Women’s Rights to Social Security and Social Protection

Women’s Rights to Social Security and Social Protection
Author: Beth Goldblatt
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2014-10-23
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1849469776

This collection examines the human rights to social security and social protection from a women's rights perspective. The contributors stress the need to address women's poverty and exclusion within a human rights framework that takes account of gender. The chapters unpack the rights to social security and protection and their relationship to human rights principles such as gender equality, participation and dignity. Alongside conceptual insights across the field of women's social security rights, the collection analyses recent developments in international law and in a range of national settings. It considers the ILO's Social Protection Floors Recommendation and the work of UN treaty bodies. It explores the different approaches to expansion of social protection in developing countries (China, Chile and Bolivia). It also discusses conditionality in cash transfer programmes, a central debate in social policy and development, through a gender lens. Contributors consider the position of poor women, particularly single mothers, in developed countries (Australia, Canada, the United States, Ireland and Spain) facing the damaging consequences of welfare cuts. The collection engages with shifts in global discourse on the role of social policy and the way in which ideas of crisis and austerity have been used to undermine rights with harsh impacts on women.

Developing the Right to Social Security - A Gender Perspective

Developing the Right to Social Security - A Gender Perspective
Author: Beth Goldblatt
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2016-06-10
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1317311388

The right to social security, found in international law and in the constitutions of many nations, contributes to the alleviation of poverty globally. Social security and its articulation as a human right have received increased attention in recent years both in response to austerity cuts to welfare in developed countries and as a means of lifting millions out of poverty in developing countries. Women, disproportionately affected by poverty in all parts of the world, stand to gain from a right to social security that takes cognisance of gender discrimination and disadvantage. This book interprets and redefines the right to social security from a gender perspective. Drawing on feminist theory, the book formulates a conceptual approach and a set of principles for a substantively equal, gendered right to social security. In so doing, it challenges the relationship between the right to social security and traditional conceptions of work that exclude women’s labour including their caring roles. It argues that the right must have application at the transnational level if it is to address the changing nature of women’s work due to globalisation. The book applies the framework and principles it develops to a study of international law focusing on the work of key United Nations human rights bodies. It also demonstrates the value of this framework in its analysis of three countries’ social security programmes - South Africa, Australia and India. In combining feminist thought on the nature of work and care with equality theories in developing the right to social security from a gender perspective this book expands the capacity of the right to advance gender equality and address gendered poverty.

Social Security and Social Protection

Social Security and Social Protection
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 28
Release: 1993
Genre: Sex discrimination against women
ISBN:

Seeks to identify the sources of gender bias in international and national legislation. Addresses the question of how to make social security laws gender neutral. Examines discrimination in the application of social security legislation, as well as the less obvious constraints related to economic and social contexts. References.

Background Document for the Workshop - 'Interpreting and Advancing Women's Rights to Social Security and Social Protection'

Background Document for the Workshop - 'Interpreting and Advancing Women's Rights to Social Security and Social Protection'
Author: Beth Goldblatt
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2014
Genre:
ISBN:

This Background Paper was written for the 2013 Onati Workshop 'Interpreting and Advancing Women's Rights to Social Security and Social Protection' by Beth Goldblatt and Lucie Lamarche. Both the ILO and UN human rights treaty bodies revisited the human right to social security in the last decade. Namely, the UN Experts Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights adopted in 2007 General Comment no 19 on the right to social security. ILO adopted in 2012 Recommendation no 202 concerning national floors of social protection. But do such important initiatives "engender" the right to social security? Important national initiatives address the issue of women's poverty and extreme poverty. Do such initiatives respect all the components of the gender equality standard? And, reciprocally, all dimensions of the human right to social security? Do women have a human right to be more than not so poor? What does the interdependent interpretation of the right to social security mean for all women in all situations: working women, women of the informal sector, women embedded in productive (domestic or other) activities? The authors suggest that the right to social security can be transformative for women if properly interpreted.

Social Security

Social Security
Author: International Labour Office
Publisher: International Labour Organization
Total Pages: 124
Release: 2001
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9789221126249

This report offers an in-depth overview of the important, and sometimes controversial, issues surrounding social security in a global context: its relationship to employment and development, its extension in terms of personal coverage, and its contribution to gender equality, as well as its financing. Consisting of resolutions and conclusions drawn from the International Labour Conference, 89th Session, 2001, this book contains the report to the conference - prepared for the general discussion on social security and sets out the key topics and priorities for providing and managing social security systems. Global trends in social security expenditure are covered, as the report addresses such pivotal questions as: Is social security facing an ageing crisis? Is it facing a globalization crisis? Has it reached its limits in terms of affordability? The concept of social dialogue, and its part in strengthening and expanding social security, is also discussed and the report considers how family and local solidarity networks, institutions, enterprises, governments and the international community can help enhance the effectiveness of social security. (ILO Website)

