Sylvia Chant and Cathy McIlwaine
THE TOPIC
Sylvia Chant and Cathy McIlwaine
Gendered urban prosperity and women’s empowerment in 21st
century cities
Abstract
While urban prosperity has been identified as a major issue in recent debates about
cities, this paper argues that this must be conceptualised not only in terms of enhancing
productivity and generating wealth, but also in addressing equity, equality and
participation of which the gendered dimensions of cities are central. It outlines why it is
important to take gender in account when trying to foster urban prosperity and why this
must also entail consideration of women‟s empowerment in cities in social and political
as well as economic terms. In reflecting these arguments, the paper provides a
conceptual framework for understanding the intersections between the gendered nature
of urban prosperity and women‟s empowerment. This is built on an empirical discussion
of the core elements underpinning urban prosperity in relation to conceptualisations of
empowerment as well as a discussion of importance of generating gender-equity through
exercising formal and informal rights and an outline of the ways on which policies
might address gender inequalities in cities. Ultimately, the paper argues that while proprosperity measures are important in generating urban prosperity, these must address
underlying unequal gendered power relations and issues of social justice that are
necessary in order to bring about true empowerment for women in cities today and in
the future.
Key-words: Gender, women, empowerment, cities, prosperity
Introduction
Urban prosperity has been identified as a major issue in recent debates about cities,
especially from a policy perspective as evidenced in UN-HABITAT‟s (2012a) State of
the World’s Cities 2012/13. Here, the prosperity of cities is conceptualised not only in
terms of enhancing productivity and generating income and wealth, but also in
addressing equity, equality and participation of which the gendered dimensions of cities
are central (p.14). This paper outlines the reasons why it is important to take gender in
account when trying to foster urban prosperity and why this must also entail
consideration of women‟s empowerment in cities. In turn, just as urban prosperity needs
to acknowledge processes beyond wealth-creation so too does the notion of women‟s
empowerment in relation to the economic growth of cities need to recognise the social
and political dimensions. In reflecting these arguments, the paper provides a conceptual
framework for understanding the intersections between the gendered nature of urban
prosperity and women‟s empowerment. This is built on an empirical discussion of the
core elements underpinning the gendered nature of urban prosperity in relation to
conceptualisations of empowerment as well as a discussion of importance of generating
gender-equity through exercising formal and informal rights and an outline of the ways
on which policies might address gender inequalities in cities. The paper suggests that
although women in „prosperous‟ cities may well achieve more equality with men, and
Gendered urban prosperity and women‟s empowerment in 21st century cities
the female (and male) working poor are likely to be able to pursue their livelihoods
alongside more formal economic activities, paying specific attention to women‟s
empowerment in a holistic manner underpinned by issues of social justice is essential
in making cities sustainable and equitable in the longer term.
Why is it important to engender urban prosperity?
There are four main reasons why it is essential to take gender, and especially the
experiences of women into account in relation to the prosperity of cities. First, with just
over half of the world‟s population living in cities today, nearly all future demographic
growth will be urban and occur in the Global South and will comprise a majority female
component. Cities of the future, especially in the developing world will be marked by
feminised urban sex ratios and pronounced in „older‟ cohorts, especially the „older old‟
(over 80 years). There will also be growing numbers of households headed by women
(Chant and McIlwaine, 2009: Chapter 3). For example, between the late 1980s and end
of the first decade of the 21st century, female-headed households as a proportion of all
urban households increased by a mean of 9.8 percentage points (Chant, 2007a; Momsen,
2010).
Second, there are many conditions in cities that exacerbate poverty and which have
gendered implications. The urban poor face particular circumstances which can
exacerbate poverty. For example, they spend a disproportionate amount on water,
accommodation and transport and are especially affected by changes in food prices. The
urban poor also face many practical and health problems due to lack of adequate
sanitation and services. These conditions affect women disproportionately because they
undertake unpaid caring and social reproductive activities, as well as building and
consolidating housing and providing basic services and infrastructure. All these tasks
allow the urban economy to function and prosper, even if this labour is not recognised
or valued (Chant, 2011a, b; 2013a; Perrons, 2010; Tacoli, 2012).
Third, women make crucially important economic contributions to the „prosperity of
cities‟ through their paid work (Kabeer, 2008a, b). Indeed, the „feminisation‟ of the
global labour force tends to be associated with urbanisation linked with the
concentration of women in export-manufacturing, the service sector and ICT (Standing,
1999). This can have other important ramifications for women such as declining
fertility, increasing education levels and rising aspirations. It has been suggested that
women are key drivers of economic growth and that wealth in the hands of women leads
to much more equitable outcomes in terms of the quality of life of families and
communities. As such, „women are a city‟s greatest asset, and contribute heavily to
sustainable urban development‟ (UN-HABITAT, 2012b: 2)
Finally, women are usually disadvantaged compared with men in cities in terms of
equal access to working and living conditions, health and education, asset ownership,
experiences of urban violence, and ability to exercise their rights (World Bank, 2012).
These disadvantages are especially marked for poor urban women residing in slums
settlements. In addition, women‟s contributions are often ignored, especially by city
officials, urban planners and development practitioners (Beall, 2010; Moser, 2010).
The need to address urban prosperity from a gendered perspective also complements
broader policy agendas for gender-equitable development which have been promoted by
major organisations within the UN system, other multilateral and bilateral institutions,
national governments, international and national NGOs, and grassroots women‟s
movements since the UN Decade for Women (1975-1985), as well as aiming to progress
the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (see Benavides Llerena et al,
2007; Patel and Mitlin, 2010).
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Addressing the barriers to women‟s participation in cities creates a situation where
women‟s potential is more fully realised and households, communities and governments
also reap rewards. It is imperative that women and men should enjoy equal rights and
opportunities in cities. There is thus a moral, economic, political and policy rationale to
examine gender inequalities in urban settings and to explore how to effectively address
them (Chant, 2011a). Addressing such inequalities is also essential in bringing about
women‟s empowerment and especially their economic empowerment. This will not only
engender women‟s well-being but it will increase their individual and collective
prosperity as well as the prosperity of the cities where they reside. In order to consider
these issues more systematically, the paper now outlines the conceptual framework
proposed for understanding urban prosperity and gender in relation to economic
empowerment.
Conceptual framing I: the gendering of urban prosperity
There is clear evidence that prosperous cities are those linked with positive rates of
economic growth and material wealth. This relates to the fact that almost three-quarters
(70 per cent) of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) across the world is generated in cities
and that cities are often the economic powerhouses of nations. Yet urbanisation and
prosperity do not automatically go hand-in-hand as economic growth does not always
„trickle down‟ to guarantee equity in terms of well-being, especially in relation to access
to basic services, employment and housing (Chant and Datu, 2011a, b; Satterthwaite,
2007). Indeed, urbanisation has created widespread poverty, inequality, poor living
conditions and insecurity and violence for many people in cities (UNFPA, 2007; also
Jones and Corbridge, 2008). This is especially the case for those residing in slum
communities in the Global South.
