Unveiling Gender Inequality: The Balkan Sworn Virgin and the Ongoing Struggle for Equality in Albania

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Introduction

Enshrouded in swathes of clouds and adorning the landscape with lush forests and jagged cliffs, the formidable Accursed Mountains envelop the traditional, patriarchal societies of Northern Albania. Ancient traditions linked to rural mountain life linger here, such as that of the Balkan Sworn Virgin. Abiding by the duty to maintain family honor, a woman— perhaps even a child— relinquishes her femininity, abandoning her gendered clothing. Adopting her new role, the woman will abdicate total compliance to men purely on the basis of sex and will now serve as the guardian of family honor, upholding a tradition rooted in both misogyny and the strict respect for honor in Albanian culture. The woman converts her gender from female to male. This is an illustration of the Balkan Sworn Virgin, a phenomenon native to the Balkans, originating from at least the fifteenth century under Ottoman rule (Brujic 114).

Typically, a woman becomes a Balkan Sworn Virgin in order to preserve household honor. Other reasons include avoiding an arranged marriage, proceeding with an otherwise “dishonorable” or illegitimate divorce to continue the male family members’ manual labor duties in the event of a blood feud, in which male presence beyond the household is forbidden, or at the very least, unwise (Brujic 117).

Once a woman became a Balkan Sworn Virgin, she took an oath (besa) of celibacy and could no longer marry (Young 42). Many of these women donned clothing typical of men, associated with men, disdained the company of women, adopted male names and male pronouns, took on male social obligations, such as participating in the blood feud, and enjoyed the privileges of men, such as being able to smoke, drink, and enter spaces reserved purely for men (Brujic 115). Some entered the world as newborns already having been dictated as a Balkan Sworn Virgin by their father, while others either had the choice made for them during childhood or opted themselves to take the besa (Brujic 117). 

Nevertheless, the tradition, which has been vanishing since the decline of Ottoman rule and the beginnings of communism, remains a significant relic of patriarchal tribal society in the Balkans for its portrayal of a deep ridge between men and women. Gender equality has been on the rise today in the region, but this cultural practice, despite its perishing, reveals the violently patriarchal conditions responsible for sustaining it (Brujic 114). Few ethnographic studies have been conducted, although most existing documentation focuses on the practice in Albania rather than in the rest of the Balkan nations. Therefore, this article will concentrate on the practice conducted in Albania and how notions of honor uphold the endurance of patriarchal standards today.

Historical Context: The Kanun, Honor, and the Bloodfeud Among Gheg Albanians

Historically, Albania had been a feudal society dominated by tribes and ruled by the Ottoman Empire in name only, for the Accursed Mountains proved too difficult to trek (Young 2 and Brujic 125). Despite acknowledging Turkish suzerainty and the technical supremacy of sheriat (Ottoman Sharia Law), Albanians were, and still are, heavily guided by the Kanun, a set of twelve books of oral tradition regulating “all aspects of mountain life,” codified not until the nineteenth century but in existence long before Ottoman domination (Young 41, 51, and 132). Several versions of the Kanun exist, all named after a patriarchal figure, but the Kanun of Lekë Dukagjini reigns supreme in Northern Albania. Book Eight of this version outlines the crucial need for preserving honor, stipulating that if honor is offended, only a pardon or the “spilling of blood” (a blood feud) can redeem the transgressor (Young 41). A blood feud is a form of honor killing in which the men of one family are tasked with murdering a male relative of the offender’s family. Since Ottoman authority lacked the capacity to regulate Albanian society, the blood feud emerged as a disincentive for offensive violence (Brujic 125).  

Here, a paradox emerges, for the Kanun’s authority couldn’t counter the extreme sensitivity of “honor” in Albanian society. Not much violence had been prevented: Until the 1920s, up to 30% of Albanian men died from blood feuds, leaving a severe shortage of men (Young 2). In one instance, eighteen men were noted to have died in a disagreement over a dog, while Albanologist Edith Durham records a dispute that killed seventeen and maimed eleven over which star was actually the biggest in the night sky (Shryock 114). 

