Equal in Dignity and Rights
Cherie Booth QCAcross the world, it is women who are helping spread prosperity in their communities and countries. In developed and developing nations, they have become the drivers of economic growth. Analysts have even coined the term “womenomics” to describe this global phenomenon and forecast it will become even more important in the years and decades to come.
Women have filled six of the eight million new jobs in the European Union this decade. The rate of new business start ups among women in the United States is twice that of men. In South Africa, it is women – and particularly black women – which studies show are the most entrepreneurial group in the country.
And I have seen for myself, the same energy, drive and vision among women in the Middle East, in Asia and Africa. In Tanzania, the popular saying “The African farmer and her husband” shows there is nothing new in the essential if hidden role of women in the local economy. But, with so many women setting up their own businesses, the motto needs updating to “the African entrepreneur and her husband”.
But across the world as well, women still face huge barriers in developing their potential. We see it, for example, in the stubborn pay gap in the UK and the continuing scarcity of women on the boards of our companies. But, these difficulties are dwarfed by the obstacles – legal, cultural and financial - put in the way of women in many developing countries.
One of the barriers preventing women from playing their full role in their societies is the difficulties they face in getting access to investment and loans. This can be because the tiny sums they want to borrow are of no interest to traditional financial institutions. It can be because of laws which prevent them owning property and deny them any collateral. And, it is often simply because of cultural prejudice which still sees women as second-class citizens, subordinate to their husbands. This helps explain why it remains more difficult for women in South Africa to borrow money to set up small businesses than men, despite their track records of entrepreneurial success and evidence across the world, they are far less likely to default on payments.
It is to help overcome all these barriers we have seen the creation of micro-credit schemes which are helping transform the lives of women – and, in doing so, are transforming their societies. Sometimes the schemes which usually offer small loans on trust are created specifically to help women. But, it is also because women, rather than men, see and seize the opportunities they offer for their families.
The global popularity of micro-credit schemes owes a great deal to economist, philanthropist and Nobel prizewinner Muhammad Yunus who established the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh a generation ago. Of, its seven million customers, some 97% are women. The sums they borrow are tiny, but they have a huge impact on their lives. And, because they use the money for the long-term benefit of their families and communities, the success of the Grameen Bank and similar schemes is seen as a major plank in Bangladesh’s fight against poverty.
In Tunisia, a similar micro-credit scheme has grown 50-fold in a decade, helping fund an explosion of small businesses set up and run by women. As elsewhere, these enterprises are not just tackling poverty and creating jobs, but also giving women increased confidence, influence and a stake in their own societies.
I have seen the same impact in Pakistan when I visited a UK-supported project run by an organisation called Kashf – miracle in English – which has been doing truly miraculous work in the Punjab. By helping women get credit at a reasonable cost, some 20,000 women now run their own services. But, the true prize, of course, extends well beyond the economic. The women I met told me how their lives now had meaning and they faced the future with a new confidence.
I heard a similar story in Palestine when I visited, at the end of last year, women’s co-operatives around Ramallah. The small loans had been used to set up shops and bakeries, to grow vegetables for sale or to start floor-cleaning or embroidery businesses. But, it wasn’t the success of these enterprises - increasingly the lifeblood of their families – which these women wanted to talk about. It was the self-respect that this financial security gave them and the increased influence they felt they now had within their communities.
And it is for these reasons that the spread of micro-credit schemes are seen not just as important in tackling poverty, but also in promoting gender equality. In fact, of course, the two are inextricably linked. There is a mountain of evidence those developing countries which continue to ignore the talents and potential of half of their citizens are going to find it much harder to pull themselves out of poverty than those which invest in girls and women.
So we need to support micro-credit schemes where ever and whenever we can. They are giving millions of people – and particularly women – new opportunities and new hope. As Hillary Clinton once said, they might be called micro schemes but they have a macro impact.
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