Yet, it is now generally accepted that the spatial concentration and proximity
characterising cities remain central in the creation of economic, social and cultural
prosperity (Beall, 2010). Therefore, a prosperous city needs to foster economic growth,
wealth and well-being of the people from a multidimensional perspective that extends
beyond income (Chant, 2007a, 2008; Moser, 2006, 2009). As part of this, everyone
should have „rights‟ to the city (Lefebvre, 1986; Harvey, 2008). This shift towards
greater social inclusivity and equality also means that a „prosperous city‟ is a space
where women and men should enjoy equal rights and opportunities (UN-HABITAT,
2010c: 7). Therefore, as more inclusive cities are good for growth, gender equality can
make even cities „smarter‟ with gender-aware and fair „smart growth‟ also demanding
„smart management‟ (Tsenkova, 2007).
A „holistic‟ concept of the prosperity of cities is thus especially appropriate in respect
of gender. This is because of the importance of recognising the multidimensional inputs
women invest in generating urban prosperity which is juxtaposed with the
multidimensional privations they face. Recent analyses of „gendered poverty‟, and more
particularly the so-called „feminisation of poverty‟ have illustrated that women‟s
poverty cannot be encapsulated by income alone (Chant, Ed., 2010; Johnsson-Latham,
2004). Alternative formulations, such as the „feminisation of responsibility and/or
obligation‟ advanced by Chant (2007a, 2008) for example, have stressed the importance
of labour, time and assets, and the fact that privation is by no means primarily or
exclusively associated with female household headship (see also Moser, 2010). As
further noted by UNRISD (2010:108):
„The relationship between poverty and gender is complex because it is placed at the intersection of at
least three sets of institutions: labour markets, which differentially structure and reward female labour;
Gendered urban prosperity and women‟s empowerment in 21st century cities
households, where decisions are made about the allocation and distribution of resources, including labour
and earnings, and where labour itself is (re)produced; and states, which through a constantly changing
mix of regulatory and provisioning roles, change the broader policy environment within which the other
two institutions operate‟.
Despite considerable theoretical advances in understanding gendered poverty (see
Chant, ed., 2010), and notwithstanding long-standing calls to „en-gender‟ urban analysis
and policy (e.g. Chant, 2007b), the field of conceptualising gender in relation to urban
prosperity is much less established. This is possibly because women are more often the
„losers‟ rather than „winners‟ in urban environments. However, thinking about gender
in relation to prosperity arguably provides a sharper focus on the hiatus between
women‟s inputs to and outcomes from the wealth-generating possibilities of cities.
Conceptualising the gendered nature of urban prosperity therefore involves
interactions across a range of spheres and processes in cities. The framework outlined in
Figure 1 analyses these issues through identifying the critical elements in
conceptualising gender and the prosperity of cities (Chant, 2011a). Especially important
in relation to the notion of gender disparities are the pervasive inequalities that exist
between women and men in relation to their access to resources, power, opportunities
and freedom of movement. These revolve around the following: gender and urban
demographics, gender divisions of labour in the urban economy, gender disparities in
human capital; gender gaps in physical and financial capital/assets, gender disparities in
space, mobility and connectivity, and gender disparities in power and rights. As
identified in Figure 1, all the elements intersect in complex ways.
Figure 1: Core elements in conceptualising gender and urban prosperity
Source: adapted from Chant (2011a)
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Sylvia Chant and Cathy McIlwaine
Core elements in conceptualising gender and urban prosperity
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It is worth briefly outlining these core elements in more depth as they underpin our
understanding of how the gendering of nature of urban prosperity functions.
A range of demographic factors play an important part in contextualising women‟s
lives within urban environments. A key process is the relationship between the
demographic transition and urbanisation of which an important aspect is lower fertility
levels in cities. The latter is generally regarded as a central dimension in women‟s
empowerment (Dyson, 2010; UNFPA, 2007). However, despite lower Total Fertility
Rates (TFRs) in urban rather than rural areas, access to adequate contraception is
uneven with the result that fertility is higher among poorer groups in slums than in
wealthier urban neighbourhoods. In Bangladesh, for example, where an estimated 27 per
cent of the population is urban, the TFR in slums is 2.5 (just under the national rate of
2.6). compared with 1.9 in non-slum settlements (Chant, 2011a).
These disparities are rooted in a range of factors including lack of information on
reproductive health, unmet needs for family planning and an above-average incidence of
early pregnancy and marriage in slums. Similar patterns exist in a range of other
countries for which data are available, and also show that this is often associated with
early school drop-out among girls, which undoubtedly plays a part in perpetuating
gender gaps in urban prosperity (Chant, 2011a). These gaps are also underpinned by
social relations in that women may be denied rights to use birth control where paternity
is socially important to men. The ability of young women to exert control over their
fertility is particularly affected by disparities between their own age and economic status
and those of male partners on whom they may rely for support. In addition, children are
an important economic, social, and emotional resource for poor urban residents, as well
as a means of women legitimising their „female‟ identities, all of which have
implications for women‟s empowerment (Chant and Touray, 2012).
As noted earlier, many cities in the developing world have a predominantly or
growing population of women. Feminised urban sex ratios reflect the cumulative
gender-selectivity of rural-urban migration, with Latin America standing out as a region
in which more women than men have moved to towns and cities over the past several
decades, along with some countries in Southeast Asia such as Thailand and Viet Nam
(Chant, 1998; Chant and McIlwaine, 2009, p.86-7). Even in regions such as sub-Saharan
Africa and South Asia‟ where female migration to cities has been less marked have
witnessed recent upward trends (Tacoli and Mabala, 2010). This stems from rural
women‟s cumulative disadvantage in land acquisition and inheritance coupled with
economic deterioration in the countryside (Tacoli, 2010). Also important have been
women who are HIV-positive moving to access medical treatment in urban areas, as
well as to avoid stigmatisation, escape domestic violence and a range of other „harmful
traditional practices‟ such as Female Genital Cutting (FGC) (Chant and Touray, 2012 on
The Gambia).
Partly linked with these migration patterns, and noted above, has been the increasing
aging of urban populations driven by elderly women in particular, and dramatically so
among the „older old‟ (>80 years). In sub-Saharan African and Latin American
countries, „older old‟ women outnumber their male counterparts by nearly two to one,
while in those in East Asia the ratio is nearly 150 to 100. Even in India, where the ratio
is significantly lower, the older old cohort is still distinctly feminised. Given a common
association between advanced age and poverty, especially among women, this
phenomenon effectively undermines urban prosperity (Chant, 2011a).
Gendered urban prosperity and women‟s empowerment in 21st century cities
Another important phenomenon is the prevalence of female-headed households in
towns and cities especially in countries with „feminised‟ urban sex ratios. In Latin
America for example, there have been dramatic rises in urban female household
headship over the past twenty years. Between the late 1980s and end of the first decade
of the 21st century, female-headed households as a proportion of all urban households
increased by a mean of 9.8 percentage points. For example, in Costa Rica, research has
shown that female household headship in urban areas has reached 27% compared with
16% in rural areas (see Chant, 2007a). Similarly, in Ecuador, 28% of urban households
are headed by women as against 21.5% in rural areas (Benavides Llerena et al, 2007:
1.2). The tendency for female headed households to be more prevalent in cities is not
just a demographic phenomenon, but is linked with a wide range of economic and social
factors associated with urban environments. These include greater access to employment
and independent earnings, lessened entanglement in and control by patriarchal kinship
systems, and higher levels of urban female land and property ownership (Bradshaw,
1995; Chant, 1998).
