Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality.
Log in
Accepted Paper:
Women-state relations: the gendered politics of social protection provisioning in Zambia
Kate Pruce
(Institute of Development Studies)
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines the targeting of cash transfers in Zambia, through the lens of women-state relations. It argues that by overlooking unequal societal responsibilities, social protection can entrench rather than challenge gendered access to state assistance based on status rather than rights.
Paper long abstract:
Women's interactions with the state have historically been limited, both in terms of political inclusion and in the private domain where their access to state structures is often mediated by men (Nazneen et al., 2019; Mohanty, 2012). And yet, literature on citizenship and rights has often overlooked variations in citizen-state relations, based on gender and other identities of exclusion. Drawing on Mohanty's (2012) concept of women-state relations, this paper asks how access to state assistance through cash transfers is shaped by gender.
Applying a process-tracing methodology, the study analyses the targeting of Zambia's social cash transfer scheme. Based on 77 semi-structured key informant interviews with institutional stakeholders, as well as 16 focus group discussions with beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries, the research finds a predominant belief that 'able-bodied' men and women should be working to support themselves and their families. While this appears to subvert women's 'traditional' societal roles as dependents and caregivers, it does so in a punitive rather than a transformative way.
While there has been an apparently empowering shift towards increased flexibility in gender divisions in the labour market in Zambia (Evans, 2014), this has not been accompanied by a change in attitudes to unpaid care work. Caring and homemaking roles continue to have low status and are considered to be 'feminine' work, perpetuating the long-recognised 'double burden of labour' for women. The paper argues that by overlooking unequal societal responsibilities, social protection can entrench rather than challenge gendered access to state assistance based on status rather than rights.
Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality. Log in
Accepted Paper:
Paper short abstract:
Paper long abstract:
Women's interactions with the state have historically been limited, both in terms of political inclusion and in the private domain where their access to state structures is often mediated by men (Nazneen et al., 2019; Mohanty, 2012). And yet, literature on citizenship and rights has often overlooked variations in citizen-state relations, based on gender and other identities of exclusion. Drawing on Mohanty's (2012) concept of women-state relations, this paper asks how access to state assistance through cash transfers is shaped by gender.
Applying a process-tracing methodology, the study analyses the targeting of Zambia's social cash transfer scheme. Based on 77 semi-structured key informant interviews with institutional stakeholders, as well as 16 focus group discussions with beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries, the research finds a predominant belief that 'able-bodied' men and women should be working to support themselves and their families. While this appears to subvert women's 'traditional' societal roles as dependents and caregivers, it does so in a punitive rather than a transformative way.
While there has been an apparently empowering shift towards increased flexibility in gender divisions in the labour market in Zambia (Evans, 2014), this has not been accompanied by a change in attitudes to unpaid care work. Caring and homemaking roles continue to have low status and are considered to be 'feminine' work, perpetuating the long-recognised 'double burden of labour' for women. The paper argues that by overlooking unequal societal responsibilities, social protection can entrench rather than challenge gendered access to state assistance based on status rather than rights.
States, Citizens and Social Protection in Africa
Session 1 Thursday 7 July, 2022, -