different risks of vulnerabilities, exacerbated by the
gender inequalities and discrimination. To this date, the social
protection agenda has been formed in terms of poor, excluded
and vulnerable social groups, health status, age and relations to
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formal labour markets. However, the implementation of social

protection policies must address gender-based constraints,
including barriers of discrimination leading to an imbalance in the
economic advancement of women. Although some measures for
social protection programmes are taken targeted at female-based
households, gender is rarely used as criteria in the formation of
the programmes. Also, gender criteria are rarely used as a factor
to understand the exposure risk of poor people and vulnerability
to design social protection programmes. Women are particularly
affected by the poverty, human rights violations, physical
insecurity, especially within fragile states since in those areas,
governments are not only incapable of providing social protection
services but also unable to meet the basic needs of the
population. According to the statistics in the United States, nearly
33% of women killed in the United States between 2003 and
2008.xxx Also, 2013 global review data indicates that between 40
and 50 percent of women that are living in Member States of the
European Union experienced undesired sexual advances, physical
contact and a variety of forms of sexual harassment during work.
These issues underline the necessity for women to understand
policy programme implementations of the gendered approach to
social protection. The high levels of vulnerability often affect girls
in keeping out of school for home-based work, early marriage and
childbearing while social protection services in a variety of
developing countries tend to cover small, male-dominated section
of workforce. On the other hand, women are concentrated in
informal work possessing particular vulnerabilities such as health
risks, interrupted and insecure employment. Furthermore,
women are less likely to save or contribute pensions. Since they
live longer than men, it leads to being end up facing a longer
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period of widowhood, and risk of facing greater poverty and

insecurity . Therefore, social protection policies such as cash and
in-kind transfers, social insurance, aim to protect household
income and consumption, social welfare programmes is critical for
women. Furthermore, elimination of negative coping strategies
and promotion of sustainable livelihoods and income generating
activities has a particular importance in empowering women.

3. Poverty Reduction Strategies & Infrastructure

Women constitute three-fifths of the people in the world lacking
in malnutrition and requiring the need of the protection by the
government. Therefore, women are particularly in need of
infrastructure facilities. Lack of infrastructure programmes affects
the participation of women in labour force since women are more
likely than men to carry out the work of household leaving limited
time to pursue economic gains. In spite of the fact that
infrastructure policies do not directly formed for women, they
affect the ability women to allocate their time. Especially the
improvements in transport infrastructure, water and sanitation
and electricity eliminate the burden of women. As an example in
the need for improving the infrastructure, it is indicated that
household and street electrification increases employment of
women by releasing them from home production and enabling
micro-enterprises, also by proving security and relief while they
return their home from work

4. The Role of Private Sector

The development is not the exclusive domain of the states and

international organizations since private sector resources account
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for a critical share of financial flow especially in developing

regions. Researches show that investments in private sector
development in which women will be promoted can yield higher
returns in terms of poverty reduction. The role of private sector in
the economic empowerment of women is often misunderstood as
equal to entrepreneurship of women. However, without broader
social changes, entrepreneurship of women would not solve the
equation issue alone. Solutions by the private sector should be
implemented addressing the rules of global trade and finance
systems, taxes and illicit financing flows, also the structural
inequality such as the violence against women, the right to bodily,
economic and sexual autonomy. Particularly in economically
developing countries, the role of private sector is prominent in
raising the participation of women into the labour force since they
constitute an important part of the economic growth both as
enterprises within the country and foreign companies. Therefore,
the private sector is an employment source for women. However,
it is observed in the garment industry in Central America and
South-East Asia that many of those institutions in developing
regions benefit from the opportunity of having employees with
low wages which cause the economic obstacles for women. Since
the private sector in the labor market is partly separated from the
governmental bodies, they tend to benefit from the advantages of
having women employees with lower wages, limited parental
leaves and sometimes without insurances. Therefore, the
governments produce policy tools for the private sector and
enforce regulations in this regard. For example, most of the
European Union countries have policy instruments for the private
sector prohibiting the discrimination between men and women in
access to employment and self-employment, recruitment,
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vocational training and promotion, dismissals as well as

guaranteeing social protection services and maternal level.

5. Access to Land and Women’s Economic Security

“Private property rights is the most basic human rights and an

essential foundation for other human rights” Milton Friedman In
some of the developing regions, discrimination against women
shows its effects in a legal manner. Women especially in rural
areas, work in family farms, performing the 66 percent of the
work and producing 50 percent of the food. They earn only 10% of
the income and own 1% of the property without tenure security
due to the legislative regulations and inheritance rights. The
importance of having protected property rights is now recognized
among economists since private property system grants
individuals the right to allocate their resources. The right of
property ownership differs in a variety of societies due to cultural
racial, political and legal factors. Although most of the legal
systems in countries have regulations that grant gender equality
in access to land, there are flaws in regulations for marriage,
divorce and inheritance which contradict with the laws designing
the right to property ownership. On the other hand, customary
laws in most of the African countries do not even tend to grant
property ownership for women. To examine the issue and the
recommendations for land policy, land legislation,
implementation of land laws, land administration and so forth; 6.
Entrepreneurship Facilities for Women
Women encounter many times, human physical and social
obstacles during enterprises. Although the businesses by female
entrepreneurs are growing especially in economically developed
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countries, there is still a lack of confidence for women-headed

