https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9236-8790
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Abstract
Using data from the Demographic and Health Surveys from Malawi and Peru, we identify human recognition deprived women and analyse social-demographic and socioeconomic factors influencing human recognition deprivation. We find educated spouses/partners are less likely to provide negative human recognition to women. We also observe women’s education has a small non-monotonic impact on the likelihood of human recognition deprivation. Women are also likely to be deprived if they were married more than once, have alcoholic partner/spouses and exert retaliatory behaviour. Additional heterogeneous outcomes exist for agricultural women in both countries. We argue that women’s human recognition can be improved overall with social policies/programs tackling alcohol use, violence and education in both countries.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Supplementary Materials
Supplementary Materials are available for this article which can be accessed via the online version of this journal available at https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2019.1666977
Notes
1. Poverty here refers to monetary and non-monetary lack of means and includes recognition deprivation.
2. See Hegel (Citation1991) and Hegel and Miller (Citation1977).
3. According to Laitinen and Ikäheimo (Citation2011, p. 5), when individuals are recognised, they are able to build and maintain healthy personalities and improve the qualities of their social and economic life. Laitinen and Ikäheimo (Citation2011, p. 5) understood the concept of recognition to involve identifying and acknowledging ‘an entity to be of value’ plus further applying these sub-concepts to only persons, groups of persons in the interpersonal sense. This is in line with Castleman’s (Citation2013, p. 8) definition of human recognition.
4. See Castleman (Citation2016, p. 135), for details on the theory of human recognition and its role in development.
5. See Alkire (Citation2007, pp. 347–359) for an introduction into the missing dimensions of poverty.
6. See Sen (Citation2001) for constitutive and instrumental roles of intangible components of development. Human recognition is significant in itself for human development and instrumental in supporting an individual’s opportunities towards valuable outcomes (Castleman, Citation2013, p. 8).
7. Social-/self-esteem is defined from the viewpoint of injustice and freedom by Schweiger (Citation2015, p. 144) as the notion that everyone deserves to be recognised for their contribution to society.
8. Direct/interpersonal violence includes physical, sexual, emotional and psychological violence.
9. Institutions are defined as the formal and informal constraints that facilitate coordination among people, functioning as constraints that shape human interaction (Alesina & Giuliano, Citation2015, p. 902).
10. Anglin (Citation1998, p. 145) identifies structural violence as ‘[…] the expropriation of vital economic and non-material resources and the operation of systems of social categorization that subvert people’s chances for survival […]’ and normalisation of these practices as status quo. Gender relations fall into this category as women are not only socially and culturally marginalised but are denied the opportunity for emotional and physical wellbeing, exposing them to assault, rape and events that cause death. Also, see Galtung (Citation1969, pp. 167–191).
11. We observe human recognition transactions across self (intrapersonal), household (interpersonal) and community (institutional) domains. See Castleman (Citation2013, p. 1) for insight on domains of human recognition.
12. According to Connell (Citation2012, p. 1677), structures refer to large-scale patterns and cultural reference areas of everyday life with emotional and material constraints that occur across institutions, social and cultural sites including families and communities. Institutions here refer to community structures because in most agrarian communities, resource access, power and recognition are re-shaped at the cultural level and imbedded into institutions in the community.
13. We define culture in line with Alesina and Giuliano (Citation2015, p. 902) not as an informal institution but as a concept with equal footing with formal institutions (i.e. the law). For consistency, we restrict our use of these terms to institutions and culture/cultural practices.
14. Diprose (Citation2007, p. 438) gives a definition on the role of interpersonal violence in multidimensional poverty calculation. In our analysis, institutional violence is represented as societal power inequality.
15. Because human recognition transactions are bidirectional requiring provision and reception of recognition, we identify the self domain as capturing the distinct interactions of human recognition provision, to oneself in form of mental acceptance of violence; and decisions pertaining exclusively to oneself and one’s environment. Particularly, self domain indicators capture the extent to which individuals’ exercise final autonomy about personal concerns. These concerns are seen in decision-making indicators on issues that affect ones’ self like own healthcare, visit to one’s family, among others. However, individuals ‘ability to engage in decision-making is determined by socio-cultural, religious, and ethnic setups that define gender roles. Generally, most studies find that poor and rural women are less likely to be involved in any decision-making. For further details, see Acharya, Bell, Simkhada, van Teijlingen, and Regmi (Citation2010, pp. 1–12), Alemayehu and Meskele (Citation2017, pp. 213–221), Becker, Fonseca-Becker, and Schenck-Yglesias (Citation2006, pp. 2313–2326) and Senarath and Gunawardena (Citation2009, pp. 137–143).
16. See Castleman (Citation2013, p. 8; Citation2016, pp. 135–151) for detailed insights on the four distinct ways in which human recognition theoretically affects psychic and material wellbeing of its recipients.
17. See Alkire and Foster (Citation2011, pp. 476–478) for a detailed explanation on poverty index derivation.
18. See Alkire (Citation2007, pp. 353–356) on physical safety and interpersonal violence as missing dimensions of poverty.
19. According to Castleman (Citation2011, p. 3), humiliation and emotional violence are closest measures of recognition transactions because they involve degrading and devaluing a person as a human being. Physical forms of violence and sexual violence are examples of high manifestation of negative human recognition because perpetrator usually does not view victims as human but as objects or property. Women’s right to freedom and self-determination are included because it signifies how women’s autonomy and basic rights are recognised within the society.
20. The wealth index is the composite measure of a household’s living standard expressed in quantiles, using data on household ownership of selected assets, housing construction materials, types of water access and sanitation facilities (Rutstein & Johnson, Citation2004, pp. 1–77).
21. Within the matrilineal system in Malawi (Berge, Kambewa, Munthali, & Wiig, Citation2014, p. 62), land and other inheritances are passed on through the maternal line giving women greater control over resources. In Malawi, the Chewa, Yao, Ngoni and Lomwe are matrilineal tribes but only the Yao tribe practice both matrilineal inheritance and Islamic religion. Also, see Phiri (Citation1983, pp. 257–274) on lineage system in Malawi.