Again, as noted up front, the health of urban economies owes as much to the unpaid
„reproductive‟ labour such as childcare, caring for the sick, disabled and elderly,
washing, cleaning and community organising that falls disproportionately on women‟s
shoulders at household and community levels as to the more valued remunerated work
where men‟s labour is concentrated and which is registered in GDP and in the System of
National Accounts (SNA) (Perrons, 2010; Razavi, 2007: 4-5). Although women across
the Global South are increasingly engaging in paid as well as unpaid activities, this has
not been matched by an increase in domestic labour and unpaid care work among men
(Chant, 2007a; ECLAC, 2004). These inequities are effectively a „reproduction tax‟
(Palmer, 1992) on women which undermines their productivity gains and ability to
benefit from and contribute to „urban prosperity‟.
A combination of gender discrimination and the persistent relationship between
women and unpaid tasks means that women‟s labour in the marketplace is invariably
accorded lower value regardless of the work itself (Perrons, 2010; Perrons and Plomien,
2010). In addition, women‟s paid work tends to be informal rather than formal and
home-based. Their informal activities are also of a smaller, less capitalised scale than
men‟s income-generating ventures and almost always with lower remuneration (Chant
and Pedwell, 2008; Chen, 2010). There is also widespread „segmentation by sex‟ within
urban labour markets associated with wage gaps and other forms of inequality such as
uneven access to health insurance and pensions between women and men which are
determined by a combination of social and gender norms and market forces (Heintz,
2010).
These patterns and processes directly influence the extent to which paid employment
empowers women. On one hand, are those who suggest that women are fairly uniformly
exploited by their incorporation into labour markets. On the other hand, are those who
have argued that women‟s paid employment is emancipatory and fairly uniformly
positive. The reality is somewhere in between and it depends on the context, place, type
of work, life course, and the interplay between working conditions and wider social
relations (Chant and McIlwaine, 1995 on the Philippines). Of critical importance is
whether work is „alienating or fulfilling‟, at home or outside home. It is the type of work
that is significant in terms of empowerment rather than labour force involvement in
itself, as well as a commensurate redistribution of unpaid reproductive labour to men at
the household level (Kabeer, 2008a, b) (see also below).
The other critical element in conceptualising gender and urban prosperity is human
capital development. Gender disparities in human capital not only influence women‟s
participation in labour markets but also economic growth overall (World Bank, 2012, p.
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210). Human capital is also an integral aspect of „personhood‟, affecting women‟s
general capacities, their self-esteem and their ability to exert agency. Educated women,
on average, delay marriage and childbirth, are less vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, enjoy more
power in their homes and in public arenas, and have fewer children who themselves also
tend to be healthier and better educated (Lloyd, 2009). Therefore, women‟s
accumulation of human capital is integral in contributing to the wider prosperity of
cities as well as their own well-being.
However, in terms of Millennium Development Goal 2, while improvements in
primary school education have been substantial in many countries, they have not been
sufficient to meet the goal of universal primary education by 2015. Empirical work
from Delhi, for example, which harbours one the largest disparities in urban India,
shows that the gap is 19 per cent for children aged 6-17 years in general and in Nigeria,
slum dwelling children are up to 35 per cent less likely to attend school than their nonslum counterparts. These disparities tend to grow up the educational hierarchy and again
impede the prosperity of all in cities (Chant, 2011a).
In relation to gender gaps in physical and financial assets, land and property
constitute another fundamental element in contributing to women‟s unequal shares of
urban prosperity. In most parts of the world women‟s access to these major assets is
compromised through male-biased inheritance, discriminatory titling procedures, female
disenfranchisement on death or desertion by spouses, or separation and divorce, and
male control of property (Chant, 2012a; Hughes and Wickeri, 2011; Moser, 2010). The
location and quality of land and housing can have major effects on the lives of women
given the disproportionate time they spend in the home in their roles as primary
providers of domestic labour and unpaid care work, especially in slums. While property
is a „private‟ asset, access to public goods such as infrastructure and especially public
transportation as well as various physical investments in urban environments such as
street lighting, parks, community centres or meeting places all affect women‟s safety,
productivity and empowerment.
This leads directly to the ways in which women are often much more constrained than
men in terms of their physical access to urban space. This is not only because of their
association with reproductive labour in the home, but linked with strong symbolic
dimensions surrounding the „forbidden‟ and „permitted‟ use of private and public
spaces. The latter are governed by patriarchal power relations and norms of female
propriety, which may require certain modes of dress, behaviour and limitations on social
interaction to render women „invisible‟ or unapproachable (Fenster, 2005; Jarvis et al.,
2009; Vera-Sanso, 2006).
Part of this is linked with violence against women in cities. Evidence suggests that
violence against women by male partners tends to be less prevalent in cities than rural
areas but violence by non-partners tends to be higher in urban areas. In cities, it has also
been shown that living in urban slums can lead to greater incidence of violence against
women, especially that perpetrated by someone who is not a partner (McIlwaine, 2013
forthcoming). Although violence against women is extremely prevalent in the private
spaces of the home (McIlwaine, 2008), it is more likely to occur in certain public spaces
such as at and around toilets, at schools, in drinking bars, and in secluded areas such as
narrow lanes and open fields (Tacoli, 2012). In terms of sanitary facilities, for example,
where toilets are located far from people‟s homes there is case study evidence from
Mumbai and Pune that women and girls face risks of violence and attacks if they walk
alone to use them, especially at night. In addition, women have much more restricted
mobility at night linked with their safety and fear of violence. Issues of access to and
provision of quality and affordable public transport are also crucial in determining
women‟s movement within cities (Khosla, 2009).
Gendered urban prosperity and women‟s empowerment in 21st century cities
Despite the lack of physical limitations, women‟s connectivity in terms of access to
the „digital age‟ is also compromised (Perrons, 2004). However, while women‟s access
to computing skills and equipment and to internet access is much more limited than
men‟s, gender gaps are much less marked for more simple digital technology such as
mobile phones. Indeed, mobile phones may be used to generate livelihoods and for
families concerned for the safety of daughters working night shifts (Patel, 2010).
A final critical component of conceptualising the interrelationships between gender
and urban prosperity relates to gender differences in power and rights. These differences
exist across scales – from the personal, through household, community and city to the
national level. They are also mediated by informal and formal mechanisms. Although
there is evidence of increased mobilisation and organisation of women at the grassroots,
not least in relation to the popular uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East in 2011
and 2012, there remain major gender disparities in the more formal political realms of
civic engagement and governance. Not only are women frequently under-represented in
formal political structures, including trade unions, cooperative and workers‟
associations, which marginalise their economic roles, but where they do participate at
the grassroots, they are often engaged in struggles for basic services (Beall, 2010; Lind,
2010).
However, the recent shift towards decentralised governance has the potential to bring
development decisions closer to communities and to reach those most marginalised such
as women. Work undertaken by a range of grassroots women‟s organisations under the
auspices of the Huairou Commission has shown that for decentralisation to be
meaningful to women, their capacities to access entitlements and participate effectively
in local governance must be enhanced. Unless women become active partners with local
government, they will continue to remain on the margins of governance processes
(Huairou Commission, 2010a). In the case of Peru, decentralisation has led to increased
women's engagement, organised around a series of laws that include citizen protection
and mandates for participation. Women have engaged more in public affairs through
Local Coordinating Councils (LCCs) and in vigilance and monitoring committees.
Projects such as the Casa de la Mujer (Women's Home) have been central in addressing
women's issues like domestic violence and the equitable allocation of resources to
women. An integral aspect of these types of projects has been the training and
organisation of grassroots women as leaders in their communities through „local to local
dialogues‟ which not only enhances women‟s decision-making power but also deepens
democracy (Goldenberg, 2008).
