Time Allocation and the Life Cycle of Women and Men in Poland

The way people spend time determines the quality of their lives. Work takes a significant share of the time we have at our disposal. The allocation of time between paid and unpaid work depends on gender as well as age, and it influences women's and men's opportunities. This chapter analyses the allocation of women's and men's time between paid and unpaid work in the context of life-cycle. In the first part, economic theories concerning decision making processes about how to allocate time between market work and household are presented. The allocation of women's and men's time in distinguished age groups in Poland is analysed in the second part of the chapter. The analysis is based on time use data from research conducted by Central Statistical Office in years 2003-2004. The last part presents the logistic function that allows to determine estimated maxima of women's and men's activities both in paid and unpaid work. The analysis confirmed that time allocation depends both on gender and life-cycle.

Innovation, Innovativeness, and Gender

The chapter deals with the search for the sources of broadly understood creativity in solving various problems: social, political, practical (related to everyday life), family, economic, culture, religious, etc. wherever traditional approaches proved ineffective. These creative solutions - unconventional and having their practical application - became innovations. How multi-dimensional one's predispositions to solve problems are affects the person's capabilities to develop innovations. In view of the growing importance of gender studies, the already mentioned elements should be supplemented with one more - gender. Hence, the concept of Innovative Gender is introduced where men and women are granted equality of measures, opportunities, and situations encompassed by the innovation genome model. The starting point for Innovative Gender research is the establishment of four dedicated matrixes containing information (variables) that describes a given area, taking into account gender issuer, with collaboration playing a major role here.

Gender and Industrial Creativity in Poland

The chapter deals with the problem of seeking possibilities to utilise patent databases in the research on dynamics and development directions in science, technology, innovation activity as well as on structural changes in economy, taking into account gender aspect. The key research objectives include: drawing a statistical picture of creative industry activity in Poland in the years 1995 - 2013, taking into account gender aspect; assessing the convergence as regards the patents obtained by men and women; identifying technological areas where women are present. The chapter, for the first time, presents a statistical picture of industrial creativity of men and women in Poland in the period of economic transformation, based on patent statistics.

Money of Her Own and the Politics of Women's Empowerment

The impact of micro finance initiatives on poor (often illiterate) women is discussed in this paper. The way women begin to understand market forces and negotiate the best terms for themselves is examined. This seems to link to increasing confidence, a stronger voice and finally negotiating a space for themselves. It is observed that if planned empowerment inputs of any type are also provided, the gains are exponential and go much deeper. This paper draws examples from three initiatives: 1. A micro finance scheme for women introduced in one district of the state of Rajasthan, India; 2. An initiative that was introduced as a subsidiary activity for an agricultural intensification scheme supported by IFAD in four districts of Bangladesh; 3. The profile of one woman in the state of Chhattisgarh, India who has worked with the State Administration to change her own life and that of many other women.

The Diversification of the Creative Activity of Men and Women in Poland, Hungary, Ireland, and Norway

This chapter presents the results of the new aspect of patent statistics exploration which is the identification of women and men being inventors of patents and evaluation their creative activity. Two research objectives were formulated: first to explore the diversification of the dynamics of change for the patent activity of men and women and second, to identify the diversification of the accumulation of the patent activity of men and women for the entire period of 1999-2013 in the following countries under examination: Ireland, Poland, Hungary and Norway. The main conclusion is that the greatest dynamics of change in the number of women who were the creators of the patents was observed in Ireland 17.45% per year. The greatest patent activity of women from all the countries under analysis who were the creators of the patent was observed in the manufacture of chemicals, chemical products and fibers.

Is M-PESA a Model for Financial Inclusion and Women Empowerment in Kenya?

Since the 1980s, the gender gap in most countries—rich and developing—has been narrowing. Women and girls are going to school more, living longer, getting better jobs, and acquiring legal rights and protections. Despite these strides, women in poor rural communities remain financially excluded from formal financial services. This chapter explores the impact of mobile banking on financial inclusion and women's empowerment in Kenya. The aim is to evaluate whether mobile banking is a form of financial inclusion and women's financial empowerment in Kenya. Firstly, it gives a clear background of a form of mobile banking in Kenya locally called M-PESA. Secondly, it evaluates how M-PESA is a form financial inclusion. Thirdly, it examines if M-PESA is a form of financial empowerment for women and girls in Kenya and lastly, offers recommendations on how M-PESA can effectively become a mode of financial inclusion and women's empowerment in Kenya.

Systemic Gender Barriers in the Building and Construction Industry

This chapter examines structural gender-based disadvantage experienced by women in the building industry. This is found in trade and technical occupations, but is much more prevalent in administrative and management roles in small and micro businesses where female family members and spouses carry out work often for little or no remuneration or recognition. Nor does this group have any protection in income support, injury or sickness cover or retirement benefits. This also contributes to inefficiency in the industry as there is minimal opportunity for professional development or skill enhancement. Using a non-positivist methodology, the authors found that this phenomenon is particularly prevalent in the building and construction and that many were unpaid and were employed in other occupations. This disadvantage contributed to status driven tensions between these women, often called co-preneurs, and those women working on site in trade and technical roles.

Economic Empowerment of Women in Pakistan

This chapter gives an account of the situation on the status of women in Pakistan. It studies the various steps taken by the Government of Pakistan to empower the women. It also studies the various ways to empower women in Pakistan. The chapter only studies the empowerment of women in economic sphere due to the limited time and resources of the author. Moreover, the chapter focuses on the problems of women to participate in economic affairs, the hindrances in achieving economic uplift/empowerment and equality of women in Pakistan and the existing laws and policies of the government regarding women's empowerment and their implementation. Furthermore, it gives a brief comparison of women's economic empowerment with the neighboring countries, India and Bangladesh as these countries have a similar institutional structure as Pakistan. It then seeks to learn from the successful examples of the countries mentioned regarding the matter.

Gender Economics

This chapter will introduce a definition of the theory of Gender Economics to create a development pathway for the future study of Gender Economics as a concept. The definition covers Gender Economics and its application in business at a micro level, as well as in policy and economic theory at a macro level. This chapter introduces Diversity Economics, a concept that looks at leveraging innovation and performance from diversity. This chapter firstly defines four major categories of economic activity where this author believes that gender, and particularly women, plays a role, i.e. Investment, Policy, Environment, Innovation and Health. Secondly this chapter details examples from three of the category definitions of Gender Economics.

Social Connectedness and the Declining Life Satisfaction of Australian Females

Research into subjective well-being suggests that happier people are healthier and more professionally productive, achieve goals more easily and are more often successful in personal relationships. Unfortunately, studies in the USA and Britain suggest that there has been an overall decline in self-reported well-being since the 1970's, particularly for females. Data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey appear to corroborate the international evidence. Using HILDA 2001 to 2011 data, this chapter investigates: levels of life satisfaction; association between life satisfaction and social connectedness; and whether declines in life satisfaction can be explained by declines in social connectedness. A positive association is found between life satisfaction and almost all measures of social connectedness for both genders. This association, however, only partly explains observed declines in life satisfaction. This research emphasises the importance of frequent, meaningful social connections and the urgency for governments to address declining well-being.