International Women’s Day
‘One woman can have an infinite impact – it’s up to all of us to support her’
Hawa Abdalnabi received training and joined the Village Savings & Loans Association (VSLA) in Sudan, where she learned how to save money and start a successful small business. Ala kheir/CARE
Picture a rural and remote region in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, where village life is shaped by traditional and conservative norms that have historically meant that women miss out on economic participation. Against this backdrop, Barbara Grantham, president and CEO, CARE Canada, recently met a participant of the organization’s Women’s Empowerment through Sustainable Entrepreneurship (WESE) project.
“I asked one of the entrepreneurs to tell me about her business,” Ms. Grantham recalls. “She said, ‘I realized that when we needed underwear, all the women in the village had to buy these items from men – and there was no place to try them on.”
The woman found a supplier of lingerie products in Casablanca and, with the support of CARE Canada, opened a shop with a fitting room in her house. The idea to buy intimate apparel from a female-led enterprise resonated widely and this, in turn, made the business profitable.
“I thought, wow, what a rewarding feeling to be part of that success,” says Ms. Grantham. “With Canadian support and investment, we helped give women in these villages skills in entrepreneurship and financial literacy as well as create small co-operative savings and loans groups.”
For well over two decades, CARE Canada’s mandate has included a strong gender equality lens, with special emphasis on safety, health and economic empowerment. The goal is to effect meaningful change by ensuring “women have a seat at the table,” she says. “The data clearly shows that when we invest in women – whether it's in their education, health, safety or economic independence – this has a multiplier effect.”
However, due to persistent gaps and barriers, “we know that women don't have the same access to resources and opportunities as men, and this means half of humanity is not achieving its full potential,” Ms. Grantham explains. “Not only does that gap have real consequences for women but it has broader implications for serious challenges like poverty, hunger, insecurity and instability.
“So, our goal is to give women opportunities to be at the decision-making table, because we know that this will result in communities being better off.”
For a woman to take a leadership role, three things are required: “She needs to be safe, she needs to be healthy, and she needs a dignified livelihood,” says Ms. Grantham. “In many places around the world, these three basic conditions are not being met, for example, due to discriminatory laws, policies and societal norms or, in some cases, because of conflicts, humanitarian crises or natural disasters.”
CARE Canada, an organization with a global reach and a track record of nearly eight decades, has developed a robust and comprehensive toolkit, yet Ms. Grantham emphasizes that “it is important not to think of this work as a well-resourced country taking tools into lower-resourced regions.
“It's about listening and working with local leaders, NGOs, women's rights organizations and community-based partners, who are familiar with the needs in the community,” she says. “Our job is to collaborate with them – and contribute tools and resources that can help community members address whatever challenges they face.”
In some situations, this means ensuring women have access to health care and education that can help ensure the health and well-being of families and children, says Ms. Grantham. “In other scenarios, this involves providing financial literacy education and financial tools through co-operatives so women can start and sustain businesses.”
In other settings, CARE Canada’s efforts are focused on food security. “Globally, 80 per cent of small farm holders are women,” she notes. “Giving them skills in the fundamentals around farm management, including implementing crop rotation and building climate change resilience, can make a big difference to their yields and long-term stability of their farms.”
While there are wide differences in local needs and approaches, outcomes tend to be impressive, says Ms. Grantham. “When one woman has the opportunity to reach her potential, this changes her life and the future of her family and community for the better.”
Encounters with the women supported by CARE Canada have underscored these powerful ripple effects. One example comes from a peri-urban area in Lusaka, Zambia, where a female vendor brings much-needed drugstore products, such as toothpaste, deodorant and family-planning supplies like condoms and birth control pills, to an underserved clientele.
“In these settings, it’s very difficult for a woman or girl to walk into a store and obtain these things,” says Ms. Grantham. “When I met this amazing woman who acts as community health worker and sells these products door to door, I asked how her family feels about her enterprise. She said, ‘Well, my husband was very resistant at first, but when he saw that we can send our children to school with the money I make, everything changed.’”
In this case, a CARE Canada program helps to broker access to supplies from large-scale companies to make them available at cost. “When women have tools and support that allow them to become change agents in their local communities, this creates the conditions where everyone has the opportunity to fully participate in society,” she says. “And this means everybody wins.”
Ms. Grantham’s message to Canadians on International Women’s Day is this: “One woman can have an infinite impact – whether it's in the village we call home or a village halfway around the world – and it’s up to all of us to support her.”
Why inclusion matters
The theme of the 2024 International Women’s Day is “inspire inclusion,” and advocates suggest that advancing equity and inclusion can be a powerful tool for addressing some of today’s most pressing concerns.
For example, closing the lifetime earnings gap between men and women could result in a “gender dividend” of US$172-trillion, according to the World Bank. Yet the challenges are considerable. Women currently have only 64 per cent of the legal rights that are available to men, and deep-rooted inequality limits their economic opportunities.
Women spend 2.8 more hours than men on unpaid care and domestic work globally. In addition, they continue to be over-represented in lower-paid jobs and sectors – and under-represented in positions with a greater earning potential. In developing countries, around 90 per cent (and globally about half) of women who work are in the informal economy, which is often precarious and more vulnerable.
In the paid workforce, women earn 20 per cent less than men on average – and in some countries, this gap is at 35 per cent. In the world of business, the gender gap is reflected in the number of established businesses led by women (32 per cent). Among those trying to start an enterprise, 20 per cent are women, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor.
Let’s change the status quo this International Women’s Day and beyond.
To view this report on The Globe's website, visit globeandmail.com
To view the full report as it appeared in The Globe's print edition International Women’s Day