Poverty can be defined as absolute, where people lack the basic resources to physically sustain life. On the other hand, the socio-economic context of the individual is considered in relation to what those around the individual have.
Gender refers to the social differences between men and women and how the social roles and responsibilities are assigned to each sex. Sex on the other hand refers to the biological and physical differences between men and women and these differences cannot change, whilst the gender differences can change and can vary between different cultures.
“I would like to further clarify that gender is not about women but about inequalities that exist between men and women because of the social differences that are gender bias to women. Women are therefore the disadvantaged group that has remained behind in most development areas and need to be elevated. Thus the campaign about gender inequalities and biases is a campaign for women”. These are explanations given by Sihle Anita Sibanda, a trainer consultant at the Gender and Development department, MDI on the impact of gender, poverty and subordination on women.
She further noted, “Women worldwide face gender inequalities in almost every sphere of life, although the degree of the inequalities may differ with women of the developing world being in a worse situation than their sisters in the developed world.
According to UNDP, (1998), “gender inequalities in the distribution of income, access to productive inputs such as credit, command over poverty or control over earnings, as well as gender biases in Labour that women face in a variety of economic and political institutions form the basis for the greater vulnerability of women to chronic poverty”.
Women in sub-Saharan Africa, The Gambia included, have not been spared this. The gender dimensions of poverty can be looked at under two perspectives:
i)Women have reduced for chances such as limited education and skills for women and lack of resources such as land and credit etc. ii) Women’s excessive work load and subordination i.e. the many roles of women and the division of Labour and all the disadvantages that subordination brings to women such as women’s inferior status to that of men, gender based violence such as when women are raped and beaten within their relationships or during armed and political conflicts etc.
ii)Women’s reduced chances: in The Gambia, the socio-cultural factors that impede women’s advancement and contribute to their poverty include the land tenure system, sex roles and responsibilities and forms of marriage (UNESCO, 2004). The culture, tradition, religion and laws all combine to push the girl child further into poverty. In poorer communities, the girl child faces reduced chances compared to the boy child. The girl life is predetermined and her chances of getting out of poverty cycle are often very limited. Her health needs may also not be given priority compared to the health needs of her brother.
At birth the girl child may be given an elderly and poor man as a husband whom she eventually marries at teen age, without having gone to school at all and therefore she continues to live in poverty. When money for school fees is not enough, only the boy child will be sent to school whilst the girl child stays at home working and making life more comfortable for the brother. This again puts the girl child on the road to poverty, since without any education, her chances of getting into the employment market would be limited or she may get low paying jobs. The boy child’s future is not predetermined as he gets the chance to go to school and improves his chances for a better life.
Girls that get the chance to go to school may be withdrawn after few years for various reasons that may range from lack of finances, early marriage or teenage pregnancy. (Whilst girls constitute 42.6% of enrolment at primary school, only 37% proceed to junior school and only 31% go to senior secondary school. Education for all, 2004).
Whatever the reason for being withdrawn from school, the girl would be drawn further into poverty when she denied any chances of schooling.
Girls who complete their schooling still face gender biases in subjects selection and this in a way limits them to a life of relative poverty where their qualifications are not much sought after and saturated in the employment market.