Conceptual framing II: women’s empowerment and urban prosperity nexus
Building on Figure 1 that outlines the gendering of urban prosperity, it is also
important to incorporate issues of women‟s empowerment. As already indicated in the
discussion above, this highlights not only the range of gender disparities that need to be
taken into account in order to generate prosperity, but also that reducing gender
inequalities and inequities must be addressed in order to bring about women‟s
empowerment in cities at individual and collective levels as well as through a range of
formal and informal institutions (see Figure 2).
Underpinning the gender empowerment and urban prosperity nexus has been longstanding work on conceptualising empowerment. Although the notion of
„empowerment‟ is one of the most contested terms used today, it remains very
important especially in relation to women and gender. Many draw implicitly and
explicitly on the work of Michel Foucault in their thinking on empowerment
highlighting it as a process rather than an end state. The work of Paulo Freire (1970) has
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also been influential in relation to active empowerment processes through
consciousness-raising. In essence, Rappaport‟s (1987: 122) often quoted definition
states that empowerment is a process by which people, organizations and communities
gain mastery over their affairs . Yet, this can be expanded considerably. One helpful
distinction advanced by Zimmerman (2000) differentiates between empowerment as a
value orientation linked with creating concrete outcomes and a theoretical framework
that assists us in understanding and analysing the empowering processes. Both these
ways of considering empowerment operate at different scales that can include the
individual, organisation and the community with different interpretations of
empowerment at each scale and according to whether it is the process or the outcome.
For example, psychological empowerment is important at the individual level,
organisational empowerment relates to the ways in which agencies mobilise resources
and people through participation, and community empowerment relates to changes in
the socio-political change (see also Rappaport, 1987).
Part of the reason why empowerment has become popular within policy discourse,
and especially in the Global South, is that it is action-oriented and focuses on removing
barriers to positive change and on altering power relations between communities,
institutions and government (Wallerstein, 2006). This needs to be done from a holistic
perspective rather than being „a stand-alone strategy, but is part of a comprehensive
approach, engaging policy-makers to promote structural or legal changes to support
community engagement‟ (ibid.: 18). Empowerment strategies are therefore focused on
fostering social justice through allowing and encouraging people to challenge oppression
and marginalisation.
While empowerment has been very important in research and interventions on
community capacity and social capital in particular, especially from the perspective of
community psychology (Zimmerman, 2000), it has perhaps received most attention in
relation to women and gender, especially in the international development context.
Discussions from this perspective also differentiate between process and outcomes
especially in relation to debates about whether it is possible to measure empowerment
(Kabeer, 1999). However, these debates also emphasise the ability to exercise choice as
being particularly important for women as Kabeer (2005:13) notes:
„One way of thinking about power is in terms of the ability to make choices. To be disempowered means
to be denied choice, while empowerment refers to the processes by which those who have been denied the
ability to make choices acquire such an ability‟.
In turn, this ability to choose is also influenced by other factors relating specifically
to access to and future claims on resources, agency to ensure decision-making and
negotiation, as well as achievements in terms of well-being outcomes (Kabeer, 1999). A
concise summary of this approach that focuses on poor women in the Global South is
coined by Eyben (2011: 2) who states:
„Women‟s empowerment happens when individuals and organised groups are able to imagine their world
differently and to realise that vision by changing the relations of power that have kept them in poverty,
restricted their voice and deprived them of their autonomy‟.
This also entails developing a sense of self-worth and the ability to renegotiate
unequal relationships individually and collectively, especially in terms of being able to
participate in the economy and society on an equal basis as men (Kabeer 2008a: 27).
In expanding this process and outcomes oriented definition, Rowlands has identified
empowerment as a way of accessing decision-making as well as changing the ways in
Gendered urban prosperity and women‟s empowerment in 21st century cities
which people think about themselves in relation to three core dimensions: the
„personal‟, „close relationships‟ and the „collective‟ (Rowlands, 1996; see Chant and
McIlwaine 2009 for a summary). Rowlands (1996) developed a typology of different
types of power, all of which interrelate and need to be combined. These include „power
over‟ which refers to domination and subordination and involves threats of violence,
fear and intimidation by individual or group usually in overt ways; „power from within‟
which denotes spiritual strength which is self-generated and incorporates self
confidence, self awareness and assertiveness. Such changes from within are also about
challenging power; „power with‟ where people organise with common purpose or
understanding to achieve collective goals. This refers to a sense of communion and
solidarity as power; „power to‟ is about gaining access to a full range of human abilities
and potential which allow women to have decision-making authority; finally, „power as
resistance‟ is a compliment to power over and intersects closely with it. Resistance
takes a multitude of different forms from subtle to overt and can also entail
manipulation (see also Figure 2).
Figure 2: Conceptualising women’s empowerment
Source: Adapted from McIlwaine (2012 compiled from Kabeer [2008a] and Rowlands [1996])
The notion of „women‟s empowerment‟ has been widely used in development
discourse since the Fourth World Conference for Women in Beijing in 1995, where the
Platform for Action revolved around an „agenda for women‟s empowerment‟ that
focused on shared power and responsibility. Indeed, many consider Beijing to be the
pinnacle of efforts to ensure that women‟s empowerment is incorporated into
development discourse. However, since Beijing, empowerment has not only been
renowned for its „fuzziness‟ in meaning, but has also increasingly been used as a
technical and technocratic fix generated through micro-credit programmes and political
quotas for women (Eyben and Napier- Moore, 2009). Indeed, in the context of India,
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Batliwala (2007) notes that over time, empowerment has changed its meaning from a
tool of transforming and challenging social relations to one that serves neoliberal
agendas as a „technical magic fix‟. This has arguably occurred more widely in that
conceptualisations of empowerment in the 1990s focused on social justice as a way of
ensuring gender equality and women‟s well-being have shifted towards instrumentalist
approaches that suggest that empowerment is „good for‟ economic growth (Eyben and
Napier- Moore, 2009) as argued at various points in the recent World Bank‟s (2012)
World Development Report.
Linked with this, while women‟s empowerment has been operationalised by different
development agencies in different ways, there has been a tendency to focus on
economic and to a lesser extent, political empowerment. For example, UN Women
identify economic empowerment as one of their six focus areas. In addition, their Fund
for Gender Equality supports projects that address women‟s economic and political
empowerment. The former refers to „increasing access to and control over decisionmaking, land, technology, credit, livelihoods and other means of production and social
protection‟, while the latter aims for women to adopt ‘leadership roles and participate
more fully in political processes and in all spheres on public life, particularly formal
institutions‟1 Although social empowerment is not completely absent from these
definitions, it is certainly implicit rather than explicit. Yet, all three dimensions of
empowerment are intertwined and mutually reinforcing (Kabeer et al., 2011). The ways
in which women develop a sense of autonomy and self-respect socially is central to the
economic and political choices they are able to make and to the ways in which they are
able to work with others to bring about lasting change (Eyben, 2011). Part of this need
to foreground the social aspects of empowerment is the importance of recognising that
empowerment as process and outcome varies considerably according to context linked
with historical changes in society, economy and cultural norms as well as the role of
states and other institutions. Indeed, Cornwall and Edwards (2010: 2) point out that
many of these aspects of women‟s lives are „obscured by the materialism of
development‟ in terms of „the solace of belief and the sociality of religious practice, the
pleasures of leisure, and the centrality to women‟s lives of affective and supportive
relationships‟.