It is precisely this sensitivity of honor which drives the Balkan Sworn Virgin custom. A family deprived of an honorable male heir, meaning one who exudes respectability and embodies Albanian customs, would turn to a daughter to attain this role to further the prestige of the family. Furthermore, refusing to enter an arranged marriage with the intent of marriage to someone else would certainly insult the proposed fiance’s family, leaving women who wanted to break off a marriage little choice but to become a Balkan Sworn Virgin. Many divorcees and widows also took this role instead of remarrying. In addition, women would also have to fulfill both household duties and the additional tasks of men outside the home during a blood feud, for their status as women made them immune to death or injury from the rivaling group (Brujic 117-120).

Historical Gender Inequality in Albania

The Kanun and Domestic Violence

While honor initiates the custom, when combined with a strictly patriarchal culture, the Balkan Sworn Virgin illuminates the stark reality of gender inequality in Albania. Men can only preserve the family’s honor; otherwise, no gender conversion would be necessary, and neither would be an oath to virginity, a relic of purity culture which only serves to sustain esteemed morality (Brujic 127). Anthropologist Berit Backer notes that Albanian tribal culture is considered “one of the most patriarchal in the world” (Young 14). The Kanun’s dictates on familial life underscore this claim: Article XX of the Kanun of Lekё Dukagjini “considers a woman as a superfluity in [her parents’] household,” and elsewhere within the Kanun are provisions providing for domestic violence when “appropriate” (Gjeçov 28 and Young 22). Unfortunately, even today, little record of domestic violence exists in Albania and the other Balkan states; harsh societal stigma dissuades most women from reporting it, and among those who do present their case to court, many receive an adverse response from male lawyers and judges. Up until the late 1990s, the Albanian government recorded no statistics on domestic abuse and no shelters existed for battered women (Young 148). 

Marriage and Family Life

In the heyday of tradition, girls in Albania were expected to remain in the house to perform household duties, leaving little opportunity to socialize. Meanwhile, their male counterparts were permitted to come and go as they please, with no requirement or expectation to engage in household chores (Young 22). Even in the modern era, some girls face restrictions to their education on account of household duties as well as  preservation of family honor (Young 22 and 25). The maintenance of a girl’s reputation and her family honor is integral to the marriage custom of rural Albania: the value of the bride-to-be depends on the girl’s “purity and her willingness and ability to work hard” as well as the status of the girl’s entire family (Young 24). Simply attending school and being away from the family compound can jeopardize a girl’s, and by extension her family’s, reputation, for she might be raped or fall in love with someone outside the arrangement (Young 26). Traditionally, betrothals are arranged before birth or during childhood, and the bride or groom may not meet beforehand (Young 22). Following the wedding ceremony, the bride will relocate to her husband’s house, where she must “take a humble place in the corner, standing,” for three days and three nights, as well as going six months without speaking unless spoken to by the elder men (Young 28). Albanian women interviewed by ethnographic researcher Susan Pritchett Post in the late 1990s describe the “dictatorship of [the] husband,” claiming divorce is not socially accepted, domestic violence is permitted and enforced, and women are not allowed to make decisions nor can they even speak to men or enter their spaces (Young 23 and 28-29). Albanian women are also expected to birth children, although only sons are considered respectable. To have a daughter is a tragedy (Young 30). One woman comments that she only became a Balkan Sworn Virgin to prevent her family the shame of birthing five daughters and no sons (Young 57). Today, these attitudes and the custom of arranged marriages have largely died out in Northern Albania, although the UN has assessed the custom is still practiced in some isolated rural communities.

Contrasting Behavior and Attitudes Ascribed to Respective Sexes

In some cases, men are free to express themselves, while women are not. This division begins as early as childhood, as one researcher observing a Kosovar refugee camp in Macedonia notes that only boys were permitted to swim and play as children do (Young 32). Muslim women of the south were expected to renounce their religion to marry the Catholics populating the north, even though the opposite trend would have been considered apostasy and an affront to family honor (Whitaker 148). Deep in the foothills of the Accursed Mountains, male homosexuality was permitted when no women were around. In fact, homesexual relations were viewed as “expected” among younger men, arousing no sense of shame. Women, on the other hand, could not pursue such relationships, for deriving pleasure from sex was not the woman’s prerogative; only procreation was (Whitaker 149). The rich heritage of Albanian epic songs features many lyrical interpretations relating to male sexual gratification, juxtaposing this idea with the woman’s duty to maintain her sexual morality and family honor by remaining chaste until marriage (Whitaker 149). 

