The Observatory of Gender and Poverty at a glance: an example of the efforts to produce

Gender Statistics in México (http://ogp.colmex.mx/)

Elements on the construction of the Observatory on gender and poverty

• The different way in which women and men live and experience poverty

• Traditional poverty measures using household as a unit of analysis, make poverty invisible at the individual level.

• Other important bias: poverty on individuals is

not exclusive of poor households.

Issues considered on the elaboration of the observatory

• Deeper analysis of income measures and poverty lines

• Elaboration of indicators from household surveys.

Household as a unit of analysis for poverty measures

• Usually the household is considered as a harmonic unit, free of conflicts.

• Power conflicts are not taken into account.• Asymmetric relationship is missed out

• Poverty affects household members, but poverty measures cannot be restricted to this.

Gender inequality and female subordination as a bench mark

– Because of their accumulated effects, their existence deepen the consequences of poverty

– As poverty is not gender neutral, they

affect all poverty dimensions

– They are deeply rooted in prejudices and discrimination against women

Less access to resources

Offering tools

• Quantitatively – Scarcity of data on poverty

disaggregated by sex and of variables from a gender

perspective

• Qualitatively – Scarcity of data on how men and

women live and perceive poverty

(experiences and perceptions)

► Main reasons ►Conjunctural and immediate reasons

The Observatory of Gender and Poverty

General objective– Offering inputs (new knowledge) for design,

follow-up and evaluation of policy on poverty eradication

Specific objective - To produce, systematize, analyze and

disseminate information of poverty from a gender perspective

Sample of a survey (ENCELURB) carried out for evaluation of the National Programme on Poverty

“Oportunidades”

Hogares c/Oportunidades

s/Oportunidades

Observatorio Género y Pobreza (piezas de información)

Quantitative data from regular data sources

Poor within “Oportunidades”

Households outside “Oportunidades”

Household survey “Observatorio”

Deep interviews, focal groups, lexicon tests

•Households income and expenditure surveys (ENIGH’s)

• Evaluation Survey “Oportunidades”

•Time use survey, 2002

• Survey on violence against women 2003

•National Health survey, 2000- 2006

• Census Sample, 2000

• Sample of Indigenous “Census”, 2000

• National labor surveys

Observatory on gender and poverty (pieces of information)

Observatory on gender and poverty Series (Publications)

Wide dissemination of information through the Web

Site

Other publications (booklets, brochures,

etc)

Dissemination of information

Modules on: • gender and poverty indicators• surveys including poverty issues• consultation of qualitative data• various research papers on the Observatory

Results

Some examples on the potential use of the Observatory

Conflict

¿ Is the delivery of monetary support directly to women of

“Oportunidades” the cause of gender violence?

This is a basic question of the survey on violence and decision making 2004 (Observatory)

Sceneries: delivery of monetary support directly to women of Oportunidades may cause:

• Exacerbation of conflict between the couple

• Exacerbation of violence already present before the implementation of Oportunidades

•The level and manifestation of conflict is maintained without changes

• Decrease of some aspects of manifestation of violence among the couple.

Resolution without taking violence into account

Resolution taking violence into account

This question was addressed only to women with “Oportunidades” reporting some situation of violence: The situation of violence increased, decreased or was

it the same with the arrival of the Program “Oportunidades”? (

6.2 30.4 63.5

7.2 24.4 68.4

8 29.3 62.7

7.1 31.8 61.1

8.6 21.8 69.5

9.8 28.5 61.8

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Insultado

Amenzado con golpearla

Threatening

Beating or punching her

Subtract her money

Demanded sexualintercourse

aumentó disminuyó igual

A higher percentage (20%-30%) answered that the situation of violence decreased at the arrival of Oportunidades

100% time

Poor women (rural) 22.4 hrs

Non poor women 12 hrs

6 hours grinding corn

2 hours making fire

Cooking meals

1 hour Collecting wood

Fuente: Orozco Mónica, (2005) based on ENUT, 2002

The time of preparing meals increases mainly with the chores of preparing the corn dough and making fire

Household infrastructure saves time and efforts

Hours saved during the week

3 3

1

7

Stove Micro-waves refrigerator Total

Fuente: Orozco Mónica, (2005) based on ENUT, 2002

78.9

60.1

88.6

77.2

20.9

39.7

11.3

22.6

0.0

25.0

50.0

75.0

100.0

Non poor Poor Non poor Poor

Knowing read and write Not knowing read and write

Fuente: Cálculos propios del Observatorio de Género y Pobreza, a partir de la Muestra Censal 2000, INEGI.

Mujeres Hombres

Población indígena de 15 años por sexo según condición de analfabetismoIlliterate indigenous women: poor and non-poor, 2000

Research on the Observatory

• Lines of research and improvement of analytical and data basis– Effect of affirmative actions toward girls– Time use relationship (poverty of time or

overburden of work)– To create a space for expert thinking on the

issue of gender mainstreaming in the official measures of poverty

– Incorporate indigenous poverty as a research issue

• Maintaining production of basic knowledge for social policy, particularly regarding poverty eradication from a gender perspective

• Promotion of research and deepening on the mechanisms that are generating and reproducing situations of deprivation and vulnerability on women

• To move towards a new vision on the measurement of

women’s poverty.

What’s coming up?

Thank you!