Women as Agents of Change : Having Voice in Society and Influencing Policy
The World Bank's World Development Report (WDR) on gender equality and development identified women's voice, agency, and participation as a key dimension of gender equality and as a major policy priority. Agency, as defined in the WDR2012...
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/01/20432425/women-agents-change-having-voice-society-influencing-policy http://hdl.handle.net/10986/21031 |
| Summary: | The World Bank's World Development
Report (WDR) on gender equality and development identified
women's voice, agency, and participation as a key
dimension of gender equality and as a major policy priority.
Agency, as defined in the WDR2012, is the ability to use
endowments to take advantage of opportunities to achieve
desired outcomes. In particular, WDR2012 focused on five
expressions of agency: women's access to and control
over resources; freedom of movement; freedom from the risk
of violence; decision-making over family formation; and
having voice in society and influencing policy. An important
expression of women's agency is women's political
participation and their ability to fully engage in public
life. This background paper focuses on women s ability to
play a public role in politics and to influence
policy-making. Using the data available, it examines the
current status of women in politics and makes the case for
the full and equitable participation of women in public
life. It reviews the direct and indirect barriers that exist
to prevent women's political participation and analyzes
strategies that have been used to increase it. Finally, the
paper identifies the connections between the five
expressions of agency and priorities for future work. |
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