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<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">Families Can Drive Gender Equality, But Only If We Help Them Evolve
<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">Women are increasingly the breadwinners of their families, a shift in domestic roles that has upsides and challenges.
</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/unwomen/32847730436/in/photolist-S7f6VD-S3DcMC-S3DcRW-S3DcVJ-S7f6Zg-S7f74K-S7f7hv-S7f76Z-S7f7bD-S3DcA5-S7f6SH-S7f6GH-S7f6M2-RVizUk-S3Dddh-S3DwVN-S7f7kr-RjRdGL-RjRdFd-RjRdwW-RjRdMA-RjRdL3-RjRdNY-RjRdRy-RjRdWo-RjRdTN-RjRdyE-RjRdrq-RjRdBL-RRWtwq-RRWtt9-QFCmYg-RRWtpG-RVzPjt-QFCmVv-bm7BKN-QygkdK-QvvmGs-bz2vuX"><span lang="EN" style="color:blue">UNwomen/flickr</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">,
</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/"><span lang="EN" style="color:blue">CC BY-ND</span></a></span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">
<span lang="EN"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">By
</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><a href="https://theconversation.com/families-can-drive-gender-equality-but-only-if-we-help-them-evolve-77546"><span lang="EN" style="color:blue">Shahrashoub Razavi
</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">– May 15, 2017<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">The concept of family lends itself to exaggerated claims. Depending on who you talk to, the decline of the
traditional family in recent decades either means the triumph of individualism and the onset of “</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><a href="http://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=2665"><span lang="EN" style="color:blue">pure
relationships</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">” or the dissolution of society, population decline and
</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/joelkotkin/2017/02/01/death-spiral-demographics-the-countries-shrinking-the-fastest/#5301f75ab83c"><span lang="EN" style="color:blue">the death of the
nation</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">For women, in particular, families have long been deeply paradoxical spaces. They can bring love and life
but also struggle, inequality and, far too often, violence. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">In 2012, 47% of all women who were victims of homicide were killed by an intimate partner or family member,
versus just 6% of men, according to the </span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><a href="https://www.unodc.org/gsh/"><span lang="EN" style="color:blue">United Nations’ Global Study on Homicide</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">Evidence also shows that family income and resources are not necessarily pooled or shared equally between
partners, practices that can entrench domestic gender inequality. Men in both the developed and developing world are also more likely than women to use family income for
</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><a href="http://www.hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/charmes_hdr_2015_final.pdf"><span lang="EN" style="color:blue">personal spending and to have more leisure time</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">How can we make families work better for women?
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">Gender-equal families<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><a href="http://www.un.org/en/events/familyday/"><span lang="EN" style="color:blue">International Day of Families</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">
is a good moment to reflect on this question and consider how families might change to become agents of gender equality and female empowerment.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">In international law, the protection of the family is closely linked to the
</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><a href="http://www.humanrights.is/en/human-rights-education-project/comparative-analysis-of-selected-case-law-achpr-iachr-echr-hrc/the-right-to-equality-and-non-discrimination/concept-and-importance-of-the-principle-of-non-discrimination"><span lang="EN" style="color:blue">principle
of equality and non-discrimination</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">, meaning that all members of a family must enjoy the same liberties and rights regardless of gender or age.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">As social realities change, perceptions of just what non-discrimination looks like have also evolved.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">Today, many countries, including Brazil, Finland and Spain, recognise same-sex partnerships, while others
offer legal protections for children born out of wedlock and for single-parent families. That would have been unthinkable just 50 years ago.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">Such rapid shifts, though, can incite a backlash from people who fear that new familial structures threaten
their personal beliefs, religious values or social norms. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">To help families become more gender equal, it is important to be clear about what changes are required and
what, concretely, these changes entail. Only doing this will allow policies seeking to empower women and girls really work.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">Women who wait<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">Things are already trending in the right direction. Around the globe, women’s voice and agency within the
family are growing. In many parts of the world, women are also postponing marriage, in part because they are
</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><a href="http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/theme/marriage-unions/WMD2015.shtml"><span lang="EN" style="color:blue">attending school for longer and building a career</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">In the Middle East and North Africa, regions where marriages have tended to be early and universal, women
delayed marriage for between three and six years (depending on the country) between the 1980s and 2010s. By 2010, the mean marrying age for the region’s women
</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><a href="http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/theme/marriage-unions/WMD2015.shtml"><span lang="EN" style="color:blue">ranged from 22 to 29 years</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">
and in nearly all countries it now </span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><a href="http://www.genderindex.org/countries"><span lang="EN" style="color:blue">surpasses the legal minimum age</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">
of marriage without parental consent. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">Delaying marriage has gone hand in hand with improved health outcomes for women and their children in the
region, as well as significant gains in </span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><a href="http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Documents/unesco-world-atlas-gender-education-2012.pdf"><span lang="EN" style="color:blue">female higher
education</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">In East Asia, another region known for near-universal marriages, women are not only postponing marriage,
many are </span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><a href="https://theconversation.com/chinas-marriage-rate-is-plummeting-and-its-because-of-gender-inequality-66027"><span lang="EN" style="color:blue">not getting married at all</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">.
