Promoting women’s agency
able to their constituencies. The ability of elected officials or voters to influence policies of course depends on the overall strength of the institutions they sit in or vote for.121 In Uganda, 30 percent of land board members have to be women, but the land legislation does not bestow unequivocal land rights on women and does not provide clear women-friendly administrative procedures, limiting the impact of female board members.122 Large and sudden gains in political representation for women are unlikely to take place unless the political systems themselves experience broader shifts—after a conflict, a political rupture, or another shock. These shifts offer unique opportunities for women to enter the political process without displacing male incumbents or without challenging the status quo when a single party dominates the political scene.123 Without such shifts, progress is slower. More gener-
CHAPTER SUMMARY
ally, democratic transitions can create windows of opportunity for reform, as in Brazil, Chile, Greece, South Africa, Spain, and Turkey (but reform is not automatic).124
Women play a larger role in informal groups Women often resort to more informal groups— women’s collectives organized around economic activity, informal labor unions, and so on.125 The success of informal groups is related to their ability to remove the barriers preventing women from exerting decision-making power in the formal arena, or to gain benefits denied to them in the formal sector and to influence the overall policy agenda. Informal associations allow women to gather in a more flexible environment that accommodates time constraints, provide a less threatening space in line with their sense of self-efficacy, and offer a more practical
Women continue to have less capacity than men to exercise agency
WHAT WE SEE Entrenched differences exist between women’s and men’s capacity to exercise agency—defined as the ability to make effective choices— both in the household and in society more broadly. Where women’s agency has increased, it has led to improvements in women’s welfare and that of their children; yet shifts in agency have generally proven difficult to achieve. In some aspects of agency, such as political voice and representation, differences persist even in rich countries and despite a century of women’s activism and change in other domains.
WHY WE SEE THIS Economic development can promote women’s agency by improving the conditions that allow agency to be exercised, such as higher incomes, greater access to services, and expanded infrastructure. However, this potential impact relies in part on women’s increased bargaining power within the household resulting from the ability to earn their own income. Moreover, the effects of economic development vary across countries and are limited for some outcomes associated with agency.
THE IMPORTANCE OF EFFECTIVE APPLICATION OF LAWS Although expansion of women’s rights has fostered agency in some realms, the effect of laws has been weakest in areas regulating relations within households, especially as they pertain to control over resources and family matters. Nor does progress in the form of legal change necessarily result in improvements in agency, because the
effectiveness of these laws depends crucially on the ability and willingness of governments to ensure they are fully applied and enforced.
THE POWER OF NORMS Social norms can limit the effect of laws, services, or incomes, to the detriment of gender equality. And they are particularly binding where an increase in women’s agency would threaten the balance of power in the household. Social norms can also inhibit women’s collective agency—for instance, by limiting the political roles they can hold or their access to positions of power in business. In some instances, changes in norms can promote women’s agency.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR POLICY When laws, services, social norms, and markets interact, they can result in mutually reinforcing constraints—and these need to inform the selection and sequencing of policies. Shifting social norms around gender roles and women’s abilities is particularly critical to promote women’s agency. This process can be complex and slow, but policies can change the costs or benefits of complying with prevailing norms by providing the incentives or information needed for individuals or groups to challenge them. Although these norms—as well as institutional structures—at times limit women from influencing policies through formal political channels, women’s collective agency can work effectively through less formal channels. This in turn can influence policy debates, choices, and the factors that themselves shape women’s individual agency.
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