There is evidence that policy-makers in most Western welfare states are moving towards a new set of assumptions about the contributions that men and women make to families, based on an adult worker model. This paper first examines this shift in policy assumptions at the EU level and goes on to argue that there are real limits to the pursuit of a full adult worker model based on the commodification of care. In respect of gender equality, this in turn raises the issue of the terms and conditions on which such a shift in policy assumptions are made, particularly about the valuing and sharing of the unpaid work of care. The final part of the paper examines the possibilities offered by the capabilities approach of addressing these issues.

http://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BCCF9/(httpAuxPages)/BB78CF0F20C2104FC1256FF6002BA3F5/$file/giullari.pdf

The adult worker model family, gender equality and care: the search for new policy principles and the possibilities and problems of a capabilities approach

How is gender implicated in our exploration of health disparities in Canada? Set against the backdrop of federal government policy, this review paper examines the ways in which gender intersects with other health determinants to produce disparate health outcomes An overview of salient issues including the impact of gender roles, environmental exposures, gender violence, workplace hazards, economic disparities, the costs of poverty, social marginalization and racism, aging, health conditions, interactions with health services, and health behaviours are considered This review suggests health is detrimentally affected by gender roles and statuses as they intersect with economic disparities, cultural, sexual, physical and historical marginalization as well as the strains of domestic and paid labour These conditions result in an unfair health burden borne in particular by women whose access to health determinants is--in various degrees--limited While progress has certainly been made on some fronts, the persistence of health disparities among diverse populations of women and men suggests a postponement of the vision of a just society with health for all that was articulated in the Federal Plan on Gender Equality Commitment, creativity and collaboration from stakeholders ranging from various levels of government, communities, academics, non-governmental agencies and health professionals will be required to reduce and eliminate health disparities between and among all members of our society

Engendering health disparities.

The roles of the Edinburgh, Kelso, and Newcastle dispensaries in charitable relief, 1776-1810

Although South Africa's democracy is only ten years old, the country has one of the most extensive welfare systems of any developing country in the world. The Constitution provides a right to social security. A monthly grant (the Child Support Grant) paid to the primary caregiver of every poor child under the age of 14 is reaching millions of children. However, the introduction of this grant coincided with the loss of a previous grant paid to the parents of the child. In South Africa today there is no financial support for parents themselves and no recognition of or compensation for their caring work. The grant has helped many mothers to feed and school their children and may also have improved their own status in some ways. At the same time, many young mothers have come under attack by being accused of becoming pregnant to access the grant and of abusing the payments. While the roll out of the grant has been very successful, problems remain in its implementation that create barriers to access fo...

Gender and social assistance in the first decade of democracy: A case study of South Africa's Child Support Grant

This paper explores the opportunities for and the benefits of considering gender in municipal waste management (MWM) policy. Two case studies in Ireland and the UK are presented. These show that the structural mechanisms for achieving a more consistent and coherent approach to ensuring that MWM policy is sensitive to gender differences and inequalities are still weak. They also show that political structures and champions for gender equality and equal opportunities make a difference to the way in which women are involved and considered in MWM policy making. The research is set within the broader context of environmental justice which, to date, has been more concerned with race, ethnicity and wealth inequalities than with gender inequalities.

Wasting women: The environmental justice of including women in municipal waste management

While the Government has developed strategies to combat poverty, especially for children and pensioners, there is no strategy to challenge women’s poverty specifi cally. This project set out to support women living in poverty so that they could go beyond being ‘witnesses’ to poverty to become actively involved in policy development. It allowed them to develop ideas to improve their lives and better understand how policy is made. The project’s aims were:

Women and Poverty

Background: Primary health care (PHC) is the bedrock of our National Health Policy. PHC has two components: Community level and Primary health care facility level. Universal Health Cover cannot be achieved without significant investment in the community level component. Hitherto, the community component of PHC remains a neglected area of PHC program. CHIPS, a community-based programme was designed to allow traditional institution to select individuals who will administer basic medical needs and referring people in their communities to designated medical facilities when necessary. Method: This is a cross-sectional descriptive community-based study that was conducted among community health workers in Nkanu West and Awgu Local Government Areas of Enugu State Nigeria using self-administered questionnaire. Convenience sampling technique was used to select community health workers in the two local government areas. Results: 77.4% of the study population were not aware of the program. 26.9% are of the opinion that the families in the communities will welcome the idea of home visits. 23.3% perceived the implementation process to be slow, there was poor community awareness (22.0%), poor community participation (19.3%) and no community mobilization (19.3%) yet. Conclusion: From our study, the response rate on how best to organize CHIPS and the challenges it may face, is low. The striking thing is that the challenges of the past community health workers are still that of the present. So it is of utmost importance to constructively look at the content of the planning, implementation and its evaluation, and then draw strength from the weaknesses of the already existing community health programs.

/pdf/knowledge-perception-and-feasibility-of-community-health-1iqbmttm.pdf

Knowledge, Perception and Feasibility of Community Health Influencers, Promoters and Service (CHIPS) Program Among Community Health Workers in Nkanu West and Awgu Local Government Areas, Enugu State, Nigeria

Carlos Ani

Papers

Women and Poverty

Knowledge, Perception and Feasibility of Community Health Influencers, Promoters and Service (CHIPS) Program Among Community Health Workers in Nkanu West and Awgu Local Government Areas, Enugu State, Nigeria