In 2015, more than half of Japanese women entering their 30s were </span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><a href="http://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/nenkan/66nenkan/1431-02.htm"><span lang="EN" style="color:blue">not in a relationship
or living with a partner</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">. This is a recent phenomenon.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">Regional experts have suggested that women are opting out of marriage and children because men are not adapting
quickly enough: Japanese women have new roles in society. No longer just caregivers, they work and travel and have aspirations beyond the confines of the home.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">But men aren’t changing in step. They have failed to take on a more active role in taking care of children
and elderly parents. Jobs also continue to demand very long work hours, a challenge for working parents.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">In other words, East Asia’s gender revolution remains incomplete. Women have new roles and aspirations,
but they’re tough to achieve if no one else recognises them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">Japan and South Korea, are now taking action,
</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><a href="http://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BCCF9/(httpAuxPages)/628267596A6E8AACC125774400502069/%24file/Abe.pdf"><span lang="EN" style="color:blue">investing heavily in social care services</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">.
Acknowledging that caring for ailing relatives puts a serious burden on spouses and daughters, in 2000 Japan adopted a government-susbidised long-term care insurance policy. South Korea followed suit in 2008.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">While these initiatives are likely to assist women, they are not substitutes for much-needed changes in
families themselves.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">Women who work<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">Worldwide, women are also increasingly their family’s breadwinner, a trend that is whittling away at the
pillars of patriarchy and improving family financial security.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">In the US, for example, real wages have been falling since the mid-1970s
</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><a href="https://www.bls.gov/lpc/#data"><span lang="EN" style="color:blue">even as productivity has been rising</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">.
In this context, what has kept families afloat is the increased participation of women in the work force. Today, women’s participation rate in the labour force is 57%,
</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/womens-databook/2016/pdf/home.pdf"><span lang="EN" style="color:blue">up from 38% in 1960</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">In Latin America, too, the proportion of households where women are the main earner has increased, rising
from 28% in 2002 to 32% in 2014. Women’s greater financial autonomy has </span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><a href="http://www2.unwomen.org/-/media/field%20office%20americas/documentos/publicaciones/2017/03/unw16017%20executive%20summary%20web%20eng.pdf?vs=5713"><span lang="EN" style="color:blue">strengthened
their voice and bargaining power within families</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">Again, though, the gender revolution has been truncated. In Mexico, Venezuela and Colombia, just to name
a few places where </span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><a href="http://interwp.cepal.org/sisgen/ConsultaIntegrada.asp?idIndicador=120&idioma=i"><span lang="EN" style="color:blue">female labour participation has jumped over
the past 25 years</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">, women have taken on more paid work while continuing to shoulder
</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><a href="http://www2.unwomen.org/-/media/field%20office%20americas/documentos/publicaciones/2017/03/unw16017%20executive%20summary%20web%20esp.pdf?vs=222"><span lang="EN" style="color:blue">the
lion’s share of unpaid care and domestic work</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">. This often leaves them with little time for self-care, rest and leisure.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">Women who struggle<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">There is a harsher flipside to female economic power: as women around the world assume both primary financial
and care responsibilities for their children, they are increasingly doing so in the absence of men.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">In many countries, the typical nuclear family (two parents living with their children) have become less
common. In the best case, this is happening because women are exercising real choice in how they set up their own families, and are choosing to do so solo.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">But frequently single parenting happens involuntarily. Women flee abusive husbands or are abandoned.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">Some are left behind when husbands unable to find work at home seek jobs elsewhere. In South Africa, for
example, which has a </span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-7660.2011.01715.x/pdf"><span lang="EN" style="color:blue">long history of male labour migration</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">,
a 2014 study found that only 35% of children lived with both parents; 41% lived with just their mothers and 21% lived with neither parent (even though 83% had
</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><a href="http://www.childrencount.org.za/indicator.php?id=1&indicator=2"><span lang="EN" style="color:blue">at least one living parent</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">In Zimbabwe, just 43% of children resided with both parents, and 25% lived with their mother only (in more
than 80% of cases the father was alive); in 29% of cases, neither parent was present. This tough situation probably reflects the country’s economic collapse and the large number of citizens who’ve
</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><a href="http://dhsprogram.com/pubs/pdf/FR322/FR322.pdf"><span lang="EN" style="color:blue">migrated to South Africa in search of a living</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">Whether South African and Zimbabwean women can maintain an adequate standard of living for themselves and
their dependants without a male partner is going to be a litmus test for the countries’ social protection systems and public services.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><img border="0" width="603" height="417" id="Picture_x0020_4" src="cid:image002.jpg@01D41AB5.1D9E66B0" alt="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169170/original/file-20170512-3672-1vcshvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip"></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">Refugees at a South African transit camp.
</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><a href="http://pictures.reuters.com/archive/SAFRICA-VIOLENCE---GF10000071540.html"><span lang="EN" style="color:blue">Philimon Bulawayo/Reuters</span></a></span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">
<span lang="EN"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">Evolving family structures do not present an inherent risk to society. The real danger lies in long hours
of poorly paid work that leaves little time for family life; households torn apart by conflict, forced migration and deportation; and perverse economic incentives that compel people to “choose” between home and a career.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">If governments embrace change and prove willing and able to support new and different household arrangements,
then modern families can become engines of empowerment. We just have to try.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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