Another shortcoming of the ways in which „empowerment‟ is used within the field of
international development is that the term has become „softer‟ and „more conciliatory‟
since development agencies have adopted it. As such, it fails to address the underlying
structural inequalities and pervasive discrimination that requires women to be
empowered in the first place (Cornwall, 2007). In addition, as noted above, although
many definitions of empowerment refer to „choice‟, many poor women do not have the
luxury of being able to make choices. It can be difficult to impose empowerment
through interventions because it entails changing gender ideologies which can only be
brought about by psycho-social and political transformation as well as those linked with
the material conditions of life (Kabeer, 2008a). Thus, it is important to remember that it
cannot be „handed-out‟ by a government or multilateral organisation as another service
(Wallerstein, 2006).
While bearing in mind these criticisms, when thinking about empowerment in
relation to urban prosperity, it is useful to concentrate on women‟s economic
empowerment as long as it is recognises that it extends beyond women‟s economic
position in terms of work, income, education and assets to encompass other social and
political dimensions (Kabeer et al., 2011) (see Figure 3). More specifically, this requires
skills and resources to compete in markets, fair and equal access to economic
institutions, and the ability to make and act on decisions and control resources and
profits in terms of exercising power and agency (Golla et al. 2011). This relates to the
Gendered urban prosperity and women‟s empowerment in 21st century cities
more specific theoretical debate outlined above on the ways in which women‟s
participation in the labour market and their access to economic resources can lead to
empowerment. Echoing the points made above, Ruth Pearson (2004: 118) reinforces
the point that economic empowerment requires the generation of power across different
spheres and scales:
„Poor women need money but increases in wages will not on their own make women `either less poor or
more powerful. Improvements in the conditions and returns to work must be coupled with expectations
that the state will ensure that they achieve a minimum income; that they have access to affordable and
high quality education, health and transport services; and that their environment is healthy and their lives
are not blighted by community and domestic violence‟.
Figure 3: Women’s empowerment and gendered urban prosperity nexus
Source: adapted from Chant and McIlwaine (2012)
Overall, then, there can be several pathways to empowerment that take time, effort and
structural change in order to be realised (Eyben, 2011), especially when the social
aspects are placed central-stage.
Intersections between urbanisation, prosperity and gender empowerment
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The conceptual nexus outlined in Figure 2 is obviously a simplification of reality.
However, it can assist in identifying the sectors and issues that need to be addressed if
women are to take advantage of urban prosperity as a way of improving their life
chances. Yet it is also essential to remember that the relationships between urbanisation
and prosperity in different cities around the world will play out in a wide range of
diverse ways, and there may be a „cut-off‟ point when societies are more than 70 per
cent urbanised (UN-HABITAT, 2010c: 5). In the case of the rapidly growing economies
of the world, although urban per capita GDP is expected to rise by 9 per cent per year in
India and 10 per cent in China and by 2025 China‟s cities will generate 20 per cent of
global GDP, evidence remains mixed as to how such phenomenal economic growth
rates intersect with increases in national or urban prosperity (Dobbs et al. 2011: 30).
In terms of gender, there are some, but no definitive systematic links between levels
of poverty, per capita GNI, urbanisation, equality and/or gender equality across
developing regions. For example, while the World Economic Forum‟s Global Gender
Gap Index (GGGI) correlates with GNI to some degree, the relationship appears to be
driven primarily by Latin America which is marked by pervasive inequality that appears
to be associated with a pronounced gender gap in income. In addition, the Social
Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) also exhibits a strong positive correlation with the
UNDP‟s Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). As a country decreases its share of
multi-dimensional poor, the SIGI moves closer towards equality (Chant, 2011a).
Also important to highlight is that there are discrepancies in regional definitions
among different organisations about gender and urban prosperity in terms of national,
regional and global statistics, as well as deficits in sex-disaggregated data. A lack of
comprehensive sex-disaggregated quantitative data, especially for poorer countries
undermines the reliable geographical coverage of gender indicators such as the GGGI
and the SIGI (Drechsler and Jütting, 2010).
The indicators for gender in the MDG 3, for instance, notably the ratio of girls to boys
enrolled in primary, secondary and tertiary education, women‟s share of nonagricultural employment, and proportion of seats held by national parliaments, exclude
important elements vital to women‟s lives. These include a quantification of genderdifferentiated domestic labour and care burdens, as well as registration of women‟s paid
work because of its concentration in the informal economy (Chant, 2006, 2007a; also
Buvinic and King, 2007). Although major progress in improving the quality of sexdisaggregated statistics has been made, the lack of gender indicators in all MDGs, and
the limited nature of MDG 3 targets for women compared with the Beijing Platform for
Action (BPFA) of 1995 has provoked widespread debate and critique (Chant, 2007b;
Johnsson-Latham, 2010; Saith, 2006).
Despite such data caveats, the gender empowerment and urban prosperity nexus can
still provide an important conceptual building block for understanding women‟s position
in cities in relation to well-being and economic growth.
Equity-based development, urban prosperity and gender empowerment
Linked with the importance of addressing gender disparities in power and rights
identified in Figures 1 and 2, gender equity is central to ensuring the equal distribution
of the benefits of prosperity in cities in general and women‟s empowerment in
particular. In particular it is essential in protecting the rights of women and ensuring that
they have full access not only to material resources in cities, but also to civic
participation in the social, political and cultural spheres. Engagement in urban politics
and governance is not just a fundamental right, but an integral and potentially major
route to gender equality in urban prosperity.
Gendered urban prosperity and women‟s empowerment in 21st century cities
Some advances have occurred in women holding seats in national parliaments
around the world in the past decade, even if under-representation remains persistent in
developed and developing countries alike. In only 23 countries of the world, for
example, do women comprise over 30 per cent of the lower or single house of the
national parliament (Chant, 2011a). At ministerial levels, gender gaps increase
dramatically. Taking into account local councillors as well as parliamentarians, only 1
in 5 are female in a diverse range of contexts (UN-HABITAT, 2008: 3). Increasingly,
governments around the world are establishing quotas and other types of affirmative
action that mandate representation of women in various levels of public office. By 2006,
nearly 40 countries had introduced gender quotas in parliamentary elections (Huairou
Commission, 2011). Such mandates are a step in the right direction, but it is equally
important to bridge the gap between women elected to public office and grassroots
women‟s groups. However, according to a grassroots leader from GROOTS Peru,
„Affirmative action does not necessarily change structures of power‟ (Huairou
Commission, 2010b). Such mandates are a step in the right direction, but it is equally
important to bridge the gap between women elected to public office and grassroots
women‟s groups.
Building on a long legacy of women engaging in collective struggle in towns and
cities around the world for basic services and infrastructure, housing, healthcare, and
rights to use public urban space for informal economic activity, there is a mounting
female presence in informal as well as formal structures of governance. Coupled with
the general spread of „rights-based‟ and „multi-stakeholder‟ agendas in local-level
governance, these tendencies have been central to opening up new political spaces for
women. For example, in Brazil, women have been the majority of participants in
budgetary assemblies in Porto Alegre, which has been a pioneer in inclusive urban
governance. In India the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act introduced in 1992,
required 30 per cent of seats on local councils „panchayati raj‟ to be occupied by women
(Jarvis et al., 2009: 240-1; Khosla, 2009).
