This policy brief published by Act Church of Sweden together with The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation highlights the importance of social protection in the work towards gender equality. It introduces social protection, describes why it is important for women and girls and summarises the main evidence of the impact of social protection on gender equality. It ends with recommendations on how to develop gender-responsive social protection systems.
What is social protection?
Social protection is a term that covers pensions, child benefits, and direct income support across the life course, as well as access to health and social care. It refers to receiving support from the state during all phases of life, especially when we are particularly vulnerable. Although social protection, or social security as it is also called, is a human right, most people in the world still do not have access to it even at a very basic level.
The 2030 Agenda, now agreed by all countries of the world, includes an agreement on a “minimum package”, called a social protection floor, that all countries must achieve by 2030 (see box below). The commitment to implement social protection floors is a specific target (3) in Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1 End Poverty and underpins the achievement of many of the other SDGs.
Evidence and extensive research show that social protection both directly improves people’s lives and indirectly has positive effects on a societal level. This brief highlights the importance of social protection in the work towards gender equality.
Financing social protection
The state bears the ultimate responsibility for social protection systems, but civil society also plays a key role. Women’s rights organisations and other civil society actors can provide knowledge, influence the design and construction of systems, and contribute to the implementation and dissemination of information. Sometimes civil society, not least religious actors, complements the state by providing social services such as education, social care and health care.
Social protection must first and foremost be financed by the countries themselves, through social security contributions and taxes. International aid may also be needed to support the establishment of social protection floors, especially in the countries with the weakest economies.
Today, a very small part of all aid is used to support the construction of security systems (just 1.2 per cent before the COVID-19 pandemic). Several organisations mobilised by the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors are advocating for the establishment of a Global Fund for Social Protection that will improve coordination and strengthen international support.
For everyone or those most in need?
Sometimes social protection is only targeted at people who are considered poor and thus particularly in need of support. Unfortunately, the targeting methods used to identify “the poorest” are often inaccurate. Among other things, it leads to the exclusion of many who are actually entitled to be supported. Moreover, anyone can have an accident, get sick, become disabled or lose their livelihood, as clearly demonstrated by the coronavirus pandemic. Poverty-targeted and means-tested programmes are also much more expensive to administer and can and do stigmatise recipients.
Means-tested support will always be needed as a complement, but universal systems that include everyone should be the norm, with clear categories of target groups such as children, the sick, persons with disabilities and older persons. Such systems are generally popular, thus increasing the chance of public support both for long-term financing and for maintaining high quality.
At the same time, conditions for social trust and a functioning social contract are strengthened. An important advantage of establishing clear categories for who is entitled to various benefits is that people then can understand for themselves whether they have the right to such benefits or not, which then also reduces the risk of corruption.
Why is social protection important for gender equality?
Social protection is particularly important for women and girls.
Women tend to live in poverty more often than men and are also more likely to have informal employment or be in low-paid jobs. In conflict-affected countries, women are particularly hard hit by the consequences of war, since violence against women increases. Women also have less savings of their own, as well as limited access to financial resources and services, such as the possibility to open bank accounts, take loans or inherit property.
Discriminatory norms and laws are one of the main reasons for this, especially religious and traditional family law, which can mean, for instance, that a woman does not have the right to leave her home, work, inherit land or take a loan without her husband’s permission.
Risks can arise throughout life in relation to sexual and reproductive health, such as pregnancy and parenthood, which creates a need for social protection. The same applies to, primarily women’s exposure to intimate partner violence, which has worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic as people have been isolated in their homes. Particular risks for girls include teenage and early pregnancies, child, early and forced marriages and loss of education, all risks that have been exacerbated during the pandemic.
Women are largely responsible for care work – paid and unpaid.
Public social care is an important part of social protection and is crucial for relieving women of unpaid care work. Globally, women are estimated to perform three times more hours of unpaid care work than men. Women’s workloads in care work have also increased dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic, when schools and pre-schools were closed down, and the need for health care and care in the home has increased. Since women also dominate the labour force in formal care provision, it is especially important for this group that wage levels and working conditions are decent.
