User:Brogandice/Women in Malawi

With each coming year the status of women in Malawi continues to flux towards and away from gender equality. This ongoing flux is the focus of expansive academic research primarily focused on how to improve the status of women in Malawi in the contemporary setting. The status of women throughout the world, including Malawi, is measured using a wide range of indices which cover areas of social, economic, and political contexts. Focusing primarily on the time period between 2010 and the current day, the status of women in Malawi has progressed through several of these indices but has room for growth in several other indices.

The current social status of women in Malawi is effectively estimated through indices such as female access to schooling, maternal mortality rate, and life expectancy of women from birth. These indices offer a wide lens of information on women’s rights and life in Malawi and offer some understanding of how the status of women can be improved in the years and decades to come. Women’s access to schooling in Malawi as an index highlights how within the state, the ratio of male to female students for many age groups and for total students by gender shows women’s access to schooling maintains on par with men’s access. Female students in Malawi, though, see consistent declines as the age increases, signifying the failure of compulsory education amongst female students in Malawi. Along with the failure of compulsory education to ensure Malawian girls are educated, other indices highlight similar shortcomings with hope for improvement moving forward. This continues with both the life expectancy of females from birth and the maternal mortality rate. The life expectancy of women from birth in Malawi has seen significant growth over the past decade as the life expectancy of women in 2010 was approximately 58 years old whilst the most recent data from 2017 finds that women in Malawi’s average life expectancy grew to 66 years. Such a positive trajectory for both women’s access to schooling and women’s life expectancy curates an optimistic promise surrounding Malawi which is only hindered by the maternal mortality rate in Malawi which is particularly low even when compared with states at similar points in the development process.

The social advances within the state are tied to the continued economic growth for the female population within Malawi. This growth is effectively gauged by indices such as the inheritance rights for women, unemployment and labor force participation for females, along with the extent of the wage gap present between men and women in the Malawian economy. The inheritance rights index gauges the ability of women to effectively own and maintain property in comparison with their male counterparts. The current inheritance rights in Malawi are found to be equal in their dispersion between male/female children and for male/female surviving spouses. Contrary to the equality found in inheritance rights in Malawi, labour force participation and unemployment highlight the challenges for female employment in the state. The current state of female labour participation details how a higher percentage of the male population is currently employed despite the female population having a higher total employed population and a very similar unemployment rate. This gap continues with wages in Malawi as the state continues to score towards the bottom of the list when compared to states across the world. Along with their poor international ranking, the state scores poorly when compared to other sub-Saharan countries as the highest ranked sub-Saharan state, Rwanda, scored a 0.791 on a 0-1 scale while Malawi scored 0.664. These economic indices highlight how despite the rapid social improvements found in Malawi, the economic status of women requires immense growth in order to continue to strive for gender equality.

The area which holds the most promise for improving the other indices remains the political sector. Despite possessing the greatest potential for growth in the state, the political sector is presented with numerous challenges of its own as several indices highlight. Indices of particular focus include political participation amongst women, access to political institutions, and female seats in the national parliament. The political participation of women in Malawi as an index is effectively captured through a myriad of sources; these sources come to similar conclusions in regards to the political participation of women. The participation of women in the national political structure has been shown to be weaker than their male counterparts due to the normalization of negative stereotypes which women are not expected to be as politically active as men. This is worsened by the fact that women are restricted from national political structures due to the presence of gatekeepers which provide access to the resources needed to win elections and maintain seats in parliament. This limited participation is directly correlated to the limited positions which are occupied by women in the national setup. This setup, despite its commitment to equal positions for men and women, has failed to promote methods for female politicians maintaining their seats in parliament and as a result of said policies, women throughout Malawi are left without the proper structure and resources to maintain their position in the national structure. Despite the limited resources available to these female politicians, the national parliament within Malawi finds reasonable success in appointing female members to seats within the body as over 20% of the seats in parliament are held by women. Despite the limited access and resources widely available for female politicians in Malawi, the state is finding reasonable success in promoting female politicians on the national scene which works in conjunction with the positive trajectory of the social and economic indices to conclude that Malawi should expect continued growth toward gender equality.