This engagement is especially important at the grassroots level. As part of
decentralisation efforts, there has been a shift towards community participation and the
increased role of women in local governance. Grassroots organisations are distinguished
in how they engage with government and others across through inclusive partnerships
by providing practical and sustainable solutions to meet basic needs, as well as building
capacity at the local level. For example, GROOTS Kenya acts a key information
resource centre providing paralegal support to disinherited women and children to claim
their rights. However, these groups are rarely equal partners and one of the key
challenges is recognising, legitimising and formally resourcing women‟s work (Huairou
Commission, 2010b).
There have also been problems in that women‟s engagement in movements and
programmes around basic services and poverty reduction tend to feminise responsibility
in ways that burden women even more, sideline men further, and neglect strategic
gender interests in favour of practical gender needs (in terms of challenging gender
ideologies and power relations) (Molyneux, 2001; Moser, 1993). In addition, it has been
noted that a gender perspective is included on grounds of effectiveness and efficiency of
projects. Criticisms of a utilitarian approach to gender, even where „rights‟ and
„empowerment‟ might be professed aims, are found in a range of broader initiatives
around poverty reduction. These may not be specifically urban, but by the very nature of
rising urban populations affect legions of women in towns and cities in developing
countries. Harnessing women‟s „empowerment‟ to poverty reduction tends not only to
blur the distinctions between poverty and gendered privation but also frequently
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involves using women as a „conduit of policy‟ (Molyneux, 2006). This capitalises on
and often „re-traditionalises‟ women‟s altruistic and maternal roles (Chant, 2008).
This has been the case in the context of Poverty Reduction Strategy Policies (PRSPs)
(Bradshaw and Linneker, 2010), in microfinance schemes (Maclean, 2010) and in
conditional cash transfer programmes (CCTs) (Bradshaw, 2008) and appears to do little
to effect change in the status quo. Although there may be some benefits for some
women resulting from pan-national anti-poverty interventions, this may not only be
dependent on the type of group and context, as revealed by contrasting outcomes for
indigenous women in different parts of Mexico from the Oportunidades CCT (Gonzáles
de la Rocha, 2010).
Despite some important benefits for women from formal and informal modes of civic
participation, if women‟s engagement is prioritised only in the interests of creating
wealth for all, then the question remains as to how other benefits come about. In the
short-term, to entrap women in the largely unpaid, and fundamentally altruistic work of
building better cities arguably goes against the grain of transforming gender relations or
creating a more equal share of urban prosperity among women and men. However,
without women‟s engagement, especially in decision-making positions, there is little
likelihood of granting gender issues a seat at the political and policy table.
Engendering empowerment and urban prosperity through gender policies
The creation of gender-equitable cities that can generate prosperity for women and for
cities requires policy interventions that aim to make women economically empowered
and prosperous, but also provide them with greater access to social and political
resources and opportunities as well as the freedom to make choices. It is essential that
policies address the various dimensions of economic empowerment and prosperity
simultaneously and in a multi-stakeholder manner.
Gender equity is based on gender sensitivity in that equity cannot be reached without
recognition that women and men have different and invariably unequal experiences in
cities. Only by addressing these disparities can economic empowerment and prosperity
be achieved. Therefore, there is a major need to tackle gender imbalances in the
contributions to, and benefits from, urban prosperity. This requires looking at inputs, as
well as outcomes, in terms of housing, service and infrastructure provision, productivity
and so on, at different scales (Chant, 2011a).
However, the instrumental use of women to make cities and urban policies more
efficient is unlikely to change relational aspects of gender (Johnson, 2005: 57). It is
clear that it is critical not only to address the „practical gender needs‟ of women in urban
environments but „strategic gender interests‟ in terms of addressing deep-seated gender
ideologies and power relations if a more equal distribution of urban prosperity is to
come about (see above). In addressing the various components of the gender
empowerment and urban poverty nexus it is also important to remember that some of
these issues (for example, selected aspects of urban demographics such as migrant
selectivity and ageing) are long-term and contextual in nature, whereas others are
potentially more immediately responsive to policy.
One of the most fundamental issues to address in any gender policy is to address
women‟s unpaid reproductive work. This needs much greater valorisation and support
given its critical role in ensuring the daily regeneration of the labour force, the
functioning of cities, and contributions to the urban prosperity. This labour needs to be
recognised not only in itself, but on grounds that it constrains women‟s participation in
paid employment, as well as in social, political and cultural realms. In particular, it
inhibits the development of capabilities among younger generations of women who may
Gendered urban prosperity and women‟s empowerment in 21st century cities
have to take on burdens of mothers and other female kin, and can also seriously
disadvantage children of both sexes. These responsibilities are likely to be ever more
burdensome in light of the recent global financial crisis (Pearson, 2010). Only when all
people are recognised as those who need, give and receive care can gender equality be
achieved.
Women‟s efforts can clearly be supported in a number of ways, and benefits may well
ensue from a multi-pronged approach. Direct attention to the burdens of childcare and
other types of unpaid care work typically performed by women, can include paid
community-based options, workplace nurseries and care homes, state parental or carer
support transfers, and dedicated private and/or public facilities. While women‟s care
burdens might be alleviated in part through cash transfers (Razavi, 2007), the provision
of public services for care-related needs is more favourable, mainly because it
challenges the persistent identification of women with reproductive labour and its status
as a „private‟ responsibility.
Where such services exist they should be subsidised and affordable, and within easy
reach of people‟s homes. One successful example that has been instituted throughout
Latin American countries such as Costa Rica and Colombia is „Hogares Comunitarios’
(Community Homes) programmes which provide subsidised childcare in poor
neighbourhoods via the training of local women as „community mothers‟ (Moser and
McIlwaine, 2004). However, since it is women who are the paid carers of children, and
mothers who deliver and collect their offspring, this type of programme still reinforces
women‟s primary female identification with care.
One way of addressing this is to expand the types of services and activities available
in childcare centres. One such successful example is the Mathare Mother‟s
Development Centre organised by GROOTS Mathare in Nairobi, Kenya (which are also
members of GROOTS International and the Huairou Commission). Although the centre
began as a day care centre in 1999, it now provides capacity-building, training and
income generation activities (micro-lending projects and savings projects), home-based
care to HIV/AIDS patients in the community (through the Home-based Care Alliance),
leadership training, and support for youth and youth organizing. This highlights the
importance of addressing the responsibilities of women‟s lives in from a holistic
perspective (Yonder and Tamaki for the Huairou Commission (2010).
An essential part of any multidimensional perspective is the valorisation of women‟s
care roles through the promotion of greater public sensitisation to the societal value of
care and the encouragement of more equal engagement by women and men in this
unrecognised work (Chant, 2007a). One way of doing this is for policies to provide
incentives for men to share in care work, such as through paternity leave, and changes in
„paid work cultures‟ such as shorter and more flexible working days. This might also
include a possible requirement that to qualify for use of public care facilities men should
play a part in delivery and collection of care-receivers. It is perhaps only when the
„private‟ work that women perform in their homes and communities is made public, and
duly enforced as a collective social responsibility, that greater there will be greater
realisation of gender inequities and their inefficiencies as well as injustices.
