WIDER Annankatu 42 00100 HELSINKI FINLAND 1. Introduction (p.l) 2. Capabilities, well-being, agency and perceptions (p.6) 3. Social Technology, cooperation and conflicts (p.10) 4. Households economics, bargaining models and information bases (p.15) 5. Cooperative conflicts: Interests, contributions and perceptions (p.20) 6. Extended entitlements and perceived legitimacy (p.30) 7. Production, earnings and perceived contributions (p.37) 8. Well-being, agency and cooperative conflicts (p.42) 2 GENDER AND COOPERATIVE CONFLICTS*

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Gender and cooperative conflicts

http://pdfwww.china-up.com:8080/international/case/case/1296.pdf

Gender planning in the Third World: meeting practical and strategic gender needs.

Controversy exists over whether to target public- and private-sector programs to female-headed households in developing countries in the attempt to combat poverty and social disadvantage. The issues related to the definition and measurement of female headship and the importance of the concept for development policy are discussed. A systematic review is then presented of the empirical evidence on the relation between female headship and poverty. If female-headed households tend to be poorer on average than other households headship should seriously be considered as a potentially useful criterion for targeting antipoverty interventions especially in developing countries where means testing is not feasible. The authors examine the potential costs and benefits of targeting female headship and review the experience of Chile one of the few countries which has targeted female headship through government intervention and the only one which has evaluation data available. The analysis of the project experience is used along with a review of the empirical evidence to answer the question of the desirability and efficiency of targeting female headship in order to reduce poverty in developing countries.

Female-Headed Households and Female-Maintained Families: Are They Worth Targeting to Reduce Poverty in Developing Countries?

The question of women’s land rights has a relatively young history in India. This paper briefly traces that history before examining why gendering the land question remains critical, and what the new possibilities are for enhancing women’s land access. Potentially, women can obtain land through the State, the family and the market. The paper explores the prospects and constraints linked to each, arguing that access through the family and the market deserve particular attention, since most arable land in India is privatized. On market access, the paper makes several departures from existing discussions by focusing on the advantages, especially for poor women, of working in groups to lease in or purchase land; using government credit for land rather than merely for micro-enterprises; and collectively managing purchased or leased in land, the collectivity being constituted with other women, rather than with family members. Such group functioning is shown to have several advantages over individual or family-based farming. This approach could also help revive land reform, community cooperation and joint farming in a radically new form, one centred on poor women.

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Gender and Land Rights Revisited: Exploring New Prospects via the State, Family and Market

Household food security and child nutrition: the interaction of income and gender of household head

This study emphasizes the importance of female-headed households in developing societies in development planning. Micro-data (data on female-headed households is obscured at the macro-data level) on female-headed household are translated into aggregate data for 74 developing countries. Results of the analysis show that the average percentage of potential female-headed household is: 22% for sub Sahara Africa; 20% for C. America and the Caribbean; 16% for N. Africa and the Middle East; and 15% for S. America. Also included in this report is a separate case study of female households in the Caribbean which provided a model for generating data on female-headed household by way of national censuses and which focused on the disadvantaged position of women who are heads of household compared to the general female population and to the male-headed households. A review of international data on female-headed households indicates a direct relationship between modernization and rise of female-headed households. Further research should be encouraged to substantiate the common notion that explanatory factors for female family headship can be found in both internal/international migration; mechanization of agriculture; development of agribusiness; urbanization; overpopulation; lower class marginality; and emergence of a class system of wage labor. The international data strongly suggest that there is a direct linkage between female family headship and poverty. Women in developing societies are increasingly becoming the sole or main breadwinner for their families; almost all are not prepared for the role. Specific economic policies directed to such women in developing societies may prove helpful in the struggle against poverty.

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Papers

Women-headed households: the ignored factor in development planning.