It is often considered that women’s employment or self-employment can ensure empowerment. But the rhetoric regarding employment or entrepreneurship and empowerment needs critical thought. The relationship between these two issues is often considered in an overly simplified way.
To me, the concept of empowerment is strongly associated with the issue of freedom of choice. Consequently, it needs to be investigated whether women’s way of expenditure complies with the essence of empowerment, ie the freedom of choice. It requires a strong understanding regarding whether the earning-generating status of women can eventually confirm their economic empowerment.
The first criticism regarding this rhetoric revolves around women’s freedom to spend their earnings as per their will. There is a proliferation of studies on microcredit programmes in exploring this issue. While the bright side of the stories has been found, it has also been unveiled that many women cannot spend according to the way they want. Male family members dictate the areas of expenditure. Some women are even simply used as a mechanism of gaining funds from micro-credit institutions and generating earnings, whilst menfolk of the family, particularly husbands, hold the sole control over the funds in terms of expenditure.
The issue is not limited only to the poor-class, almost illiterate women in developing contexts. It has also been revealed that many middle-class, comparatively educated women, who are engaged in small businesses, have less control over their decision-making power regarding expenditure. Similar findings resonate with the outcome of the studies on women in employment. For instance, many women in Bangladesh require the permission of their husbands to provide funds from their income to their natal family. Many women are not even allowed to spend for religious issues, ie zakat, based on their will.
Those women, who cannot use their earned money in their own way, cannot be considered empowered. In other words, the income-generating capacity of women does not necessarily ascertain economic empowerment. While this issue has received considerable attention from researchers, there remains another crucial, but under-recognized aspect which warrants attention.
Some feminists have raised a critical question regarding how women spend money according to their will. Many women spend a substantial amount of their earnings on expensive dresses, make-up, gym activities, body shaping, and other beautification purposes. Put simply, many women are spending a lot on their looks.
Having a closer look into this issue reveals that many women are trying to satisfy the patriarchal expectation of society, while society expects them to be pretty. As a point of caution, women might like to remain beautiful for themselves, but this is not the case for too many women.
The argument is that the apparel and beauty industry is influencing women’s expenditure patterns. Men may not be directly forcing women to spend on beautification, but given the patriarchal expectations, many women still spend their hard-earned money to meet those standards. This patriarchal approach has only been inflated by the apparel and beauty industry.
Men may not be directly forcing women to spend on beautification, but given the patriarchal expectations, many women still spend their hard-earned money to meet those standards
This criticism is based on the Western context. While the exact criticism concerning spending on beautification cannot be largely related to women in our country, the issue raises a critical concern regarding whether women’s expenditure is influenced by expectations of the highly patriarchal society.
We can consider another kind of example. According to Bangladeshi society, women are not financially responsible for their natal family after getting married. Whereas many women freely share their earnings with in-laws’ families, many of them do not feel any urge to spend much (or anything at all) for their parents in a similar manner. Apparently, they are practising their freedom of choice, but their “willingness” has been shaped by the patriarchal society. Hence, they cannot be considered as empowered. Many such issues require scrutiny regarding whether the patriarchal practices influence the desire for women’s spending.
The discussion suggests that even while earning, there remains a question of whether women truly hold control over their expenditure. A further question can be posed regarding whether their disposition is a simple response to patriarchal expectations of society. These questions can challenge the overly simplified approach regarding the cause-and-effect relationship between employment and empowerment.
The government, different non-government agencies, and other organizations are highly interested in creating employment opportunities or providing funds for entrepreneurship for women throughout the world with the notion of empowering them. Nonetheless, it requires conscious consideration of women’s expenditure issues and creating awareness about it for women’s empowerment in a practical sense.
In a similar vein, we need to critically understand diversified challenges regarding gender parity so that practical measures can be adopted to accelerate the process in order to see a meaningful change in society.
When our focus is to accelerate actions for women’s equality, we have to acknowledge different challenges that can hinder this process. This article concentrates only on one aspect to illustrate the issue.
Dr Jasmine Jaim is a Professor at Institute of Business Administration, Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh. Email: [email protected]