Historically, attitudes toward women were quite demeaning, viewing their existence and role in the social order as a cause of the blood feud and as an obstacle to maintaining family honor (Shryock 115). The utilization of women as points of arbitration among feuding families denied their humanity, for they would be stripped of any remaining scrap of autonomy and sold to a rival family in marriage as a form of remediation. (Shryock 115). Durham, who visited Albania and is responsible for most information recorded on the Balkan Sworn Virgin, writes that her position as a “writing woman,” was viewed negatively by some Albanian men, who claimed such a woman would not perform household duties (Durham 36). The Balkan Sworn Virgin, by preserving her family’s honor, escaped bearing the burden of this patriarchal system, though continued to reinforce it through adopting a form of misogyny of their own, having nothing but scorn for the company of women (Brujic 115).

Additionally, a woman, by account of her gender, did not have the capacity to possess honor of her own accord; it came through the decisions her male relatives made for her. A woman could simply remain “pure,” execute a diligent work ethic within the household, and birth sons to further her family’s dignity, though she had no stake in the blood feud and no say in the decisions of the tribe. Women were not considered individuals of their own right.

The Balkan Sworn Virgin and Gender Inequality in Modern Albania 

Before analyzing the status of the Balkan Sworn Virgin and of women in Albania today, it is important not to misconstrue Albanian society as “savage” or one that needs “saving” based on this account of the misogyny deeply embedded in its society. It’s long been a tendency for academics and other professionals to castigate the alleged violence of unusual depravity in the Balkans, despite Durham aptly pointing out that Western critics, too, engage in the blood feud and call it “war” (Durham 25). The verb “to balkanize,” meaning the fragmentation of a state into smaller states, typically as a result of war, presents a derogatory usage, deriving from the “lawlessness” and “chaos” of the Balkans (Young 131). Although a woman had to surrender her female identity and assume a male role in order to enjoy the privileges a man receives on the mere status of his gender, Albanian society is not primitive and has come a long way in achieving gender equality today since the era of the Balkan Sworn Virgin.

Balkan Sworn Virgins as a practice have largely died out as the state emerged as a legitimate political force with subjugation over the population. State authority means the law is no longer up to the people to enforce; thus, the grip the blood feud once had on the population is not as strong as it traditionally was, although it is still practiced in the northern region. With an ample supply of men, women no longer had to convert their gender in this circumstance. Modernization has also reduced the impact of rural isolation and improved women’s status through a greater exposure to external influences in the region (Brujic 127). Therefore, the extent to which women are subjugated by patriarchal ordinance isn’t as tremendous as it had been. Women are free to divorce and no longer need to adopt a male status to preserve the honor of a household in the event no suitable man exists (Molla 122).

Gender Inequality Under Communism

Women achieved much of their gains in post-socialist Albania, although subtle progress began under the communist era. In 1941, Enver Hoxha began his reign as the country’s first communist leader, enforcing a strict interpretation of Stalinism. Between 1945 and 1991, Albanians were not permitted to leave the country or freely practice religion (Young 3). Despite significant isolation and harsh authoritarianism, communism still presented an external force that granted women some freedoms, such as opening up participation in government, improving access to education, and furthering the state of adequate women’s healthcare. However, Hoxha’s reign did little to improve women’s status within the domestic sphere. This resulted in a double workload for women as they worked outside the home and continued to perform household duties. Furthermore, even though healthcare had been improved, birth control and abortion were still illegal in order to conform to the societal expectation to bear a large family (Young 147-148). Despite a handful of gains for women under communism, it’s rumored several women in northern Albania became Balkan Sworn Virgins in the 1950s as a form of protest against Hoxha’s communist regime, implying the persistence of structural misogyny (Young 149-150).

