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| Malawi Facts Women The Poverty Alleviation Programme (PAP) in Malawi has established that a great proportion of those affected by poverty are women. The United Nations has also established that women's poverty is exacerbated by their lack of access to the productive resources of land, income, credit, appropriate technologies and information. The government has made the empowerment of women a priority, formulating a national gender policy in 2000. However, women in Malawi continue to be under represented at political, policy and decision making levels. This is due to cultural norms which generally assign leadership roles to men and also the low levels of education amongst females. Women are seriously disadvantaged in almost every sector of development. This is largely attributed to social attitudes against women entrenched in the Malawi culture. Women shoulder a higher percentage of responsibilities and manage heavy workloads in the community. Women have had less access to education. Prior to 1994 when universal primary school education was introduced, far fewer girls than boys were enrolled in school. Consequently the literacy rate amongst women is much lower than in men. Secondary school enrolment for girls is also much lower than for boys. Whilst women do not own land they carry out the bulk of the agricultural tasks and work.. As well as this they bear a heavy burden in caring for the sick and the young children. The AIDS pandemic has increased the need for care of the sick and terminally ill, often at home and this burden has fallen almost entirely on women. AIDS has also increased the numbers to be cared for and it is an expectation that orphan children will be taken in by near relatives, namely women. Women are also expected to provide food and other necessities for those receiving care in hospital. If a woman is widowed in Central or Southern Malawi she usually returns to her home village, taking her children with her but none of the property. Women return to their communities that can spare little to help them. MACS in action on Women's projects | |
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