THE GENDER ASPECT OF UNEMPLOYMENT

No-one will argue that it is much more difficult for a woman to make her way in life than for a man. The problem is not only about gender discrimination. The fragile shoulders of the fair sex have to bear the brunt of household problems, which is why not every woman can stand on her own two feet in a professional sphere, even if she is a high-class professional. Nevertheless, the number of working women in the world is currently much higher than ever before. However, there is still inequality between men and women in status, employment guarantees, wages and education, which increases the number of women among "the working poor". This term, "the working poor", means those who work, but do not make enough money to lead themselves and their family beyond the poverty line - one US dollar per person daily.

This information is contained in a report by the International Labour Organization (ILO). The report "Global Employment Trends for Women Brief - 2007" says that a bigger number of women than ever before are on the market right now (i.e. they are either working or actively looking for a job). According to ILO assessments, women accounted for 1.2 billion of the overall number of working people in 2006 - 2.9 billion. But at the same time, there are a great number of unemployed women in the world, ILO experts maintain. They are doing unproductive jobs in the agricultural and services spheres and get a lower salary than men for the same job. Unfortunately, the state of affairs is not so good in our country, and this problem is especially topical in the province.

Micro-financing - a way out of the problem?

In 2005, the Azerbaijan Micro-Finance Association (AMFA) and the Asian Development Bank drew up and implemented the project "Gender and Micro-Finance" in our country. This project aimed to involve Azerbaijani women in the crediting system because currently, this sphere involves mainly men, while women's participation has been extremely passive. For example, if in cities the percentage of women and men working in the micro-financing system is 40 to 60 per cent, in the province women have no idea about "micro-financing". According to AMFA executive director Jala Haciyeva, this project has been quite successful, which is proved by its results. Our interviewee said that the project "Gender and Micro-Finance" was launched in July 2006 and was completed in July 2007, after which AMFA started working on a final report on the work that was carried out.

For your information, we have to say that the micro-financing sector includes non-banking credit organizations that operate as financial institutions, but their difference from banks is that the so-called social effect is as important for them as self-repayment - for example, how many poor and refugee families have been given loans. Most micro-financing organizations do not require a pledge and issue loans on the basis of guarantees. They are interested not only in getting their money back, but also in helping their customer set up his own business.

The project involved 12 non-banking credit organizations. It must be noted that the project had two main goals: firstly, we wanted to raise the importance of the gender in the financial sector, and secondly, we aimed to increase the number of women who take micro-credits. You can often hear that women in Azerbaijan are passive and rarely apply to credit programmes. The main reason is that most credit organizations have very few female staff, which shows that they are not observing the gender balance. But many organizations object to this, saying that they just cannot find professional female staff. Another purpose of the project was to restore the gender balance in organizations that want it. In the process of implementing this project, we ensured that 19 women were employed by non-banking credit organizations.

"When we analyzed the work of those who resigned, those who were promoted and those who continue to work, we found out that the reason why women leave this or that organization is that they could not be a mother, a wife and a good employee at the same time, or did not have career growth opportunities like men.

"Every quarter we record statistical information: how many active customers we have, how many loans they have and how many women there are among our customers. These figures have always interested us, and we have been keeping records since 2003. During the project we found out that the percentage of women increased by 5 per cent in one year. This figure is quite impressive for Azerbaijan," Haciyeva said.

Loans for provincial women

According to the AMFA executive director, the stake was placed on the gender aspect because women are much more responsible in repaying loans than men.

"According to the surveys we carried out, women take loans in order to make money and give a better life and education to their children. When a woman takes a loan, she accurately follows the schedule of repayment as she is afraid to cause financial damage to her own family. For this reason, if the customer of an organization is a woman, in 99 per cent of cases, there is no reason to worry about the repayment of the loan.

"Women in Azerbaijan do not like taking risks, which is related to our national mentality. Having taken a loan, a woman usually does not invest all her money in one sphere. For example, she will spend part of the money on sowing wheat and the rest on cattle. In this way, she insures herself, thinking that if one business fails, the other one will be successful. If her plant-growing business is better than cattle-breeding, next time she will take money for plant-growing.

"Under the project, 32,844 women all over Azerbaijan were given loans. The overall sum of loans is 34,868,970 US dollars. Incidentally, it is interesting that 80 per cent of women who were given micro-credits are provincial residents. The reason is that in Baku there are a great number of various banks, while some regions, especially Naxcivan, are far away from the centre, which is why they can get assistance only from micro-financing organizations that have branches in regions. The highest number of women who take loans is in Naxcivan where about 70 per cent of women use the services of micro-financing organizations. The reason is the high rate of labour migration - men go to neighbouring countries to work, which is why women are looking for ways to make money and are trying to set up their own business in order to bring the men back home.

"Women often take loans for the development of the agrarian sector: cattle-breeding and plant-growing. As a rule, this business involves all members of the family. Incidentally, there are cases when a loan is taken by a woman, but the money is spent by her husband. This is due to the lack of education, and in some way, to the stereotypes that have developed in our society according which a woman cannot do business. In order to overcome this situation, it is necessary to carry out educational work among women, especially among those who live in the province, and make them aspire to independent financial growth." "I would not say that our women are very passive in business," Haciyeva said. Not every region provides opportunities to show your business abilities. Women living in mountainous regions have slimmer chances to get a loan. The reason is that they have no information about micro-crediting. Moreover, women are often afraid that they will not be able to repay the loan in time. It is necessary to organize training sessions on financial education in all regions of our country. I mean women should learn not only how to get money, but also how to multiply their capital."

In Azerbaijan where women comprise more than half of the population and where poverty feminization is obvious just like in many other countries, the problem of equality is especially dangerous. The general economic crisis in the first years of independence, unemployment, industrial and professional stagnation and employment difficulties brought many women to the poverty line in our country. Assistance from the state and various international organizations in developing small businesses, including women's businesses, could be a way out of the current situation.