Gender Inequality After Communism

In 1992, Sali Berisha and the Democratic Party took over the government (Young 4). Abortion had been legalized a year prior in 1991, and by 1996, up to fifty five groups advocating for equality for women had been established (Young 150). Despite feminism soaring in popularity, violent manifestations of misogyny still plague Albanian society today. According to the UN, 60% of Albanian women aged fifteen to forty-five report having been victims of domestic violence. In addition to domestic violence, prostitution and sex trafficking persist. After the fall of communism, the opening of borders and the country’s prime location along the Ionian and Adriatic Seas made it a “haven” for sex trafficking of women into Western Europe (Tabaku 99). Organized crime thrived during the transition from communism to democracy and was further strengthened by the Kanun’s emphasis on honor and loyalty as criminals swore their allegiance (Tabaku 100). Furthermore, studies have found that notions of male honor exacerbate male violence, which has already been reflected in the blood feud and domestic violence of Albania’s history (Maguire 64). Trafficking of women and girls from Albania to Western Europe reached its peak between 1997 and 2001 and is now on the decline, but enough Albanian women and children are still lured into trafficking rings with false promises of marriage or work for the U.S. Department of State, as of 2022, to classify the country as “Tier 2” out of three tiers along the Trafficking in Persons Report guideline (Tabuku 99).

In the 2020s, Albanian feminists demand justice for rape and domestic violence victims, taking to the streets in Tirana in support of 28-year-old Irvana Hyka, who was murdered by her husband in 2021. When interviewed, these feminists claimed domestic violence is a “normalized social routine within a patriarchal suppressive system.” Unfortunately, improvements in gender equality have not been able to counter the violent misogyny that persists in Albania, even if women no longer have to become men to be treated like human beings. Albanian feminists of today condemn the insidious Balkan Sworn Virgin practice for being “anti-feminist” and “horrible” as they combat widespread societal acceptance of domestic violence and prostitution.

Conclusion

Although the Balkan Sworn Virgin custom has died out, it presents a drastic contrast between the status of men and women which, unlike the phenomenon, still hasn’t died out today. Albanian women continue to face challenges in securing their equality with men, facing domestic violence and exploitation through prostitution at alarming rates. Multiple avenues for future research present themselves through this exploration on the history of Balkan Sworn Virgins, which may also be illuminated by the phenomenon.

References

Brujic, Marija and Vladimir Krstic. “Sworn Virgins of the Balkan Highlands.” Traditiones, vol. 51, no. 3, 2022, pp. 113-130.

Durham, Edith. High Albania. London: Centre for Albanian Studies, 2015.

Gjeçov, Shtjefën. The Code of Lekë Dukagjinit. Translated by Leonard Fox, Gjonklekaj Publishing Co, 1989.

Maguire, Sarah. “Researching ‘A Family Affair’: Domestic Violence in Former Yugoslavia and Albania.” Gender and Development 6, no. 3, 1998, pp. 60-68.

Molla, Alketa. “Divorce in Albania and the Problems that it Carries.” European Scientific Journal 11, no. 26, 2015, pp. 122-129.

Shryock, Andrew J. “Autonomy, Entanglement, and the Feud: Prestige Structures and Gender Values in Highland Albania.” Anthropological Quarterly 61, no. 3, 1988, pp. 113-118.

Tabaku, Arben. “Ethnic Albanian Rings of Organized Criminals and the Trafficking and Smuggling of Human Beings: An International, Regional and Local Perspective.” SEER: Journal for Labour and Social Affairs in Eastern Europe, 11, no. 1 2008, pp. 99-109.

Whitaker, Ian. “A Sack for Carrying Things: The Traditional Role of Women in Northern Albanian Society.” Anthropological Quarterly 54, no. 3, 1981, pp. 146-156.

Young, Antonia. Women Who Become Men: Albanian Sworn Virgins. Oxford: Berg, 2000.