The impact of social protection on gender equality
Women’s economic empowerment and opportunities for formal employment outside the home are increasing. Studies show that direct income support, not least when it is paid directly to women, gives recipients increased financial autonomy and opportunities to invest in activities that generate income. For many older women, a pension is the first individual income and provides a new kind of freedom. It shows the importance of individuals being entitled to social security, as opposed to just families or households. Access to child and care in older age reduces women’s unpaid care work and is often a prerequisite for women to be able to work outside the home. This was a central issue in the Swedish daycare debate in the 1970s, and it is receiving increased attention in the international debate.
Reduced exposure to violence. Many studies show that social protection leads to reduced intimate partner and domestic violence, even if this was not an explicit goal for the programmes. The reason for this is that the risk of conflicts in households decreases when acute hunger and poverty are alleviated. Moreover, the status and agency of women, including older women and women with disabilities, both in their own as well as others’ eyes, are strengthened when they are recipients of financial support. Finally, their economic autonomy increases. It can also simply be about social protection giving women the financial means to leave violent relationships. There have been fears that benefits given directly to women could exacerbate family conflicts and increase women’s exposure to violence. However, it has been difficult to find scientific evidence to support this claim.
Stereotypical gender roles change – or are reinforced. The design of social security systems can help to transform norms about men’s and women’s responsibilities for the provision of care and domestic work. Programmes designed to encourage girls’ schooling can, for example, reduce the pressure for girls’ participation in domestic work. The strengthened role of fathers, as seen in shared parental insurance, is another example of social protection policies contributing to the transformation of gender norms. However, many social protection programmes introduced in developing countries in recent years may have reinforced traditional norms about women’s main responsibilities for children and have rather increased the workloads of women. This has happened primarily when cash transfers are made conditional to certain behaviours. Several studies show that regular cash benefits do have positive effects on school attendance and vaccination rates – regardless of whether these are required conditions for receiving support or not. However, if the benefit is conditional on school attendance this can be counterproductive and increase women’s workloads.
Gender-blind programmes can be discriminatory. Many benefits are designed to be paid out to women. This is however not enough for said benefits to contribute to gender equality, as they can still be “gender-blind”. Social programmes that do not take into account gender roles and the specific needs of women and men can disadvantage women and thereby increase inequality. If, for example, a woman’s freedom of movement is limited, social benefits that require them to obtain money outside or far away from the home, can prove to be discriminatory. Similarly, programmes that do not take into account sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability or other multiple intersecting forms of discrimination can also limit people’s access to social protection.
Recommendations
- Support developing countries’ efforts to implement their commitments on social protection floors for all, including basic health care.
- Design support so that it is given to individuals rather than to households. This includes ensuring that data collection is disaggregated on gender, age, disability and other factors and that everyone has access to official forms of identification.
- When designing social protection systems, always take gender equality into account from the start. For social programmes to contribute to greater gender equality, the driving and underlying forces of inequality must be counteracted, and the position of women actively strengthened. This entails, among many things, not implementing conditional cash transfers where benefits are paid on conditions that may increase the workload of women.
- As a general rule of thumb, pay family support to women – and do so not because they have and take greater responsibility for the care in families, but do so because it can strengthen women’s autonomy. Moreover, ensure that payments are made through channels that women have access to, whether those channels are digital or not.
- Leverage the opportunities to combine social protection programmes with other active strategies to promote gender equality and gender norm changes. This could, for instance, involve supplementing financial support with services (“cash plus”) or creating links to sectors such as SRHR, peacebuilding, climate, humanitarian work and broader efforts for economic and gender equality. Moreover, it can entail working with men, religious or cultural leaders or other actors in positions of power to challenge gender norms.
- Invest in public child care and care of older persons.
- Collaborate with others. Various public authorities, but also civil society organisations and the private sector, have resources and skills that can contribute to well-implemented programmes. Any knowledge about work for gender equality needs to be utilised, regardless of where it may be found.