ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT OF RURAL WOMEN (Pages 148-156) by Ms. C. Kavitha in THE INTERNATIONAL MANAGER / ISSN: 2348-9413 (Online); 2348-9405 (Print)

Many developing countries have implemented stabilization and structural adjustment programs over the last 20 years. There’s no debate about the importance of women for rural economic growth and poverty reduction. They fill many crucial roles, as farmers, waged laborers and small-scale entrepreneurs, as well as caretakers of children and the elderly. Rural women have the potential to lift their households and communities out of poverty. But they are hampered by persistent gender inequities that limit their access to decent work, which they need as a vehicle for economic empowerment, social advancement and political participation. Almost half the world’s people and three quarters of the poor live in rural areas. Addressing gender and rural employment is therefore central to achieving all the Millennium Development Goals – not just the one on gender equality. Gender equality and rural employment for poverty reduction that includes the construction of a gender analytical framework across regions and contexts. The basic conundrum that plagues attempts to conceptualize the gender dimensions of poverty stems from the operation of the forces that create scarcity, on the one hand, and discrimination, on the other. The form in which women's poverty manifests itself depends on the cultural context far more than it does for men, suggesting that it cannot be understood through the same conceptual lens. Keywords: rural economic growth and poverty reduction, waged laborers and small-scale entrepreneurs, gender inequities, economic empowerment.