Women's Rights and Gender Inequality in Haiti

Haitian women face a number of challenges under the umbrella of gender inequality: gender-based violence, a lower employment rate, the inability to support themselves financially or have ownership over property, and an overall absence of representation. These issues can be traced to way back in the nation’s history, but they have only been exacerbated by instability stemming from the devastating earthquake in August of this year. As explained by the Chr. Michelsen Institute, “Since women are more often socioeconomically disadvantaged than men, they become more vulnerable to the consequences of such disasters,” and ignoring elements of gender inequality hidden throughout the structures of a country can lead to major consequences regarding economic development and more. However, much of the international community’s contributions has been about “sidelining” the long-term efforts of Haiti’s women’s movement and instead throwing money behind short-term projects that appear to some as meeting the urgency compelled by the earthquake. People must think ahead in terms of women’s rights and gender inequality, and these issues must be addressed in the long-term as well. Studying other countries, small actions that made a big difference, shortcomings in past policies, and specific overall goals can help alleviate the problem of gender inequality in Haiti.

Gender-Based Violence

“One in three Haitian women between the ages of 15 and 49 has experienced some form of gender-based violence,” yet legal protection tends to fall through when it comes to women and girls. Rape and domestic violence were non-punishable offenses in Haiti until 2005. No laws were in place to help survivors beforehand. While the changes all those years ago were cause to celebrate, it was the bare minimum, and efforts must not relax now. 

After the events that occurred in August, it is all the more important to stay vigilant. This is exemplified through the Haiti earthquake of 2010, a disaster causing many issues including a considerable amount of gender-based violence. This was as women resigned to living on the streets, internally displaced person (IDP) camps were created, and resources continued to be allocated to other areas of concern.

 It has been noted that initiatives are too reactive and not sufficiently preventative. There are ways to fix this. For example, after women had been attacked while they were headed to the toilet at a camp, the American Jewish World Service spread street lamps to make them feel safer, and even safety patrols to guide women to the public washing areas were established. Many places have implemented simple approaches to addressing gender-based violence, such as lighting. The road to success requires the inclusion of women’s voices and representation as security plans are concocted.

Clearly, although punishment for gender-based violence has improved, this is an ongoing issue easily furthered by special events—like an earthquake—and more must be done to prevent it, not just react to it. This would help not only women, but the whole population. Women “make up 85 percent of the victims of violence registered in hospitals and health centers,” so of course “the health-care costs and productivity loss due to violence is undoubtedly large.” Violence against women has harsh immediate and long-term effects, and small steps as aforementioned may work wonders.

The Informal Sector

Another gender issue is discrimination in hiring practices. Reportedly, women have a twenty percent higher chance of unemployment than men. The majority of women work in the informal sector of the economy, a branch that has been described as “unregulated, unsupervised, and unstable,” and three-quarters of people working in that sector are women. Given that the informal sector includes “makeshift markets, petty trade, home-based businesses and restaurants,” women are the primary victims of lost livelihood. 

Going forward, Haiti must pay special attention to women’s job loss. There are many ways to do so, as evidenced through the example of Liberia. After Liberia’s civil war, the new president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf made an attempt to improve informal markets. This effort led to the creation of the Market Women’s Fund, and the board has since raised millions of dollars to enhance market infrastructure. At the same time, the fund has supported causes such as child care, issues more directly tied to women. The lesson learned from Liberia is that a country can help these two causes for women and the economy simultaneously. In the end, two birds were killed with one stone.

Financial Mechanisms for Women

While “women earn less than half of men’s wages” in Haiti, they tend to have little power or background regarding finances. A forefront problem is with control, and that is a two-pronged idea. First, women tend to be caregivers in Haiti, and therefore they are seen as responsible for emergencies like health issues. Short-term emergencies can cause extreme instability, and the recent earthquake is no help. Since women are placed as heads of households, they are the ones who end up in charge of taking care of short-term situations like these, and they often end up pulling funds from their business savings. It is difficult to get a whole demographic of people to succeed in their employment when they are also riddled with other people’s expectations. Second, women are often not listed on accounts and property titles. This may interfere with their ability to receive government assistance, make the best decisions for their businesses, and more.

One way that Haiti can kill two birds—women’s and economic issues—is through Microfinance Institutions. Currently, wages that are not used immediately often do not meet their full potential as an investment, and access to financial services targeted towards women could make a major difference. Additionally, MFIs would allow women to keep money under their own names, therefore maintaining control of their assets. Along with these perks could come financial literacy programs like the ones in the Dominican Republic, teaching women how to succeed in an already existing system.