Another important issue is the remuneration of women for their caring jobs. One
example of this has been the Huairou Commission‟s AIDS Campaign. This has shown
that caregivers undertake a very wide range of tasks that include psychosocial
counselling, education and awareness-raising as well as livelihood assistance even
though much of their work has been unrecognised and unremunerated. However,
members of the Home-based Care Alliance have moved towards accreditation through
the development of identification cards recognised by community members, hospitals,
clinics and decision-makers that show caregivers‟ special roles and skills. This will lead
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to valuing the women who have been providing their time for free. In addition, a
number of NGOs across Africa, with donor support, provide stipends for caregivers. In
South Africa, the government provides a small stipend for some caregivers who are
part of legally registered NGOs, yet, the vast majority of caregivers work with no
stipends or salaries (Hayes for the Huairou Commission, 2010).
Policies to address quality of life and infrastructure
It should also be remembered that the unpaid work that women perform in their
homes and neighbourhoods not only relates to care in terms of feeding children or
attending to sick or elderly individuals, but to a more extended range of activities that
affect quality of life. These include saving household resources by shopping around,
preparing of nutritious meals on low incomes, conserving water and power for
environmental as well as financial ends and so on. The ability to carry out these tasks is
underpinned by access to adequate housing, health and basic urban services, as well as
freedom from gender-based violence.
Access to and security in housing is one of the fundamentally important aspects of
improving women‟s quality of life in cities. While urbanisation offers unprecedented
potential to do away with deep-seated patriarchal power structures, as Hughes and
Wickeri (2011, p.839) comment: „… urban growth must be managed in a way that
ensures women‟s full realisation of their right to adequate housing‟. This should extend
to all women, including the particularly marginalised constituencies of elderly women,
widows, sick and disabled women, and lesbians.
Closer compliance with the provisions of CEDAW (Convention of the Elimination of
all Forms of Discrimination against Women) and other relevant international human
rights instruments can be approached in a plethora of ways, including through state,
NGO and private sector support of the numerous initiatives generated by women
themselves in the form of group savings and collective land acquisition and building
schemes (D‟Cruz and Satterthwaite, 2005). Partnerships can take the form of genderresponsive housing finance, assistance in obtaining tenure security, subsidised materials,
and training in construction techniques (Chant, 2006; Patel and Mitlin, 2010).
Therefore, an integral role should be played by concerted efforts to increase profemale housing rights initiatives, such as in statutory joint or individual titling, or
mechanisms to ensure that women are fully represented on committees which decide on
land rights in communities which observe customary law (Chant, 2007b). Support for
paralegal services which assist women in their ability to realise their land and shelter
entitlements is also crucial. This is evidenced in Nigeria where the Women‟s Aid
Collective (WACOL) works to help widows defend their inheritance rights (COHRE,
2004: 77-8). Recalling the importance of rental accommodation for urban women,
interventions to promote their access to, and security in, this sector should not be
neglected.
For women in rental and owner- or quasi-owner-occupied housing alike, greater
media exposure of abuses in respect of tenure security, shelter adequacy and personal
safety could also raise visibility and public accountability. Although, women‟s lack of
knowledge of their rights, and societal awareness of when those rights are violated,
whether within or outside the justice system, are more compromised in rural than in
urban areas, media dissemination and campaigns can undoubtedly be effective, and
could be strengthened further by increasing poor women‟s access to ICT.
Policies for improving women‟s health are also crucially important and interrelate with
those addressing other aspects of quality of life. For example, as noted above, the
Gendered urban prosperity and women‟s empowerment in 21st century cities
Home-Based Care Alliances that have been established throughout Africa (via
GROOTS International) not only provide care for those suffering from HIV/AIDS, but
they have evolved into primary health care workers (Hayes for the Huairou
Commission, 2010a). In Kenya, community watchdogs groups were also founded by
home-based caregivers to prevent evictions of widows and children. GROOTS Kenya
facilitated the training of community watchdogs to act as community paralegals and
linked them to elders, chiefs and councillors to monitor and prevent land grabbing and
asset stripping. The watchdog groups have been replicated in 16 communities across 4
regions of Kenya (Huairou Commission, 2010b).
Another core area affecting women‟s quality of life is the need to reduce violence
against women in cities. UN-HABITAT (2007) usefully outlines a range of policy
approaches at the local level in cities that address urban crime and violence, all of which
are gendered in some way. Some of these types of interventions focus on gender-based
violence in public spheres while others address domestic violence specifically. One
example reflecting the Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED)
approach from Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa illustrates how gender-based
violence can be reduced in cities in relation to upgrading or changing the urban
infrastructure and physical fabric of the city in some way. For example, if outside toilets
are phased out then women are much less likely to put themselves in situations of risk.
However, it is essential to combine these with other projects that also address deepseated gender inequalities otherwise the long-term reduction in gender-based violence
will not be ensured (McIlwaine, 2013 forthcoming).
This might also include strengthening formal criminal justice systems and policing
from a gender perspective. Many of the early interventions to reduce gender-based
violence in general focused on changing legislation, often prompted by the campaigning
of women‟s movements. In the 1980s and 1990s, legal reforms were instituted in many
countries focusing criminalization of perpetrators. However, there remain serious
problems in terms of implementation. In the case of India, that there have been three
decades of lobbying by the women‟s movement to address domestic violence with many
legislative changes linked primarily with Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (AntiCruelty Act) and Section 304B (Dowry Death Act). However, despite legislation, the
number of dowry crimes and domestic violence has increased from 6,208 in 2003 to
8,172 in 2008. Other judicial interventions have been women‟s police stations
(McIlwaine, 2013 forthcoming).
Addressing violence against women is one area where working with men as well as
women has become paramount. The well-known Stepping Stones programmes that
focuses on sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS prevention which began in
Uganda in 1995 but which has been implemented in over 104 countries throughout the
world works with women and men in trying to create better communication channels
between women and men as well as more equal gender roles. In a study in the Eastern
Cape, South Africa, it was found that the men who participated in the programme were
less like to commit physical or sexual violence (ibid). Indeed, without major attempts to
change men‟s patriarchally-influenced behaviour patterns gender-equitable law is likely
to languish.
Policies to address productivity
Ensuring women‟s rights to adequate housing, services and infrastructure, along with
education, training and work also plays a major part in enhancing women‟s access to,
and benefits from, productivity and to urban prosperity in gender-equitable ways. While
various MDG targets have been important in enhancing women‟s access to education
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and employment, much more needs to be done to cater to the needs of women workers,
along with increasing numbers of male workers, who are likely to remain
disproportionately engaged in the informal urban economy. Further informalisation is
likely as some cities de-industrialise or formal manufacturing plants are reduced in
favour of offloading jobs into the home working sector, and public sector employment
is scaled down in the interests of cost-cutting. As pointed out in the context of a recent
workshop on „Inclusive Cities‟ in New Delhi, since 80 per cent of urban workers in
India are informally employed, and like many other developing nations India‟s economy
is a „hybrid‟ of „modern-traditional‟ and „formal-informal‟ activities, economic diversity
and informal businesses should be promoted rather than penalised (Chen, 2010).
Urban policies concerning land and land-use are vital here, with restrictions on homebased enterprise, widespread slum clearance, the gating of middle-income and elite
residential neighbourhoods, and constrained access by informal entrepreneurs to public
spaces often exacting huge tolls on women‟s ability to avoid poverty, let alone to
achieve any form of „prosperity‟. Aside from recognising the rights of informal workers
in the city through land channels, and acknowledging that there is no single solution
given the diversity of such work, a variety of mechanisms for supporting small
businesses and the self-employed, at the same time as promoting „decent work‟, might
be considered.