enterprises. Therefore, they face constraints in lack of technical
and business skills, differences in endowments, preferences and
barriers to break time in their work, limited access to finance and
capital, overrepresentation in traditional sectors which have low
costs, limited market opportunities and as a result, lower profits.
In accordance with the statistics in 2015, for every 9 men getting
equity financing, only one woman does. Moreover, it is indicated
that only 17 percent of the companies, which are raising money
through crowd funding xlv, have women on the founding team.
While entering into the business sector, women are less likely to
be profiled with investors since they usually own small businesses.
Also, in developing regions, financial institutions require higher
amounts of collateral from female entrepreneurs even a male co-
signer in some cases in order to open accounts. Those financial
institutions are not likely to grant loans to female entrepreneurs,
in accordance with the projections of World Bank. However,
microcredit programmes which grants women small amounts of
loans without collateral, the need for steady employment or a
credit history, plays an essential role in empowering women,
giving them the opportunity to form enterprises by reducing
vulnerability. Therefore, those programmes are critical to the
empowerment of businesses organized by female entrepreneurs,
and the expansion of those programmes in economically
developing countries is needed, as well. Yet, the benefit of the
monetary assistance alone is limited to some economic benefits.
The enhancement in the women entrepreneurship can be
achieved through personality development and inner
transformation. Also, women are more vulnerable to be
corrupted by the officials since they have in some of the
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economically developing countries, limited ability to own property

and inheritance due to laws which lead women to form informal
businesses. In those regions, men are defined as the legal owners
of assets. Furthermore due to the social and cultural norms and
discrimination in some societies, they gain low profits and growth
in the competing demands of market and household work.
According to the study by the World Development Report on
Gender and Development, social and cultural norms, are the
mostly reported obstacles to physical mobility and public safety.

6. Women in Rural Areas

Rural women are the key factor for achieving the

transformational economic and social reforms required for
sustainable development. They constitute approximately 70
percent of the agricultural activities worldwide, however, with
owning less than 10 percent of the land. On the other hand,
limited access to credit, health care and lack of vocational
training, are factors that restrain women in performing
agricultural activities, which is already worsened by the global
food and economic crises and the climate change. The poor
access to infrastructure in rural areas restrains the opportunities
of women to reduce poverty and hunger as they spend more time
than urban women in obtaining water and fuel and processing
food. Also in rural areas, women face social barriers in access to
productive resources, financial systems, and legal constraints in
owning lands and properties, which leads women not to pursue
gains in the agricultural sector. In accordance with the statistics,
almost 70% of employed women in South Asia work in agriculture
rather than pursuing other economic activities. Rural girls are also
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one of those targeted people. Their secondary school enrolments

have implications for future employment opportunities. However,
they are less likely to continue their education compared to rural
boys. Since rural women are working in mostly informal sector
and family farms, they are less liable to gain salaries for their own.
Therefore, as determined in the Joint Programme on Accelerating
Progress towards the Economic Empowerment of Rural Women in
the context of sustainable development and the post MDGs, there
is a strong need for rural women to improve their food and
nutrition security, increase their control over productive
resources, services and income. It is also needed to reduce their
workload and strengthen their participation in rural Figure:
Women in rural areas producer organizations. To conclude, it is
important to consider the rural women working in non-farm
payrolls data while considering the employment rates in rural
areas. It is estimated that male members of the families tend to
indicate their family as working in the agriculture. Therefore,
there is a lack of reliability in the data regarding the status of rural
women employed in the agricultural sector. In order to
understand the situation of the rural women, non-farm payrolls
must be taken into account.

Conclusion
Employed women contribute to the economic growth of the
world. During the time, the participation of women in the labour
market has been increasing in robust economies. However, during
that time, it is observed that women have become the targeted
group facing the barriers in their attempts. Women in both
economically developing and developed States faces with the
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unemployment problems more than men and usually left to work

for the household or agriculture as unpaid work. Also, they face
with the lack of social protection for their retirement, as well as
work time in health services and insecure workplaces. In the
maleheaded family structure, women are the ones who are
expected to deal with household work and child rearing that
results in interrupted work and obstacles in being promoted in
their occupation. Furthermore, they face the legislative issues
such as land and property ownership as well as barriers for their
enterprises while applying for loans and credits. In especially rural
areas, women are not educated due to social obstacles such as
early marriage. Also, they lack in vocational and skills training.
Therefore, they end up being the less favourable group in the
labour market. A comprehensive resolution by the United Nations
Entity on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women is
needed to overcome the economic obstacles for women in the
path of achieving gender equality.