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The paper attempts to identify the phenomenon of feminization of poverty in Tunisia, the country that’s considered a pioneer in defending women’s rights in the Arab world and Africa. Through this study, we try to understand the factors that affect women’s poverty, whether economic, social or cultural. In addition, we highlight the phenomenon of poverty in Tunisia and the distribution of poverty rates between women and men. The paper ends by a number of relevant recommendations.
Introduction
According to wikigender, the feminization of poverty is an increase in the difference in levels of poverty among women and men or among female- versus male- and couple-headed households. It can also mean an increase in the role gender inequalities play as a determinant of poverty, which also characterizes a feminization of the causes of poverty.
Of those who first spoke of the ‘feminization of poverty’ was Diana Pearce in the late 1970s, and since that time, various scholars, scientists, and gender experts have examined trends in men’s and women’s poverty rates. In 1996, the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women discussed the issue of women and poverty at its 40th session and proposed further action to be taken by UN member states and the international community, including the mainstreaming of a gender perspective in all poverty eradication policies and programs.
The poverty profile in Tunisia
The ‘revolution’ of 2011 has left its mark on Tunisian women, in particular with the control of Islamist forces and the rise of Jihadist terrorist groups. In addition, the economic situation of the country was seriously damaged since 2011 under the impact of several negative shocks, including the collapse of tourism (especially after increased rates of insecurity and political crises in 2012-2013 and terrorist attacks in 2015-2016), the forfeiture of the Libyan market (due to the civil war in Libya) and the decline in phosphate and oil production due to the disputes that were poorly managed in state-owned enterprises.
In Tunisia and since 2011, media and civil society organizations started to mention the concept of the “feminization of poverty”. At the time, Tunisia adopted a policy of social advancement, emancipation of women and declaring the Personal Status Code, allowing women to participate in the development sector, increase household income and reduce poverty.
Tunisia is becoming increasingly urbanized through internal migration, which primarily interests women. This migration to large cities generates new problems linked to poverty, such as the proliferation of suburbs of large cities. Considered as a means of reducing poverty since economies are gradually shifting from agriculture to other higher-paying sectors, internal migration has contributed to the fragility of rural women’s economic situation. Women who immigrate to the cities are generally employed in low-income occupations, and the risks of sexual and other exploitations are on the rise.
According to a study published by the World Development Bank on the poverty map in Tunisia stated that areas in the North-West, Center-West and South are already characterized by high rates of poverty among women, and are the least endowed with services. Housing is one of the most threatening aspects of female poverty, as it reflects the living conditions of a household, for which women are primarily responsible. According to the Centre de Recherches, d’Etudes, de Documentation et d’Information sur la Femme (CREDIF), the fight against poverty among women requires an adequate supply of basic infrastructure and access to services.
How does female poverty manifest?
In the third quarter of 2020, female unemployment in Tunisia corresponded to 22.8 percent, which was almost 10 percent over that of men. This percentage is even higher in rural areas. Unemployment for women occurs due to many factors. These include:
- Available job offers are not commensurate with the increasing number of young women.
- Educated women and those who marry at a later age (average age of first marriage in 2014 is around 28 years for women and 33 years for men).[1]
On the other hand, the celibacy rate is still at 30 years old: 28.4 percent for women and 53.5 percent for men. Married women leave their work due to childbearing. The first generations of working women are not keen on getting married until later because they are eager to maintain their independence, and because of the need to contribute to the family income, or even to become the sole breadwinners for their family. However, family difficulties and the constraints of the economic system push them to leave the job market. For example, the percentage of women in the workforce was estimated at 28.5% in 2014. It reached a maximum of 50.7% for the 25-29-year-old age group. This percentage later declined to 37 percent for those between 40-44 years old and to 30.3 percent among those between 45 and 49 years old, while it is respectively 90.7 percent and 89.4 percent for men.
According to a study presented by the Tunisian General Labor Union,[2] women are more worried about their future than men because of the economic situation. This is not surprising when we learn that unemployment is due to collective dismissal through indiscriminate closure of enterprises. This affects the most vulnerable sectors of the economy. This is related to international circumstances, especially in the textile and clothing industry.
Conclusion
The Tunisian Constitution has called for the horizontal and vertical parity in party electoral lists, for issuing a comprehensive law related to combating violence, and for establishing the Committee on Individual Freedoms and Equality by the Presidency of the Republic in 2017.
Finally, Tunisia must undertake legislative and administrative reforms to give women full and equal access to economic resources, including the right to inheritance and to ownership of land. The law should punish discrimination in wages, professional promotion, and career path. Among the challenges also is setting up mechanisms to activate the law on domestic violence and all laws relating to women’s human rights, and the most important of these is setting up the necessary infrastructure to protect women’s rights. The law on violence has mandated nearly all state ministries to work on eradicating all forms of violence against women, such as the programs of the Ministry of Education based on equality.
[1]. http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/tunesien/15344.pdf , Tunisian women in work and the trade union movement Dorra Mahfouz – Published in December 2018.
[2] “Tunisian women in the informal economy. Reality and possible solutions from a trade union point of view.” Department of women, workers published by UGTT 2016.
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