Gender and Social Protection in the Developing World

Gender and Social Protection in the Developing World
Author: Rebecca Holmes
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2013-03-14
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1780320442

Millions of pounds of international development funds are invested annually in social protection programmes to tackle poverty. Poverty is perpetuated by risk and vulnerability, much of which is gendered. Despite this, little attention has been paid to gender-sensitive policy and programme design and implementation. Gender and Social Protection in the Developing World introduces a much-needed gender lens to these debates. Drawing on empirical evidence from poor households and communities in Africa, Asia and Latin America, the book provides rich insight into the effects of a range of social protection instruments. It concludes that with relatively simple changes to design and with investment in implementation capacity, social protection can contribute to transforming gender relations at the individual, intrahousehold and community levels. With a foreword by Stephen Devereux.

A Challenge to Social Security

A Challenge to Social Security
Author: Richard V. Burkhauser
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 299
Release: 2013-10-22
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1483261263

A Challenge to Social Security: The Changing Roles of Women and Men in American Society is a collection of papers that deals with social security reform. The papers concern insurance and pure income transfer aspects of various proposals and the assumptions regarding the family and work behavior found in each proposal. The proposed reforms attempt to fix the shortcomings of the Old Age, Survivors Insurance (OASI) Program, sometimes at the expense of reducing the subsidy for women who remain at home, or through alterations of the subsidy's nature. Other papers discuss the current spouse benefits under the dual entitlement rule; homemaker credits; child-care drop-out years; and one going against the grain, earnings sharing. One paper sees earning sharing as the only way to provide security to the homemaker without being unfair to the working wife. Other papers tackle the issues of women and a two-tier social security system; the double-decker alternative to eliminate dependency under social security; and the social security reform from a feminist's perspective. This collection can prove useful for economists, sociologists, political scientists, and policy makers involved in welfare and social security.

Regulating the Lives of Women

Regulating the Lives of Women
Author: Mimi Abramovitz
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2017-08-23
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1351855271

Widely praised as an outstanding contribution to social welfare and feminist scholarship, Regulating the Lives of Women (1988, 1996) was one of the first books to apply a race and gender lens to the U.S. welfare state. The first two editions successfully exposed how myths and stereotypes built into welfare state rules and regulations define women as "deserving" or "undeserving" of aid depending on their race, class, gender, and marital status. Based on considerable new research, the preface to this third edition explains the rise of Neoliberal policies in the mid-1970s, the strategies deployed since then to dismantle the welfare state, and the impact of this sea change on women and the welfare state after 1996. Published upon the twentieth anniversary of "welfare reform," Regulating the Lives of Women offers a timely reminder that public policy continues to punish poor women, especially single mothers-of-color for departing from prescribed wife and mother roles. The book will appeal to undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate students of social work, sociology, history, public policy, political science, and women, gender, and black studies – as well as today’s researchers and activists.

Gender and Social Security Reform

Gender and Social Security Reform
Author: Neil Gilbert
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 362
Release: 2017-07-05
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1351518100

Aging populations are creating tremendous pressures on social security systems throughout the world, lifting the need for reform to the top of policy agendas. Proposed reforms often have different implications for men and women. At the same time, traditional family and gender roles are changing with the decline in fertility rates and the rapid rise in women's participation in the paid labor force.While trying to adapt social security systems to the fiscal demands of aging societies, policymakers face the compelling challenge of how to design pension reforms that achieve fair outcomes for women. Gender and Social Security Reform examines how different countries are attempting to meet this challenge. Drawing on comparative studies of European and Latin American countries along with a series of case studies of individual countries, the book provides insights into the gender dimensions of alternative designs for reform. All of the countries studied have recently reformed or are about to reform their pension systems, with a clear trend towards tightening the link between contributions and benefits in order to secure the long-term sustainability of pensions. The book also alerts policymakers to other issues: Should pension systems be gender-neutral or compensate for inequalities in paid and unpaid labor? Does compensation preserve gender discrimination? Are unisex life tables a reliable or fair redistributive tool for women? Or should annuities be linked directly to life expectancy, differentiated by sex and potentially other factors? Does a minimum pension guarantee risk compromising the principle of individual responsibility and work? How can recognition for caring work be balanced with work incentives? What can be done to help social security systems preserve freedom of choice in terms of work-family balance for women, men or the modem family unit as a whole?In analyzing the gender implications of recent social security policies and practices