Economy

Women entrepreneurs are now a key focus in many developmental issues as a way to amply their numbers in the business world. The International Finance Corporation plans to help at least 400 women owned enterprises in Kenya to access credit by 2011.

In a partnership deal with the African Development Bank formalised in 2006, the private leading arm of the World Bank through the Growth Oriented Woman Enterprise programme, Gowe has so far approved 28 loan applications.

"Gowe helps women owned businesses grow by providing financing guarantees of up to $ 400,000 about Sh 32 million. Under the programme, 117 women entrepreneurs have been trained," said Ms Makena Mwiti, Senior Gender Co-ordinator-Africa Gender Enterprise Markets GEM.

The highest-paid men working for the state of Iowa make significantly more money than the best-paid women, a Gazette analysis of state data has found.

The median salary of the 499 highest-paid male employees was nearly $235,600 in the fiscal year that ended June 30. That's well above the $140,900 median salary of the top 499 female state employees.

"Wow," was the reaction of Rachel Scott, executive director of the Iowa Commission on the Status of Women.

Furthermore, the gap has increased by 20 percent in the past four years. (See chart.) Of the 100 highest-paid employees, 86 are men.

The governor's office said that the administration is "committed to ensuring that all people are paid an equal salary for equal work."

It noted that Culver signed an executive order creating the Governor's Diversity Council to address issues of inequity in state government. The administration will give careful consideration to the council's recommendations to improve gender pay equity, the office said.

It's an argument unlikely to win many friends among gender equality campaigners, but men earn more money than women not because they are inherently favoured in the workplace but because they work longer hours, put in the overtime, go out of their way to seek higher pay and promotion and don't stop working to have families.

The gender pay gap appears to be widening with men now earning 32% more than women, figures showed.

Age also remains a substantial factor in pay disparities, with the average 49-year-old paid nearly £10,000 more than the national average full-time wage of £27,376.

Reforms of public pension programs have been a top social policy priority in a great number of countries around the world over the last decades. The increasing recognition of the implications of demographic changes, awareness of income insecurity in old age, the desire to ensure financial sustainability of pension systems and concerns about the management of public schemes were some of the concerns driving reform debates.

The design of pension schemes differs greatly among countries around the world. How pension schemes look like depends crucially on choices made about system elements, including membership criteria (voluntary vs. mandatory), management of the scheme (public vs. private), possible income-policy or other social goals embodied in pension systems (insurance and equivalence vs. redistribution), the financing method used (funded vs. pay-as-you-go), and procedures for determining the size of a future pension benefit (defined benefit vs. defined contribution schemes). As most national pension systems are comprised of more than one tier, combinations of system elements are found in many cases.

This paper draws on surveys carried out in five Asian countries (India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Thailand, and Philippines) where home-based work (HBW) is widespread. It examines characteristics of home workers and, in particular, conditions of women as home workers. The social protection needs of these women are also examined, and arguments in favour of public action to promote such work as a possible new labour-intensive growth strategy are presented.

In Latin American and Caribbean countries, poverty and inequality have been long-standing problems, and the momentous economic and social policy changes over the past two decades have done little to correct these trends. The most effective means for reducing class- and gender-based poverty and inequality would be citizenship-based entitlements to basic (i.e. allowing basic subsistence) income support, health care, and education. In advanced industrial societies, public spending is an extremely important instrument for the alleviation of class- and gender-based poverty and inequality, and it could potentially play a similar role in Latin America and the Caribbean. However, responsible, that is, non-inflationary financing of such programs, requires a sound system of taxation, something that is scarce in developing countries, including in Latin America and the Caribbean. Systems of taxation on their part have important implications for class and gender equity. This chapter explores changes in the systems of taxation in four Latin American and Caribbean countries - Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, and Jamaica - from the point of view of their gendered impact.

As women's groups and political activists intensify their global campaign for gender empowerment, there is a growing trend towards "gender budgeting" both among developed and developing nations.

Rawwida Baksh, team leader of Women's Rights and Citizenship at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Canada, told IPS the concept of "gender-responsive budgeting" has been in currency since the mid-1980s.

The Australian government was the first to introduce gender budgeting in 1984, followed by Canada in 1993 and South Africa in 1994. Since then, some 50 countries worldwide have adopted some form of gender-responsive budgeting, she said.

According to some estimates, the figure may be over 60 to 70 countries which have specifically earmarked gender-related funds in their respective national budgets.

Women's contribution to social and economic activities does not necessarily lead to any changes in their home duties, the result of a new study by a faculty member of Allameh Tabatabaii University showed.

Conducted by Zohreh Khosravi under the theme of "studying family problems", the research clarified that women, regardless of their social status, working hours, and income rate take on the majority of duties at home by themselves.

"Today, women's employment has changed their viewpoint on sharing home chores and managing the family's economy", the report added.

Half of the women studied in the research believe in sharing responsibilities. And a great percentage of them spend their total income for everyday family expenses.