These include better provision of vocational educational and training with a view to
enhancing the diversification of often competitive informal activities, easier access to
loans on favourable terms, assistance in promoting greater health and safety at work,
and the reduction and/or phasing of costs of formalisation (Chant and McIlwaine, 2009:
Chapter 6; see also Chant 2013b). Encouraging and supporting associations of female
informal entrepreneurs is also important to strengthen their often marginalised position
and activities. The power of organisation is not only indicated by the huge diversity of
examples of women workers‟ organising across the world, but also features in Chen‟s
(2010) „3V‟ framework for the working poor. Comprising the imperatives of „voice‟,
„visibility‟ and „validity‟, this serves as another potentially fruitful step towards greater
gender equality in prosperity in urban environments.
It is essential to remember that access to decent opportunities to generate income can
have important positive implications for women‟s economic empowerment. The
extensive research on the role of micro-enterprises in women‟s lives has illustrated that,
although they do not unequivocally empower women, access to loans to establish small
businesses can significantly improve women‟s lives and give them more decisionmaking power across a range of domains.
It is also critical to remember that not all women are informally employed and that
general questions pertaining to productivity need to be tackled (Perrons, 2010). In
particular, the lower value accorded to women‟s labour needs to be addressed as well as
overt and covert discrimination against women in recruitment. In addition, it is not just
poor women who have been organising and for whom economic empowerment is also
relevant, nor that organising has focused on the workplace. There are many examples
whereby professional women have organised and/or where interventions have targeted
women beyond the grassroots. For example, in Mexico, a federal programme called
Generosidad awards a “Gender Equity Seal” to private firms. These are granted through
an independent evaluation that assesses a company‟s achievement of specific standards
related to gender equity, including recruitment, career advancement, training and
reducing sexual harassment. By 2006, 117 companies had obtained the Seal (Chant,
2011a).
Gendered urban prosperity and women‟s empowerment in 21st century cities
Policies to address equity in power and rights
Gender-equitable prosperous cities also need to promote women‟s and men‟s
participation in civic engagement and urban governance and politics, while avoiding the
situation whereby high levels of women‟s activism at the grassroots do not translate into
high-profile representation in formal municipal or political arenas. Imperative in efforts
to support such engagement should be the recognition of state-society synergies in that
progressive national policy reform rarely happens through social mobilisation or state
action alone but through collaborative efforts of civil society and governments and
especially through partnerships with grassroots organisations (Khosla, 2009). Indeed, it
is in the NGO sector where many important initiatives have been developed, especially
through the UN-HABITAT-Huairou Commission partnership. Indeed, it is now
accepted as essential to engage with grassroots organisations as an essential part of
urban governance in mutually beneficial ways in order to bring about sustainable change
in gender equity.
Underpinning these developments are mechanisms whereby grassroots organisations
organise to prioritise their needs and then negotiate with local authorities to address
these through systems. One such initiative is Local to Local Dialogue pioneered by the
Huairou Commission in collaboration with UN-HABITAT and inspired by
organisations such as SPARC (Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers) and
Mahila Matila in India. This develops „locally designed strategies whereby grassroots
women‟s groups initiate and engage in ongoing dialogue with local authorities to
negotiate a range of issues and priorities to influence policies, plans and programmes in
ways that address women‟s priorities‟ (Huairou Commission, 2004: 12). This tool builds
collective action, capacity building and alliances as well as information. Developing
grassroots women as leaders and as active participants in local decision-making
processes and structures is also fundamental. This can demonstrate that democratic and
participatory governance can be built from the bottom up by supporting grassroots
women‟s participation in local planning and budgeting (Huairou Commission, 2010a).
Also part of designing gender-responsive pro-prosperity measures is to correct the
common dilemma posed for women by involving them predominantly or exclusively in
anti-poverty programmes where they usually end up with more unpaid work on their
shoulders (Molyneux, 2006) (see also above). In order to counter the „feminisation of
responsibility‟ (Chant, 2008) or adverse effects of the „feminisation of policy‟ (Roy,
2010), it is vital for poverty reduction programmes to promote the greater engagement
of men. In addition, it is important to acknowledge that although mobilising investments
in women can have huge impacts on the generation of wealth, there is also a serious
danger of instrumentalising gender (under the auspices of promoting „gender equality‟)
to meet these ends. This misses the vital point of evening-out women‟s and men‟s inputs
and rewards in urban environments. It is therefore paramount that the principles of
gender rights and justice remain uppermost in urban prosperity discourse and planning
(Chant, 2012b, 2013a).
Conclusion
This paper has argued that the promotion of urban prosperity needs to take gender
into account in order to ensure that cities function in order to safe-guard and encourage
the well-being of their inhabitants economically and socially. A core process of this is
the need to generate empowerment for women in ways that address economic, social
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Sylvia Chant and Cathy McIlwaine
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and political dimensions. In order to understand these processes more fully across a
range of different contexts, the paper develops a conceptual framework for
understanding the intersections between the gendered nature of urban prosperity and
women‟s empowerment. This is complemented by an empirical discussion of the main
processes underlying the gendered nature of urban prosperity in relation to
empowerment and an outline of the types of policies that can be potentially
implemented in order to generate prosperity in cities in gender equitable and sustainable
ways. While the paper argues that pro-prosperity measures can be important in meeting
this broad aim, it also warns against using women‟s contributions for generating wealth
alone without addressing the underlying unequal gendered power relations and issues of
social justice that are necessary in order to bring about true empowerment and long-term
improvement in women‟s lives in cities in the 21st century.
Acknowledgements
This paper was first conceived as part of a series of reports commissioned by UNHABITAT for State of Women in Cities 2012/13. We would like to thank the following
people for their important contributions and insights which have informed the writing of
the background research for this paper. Alice Evans, Belinda Fleischmann, Steve
Huxton, Ralph Kinnear, Chloë Last, Isik Ozurgetem, Jeff Steller, Lindsay Walton, as
well as Gwendolyn Beetham, Marty Chen, Robin Dunford, Julia Martin, Chris
Mogridge, Diane Perrons, Romi Savini, and Demetria Tsoutouras. We would also like
to thank everyone who participated in the Expert Group Meeting on Women„s
Economic Empowerment: Critical Issues for Prosperous Cities at Harvard University
whose views have also informed this paper as well as those involved in the Gender
Equality Action Assembly at Sixth World Urban Forum, Naples, September 2012. We
would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions as
well as Caterina Arcidiacono for encouraging us to submit the paper in the first place.
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Sylvia Chant is Professor of Development Geography at the London School of
Economics and Political Science, UK, where she is Director of the MSc in Urbanisation
and Development. Sylvia has conducted research in Mexico, Costa Rica, Philippines
and The Gambia, and has specialist interests in gender and poverty, female employment
and urban labour markets, rural-migration, housing, and female-headed households.
Cathy McIlwaine is Professor of Geography at Queen Mary, University of London, UK.
She has worked on development issues in Latin America (Costa Rica, Colombia, El
Salvador and Guatemala), South East Asia (the Philippines) and southern Africa
(Botswana). More recently her work focuses on international migration in relation to
low-paid migrant workers and Latin American migrants in London, focusing on gender
and transnational migration, irregular migrants and livelihood practices.
1
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