Another clear way to move forward is to create joint property titles; creating a fair system to establish ownership of property can have ripple effects, like in Tamil Nadu. After the terrible tsunami that hit India, the push for joint land titles reportedly led to an increase in women’s participation in the community and leadership roles. On top of that, status, income, and employment stability were all positively affected due to this update. Increasing women’s control of their finances will, over time, help shrink the gender gap in multiple facets.

Women’s Representation

Haiti is ranked 187th out of 190 countries on the topic of political representation of women, and this is representative of a broader problem. Following the earthquake, there is an opportunity. It is one of the only positive side effects of such a catastrophic event, but there is an opportunity for change in terms of gender inequality in the country. From a past one of Haiti’s earthquakes, the post-disaster needs assessment (PDNA) said that women have been “left out of the equation when it comes to rebuilding the country’s judicial, administrative, legislative and democratic systems.” In order to create a country where women are treated like and able to be equals, the structures must support that goal. 

Haiti has actually previously acknowledged the lack of women in leadership roles. In 2012, a constitutional amendment was put in place that said that 30 percent of all public positions must be filled by women, for example. However, the gender quota has not been met because policy is ineffective without a method for implementation plus accountability. The details were not there in the decision making. It is critical to include women in the rebuilding and development process in order to create a Haiti free of gender inequality.

A Long-Term Solution

Gender-based violence, unemployment, a lack of financial control, and insufficient representation in decision-making are some of the main issues facing women in Haiti. While these issues have been clear for quite some time, the instability caused by the earthquake from August of this year only further exposed the challenges women face in the country. As the economy suffers, women—those who are already the most economically underprivileged—are being hit the hardest, and a multitude of systemic flaws are on full display. These gender-based challenges are not just due to social problems; they are generated and maintained as a result of the structures and institutions that governments build, and the very people most affected by these structures are those who are excluded from positions of power. What should be done now is an examination of the holes in major prior policies as well as the smaller, quicker changes that worked, the creation of specific, long-term strategies, and an evidence-based evaluation of other programs, using other countries as case studies. Other countries should resist the urge to throw money solely behind rapid emergency response programs and plan for investing in thorough solutions. Alleviating the issue of gender inequality and ensuring women’s rights in Haiti requires strong social and economic infrastructure. It is time to start looking at women’s issues holistically and in the context of all policy decisions.

Want to Close the Gender Gap in Finance? Start with Financial Supervisory Authorities

In 2018, during the buildup to an early November vote on the European Central Bank’s (ECB) next top supervisor, an influential member of the European Parliament implied that the candidacy of Sharon Donnery, deputy governor of Ireland’s central bank, owed its strength to Donnery’s gender as opposed to her qualifications. Whether this pronouncement contributed to Donnery’s subsequent loss to her male competitor is disputable. What the remark did achieve, however, was resurfacing the discussion about the relevance of gender balance in regional financial governance – a discussion that continued gaining prominence with Christine Lagarde’s appointment as the president of the ECB. 

In 2016, the European Banking Authority (EBA) – a regulatory body of the European System of Financial Supervision (ESFS) responsible for overseeing the “integrity, efficiency, and orderly functioning” of financial institutions across the European Union – published a report on the diversity practices of European credit rating agencies and investment firms. The only ESFS document to address gender inclusivity since the System’s creation in 2011, the report scolded private financial institutions for the disproportionately low number of women on management boards. However, the EBA’s own track record in gender diversity has only contributed to the invisibility of half of Europe’s population in the financial sector.   

Women comprise only 27 percent of the membership of the EBA’s governing, appeal, and advisory bodies, a modest increase of 5 percent from 2018. This includes the Board of Supervisors, which makes all policy decisions of the EBA, and the Management Board, responsible for the administration of the EBA’s operations. This figure even applies to bodies mandated to promote and protect diversity. The Banking Stakeholder Group, a major EBA advisory group valuable due to the “variety of perspectives and expertise that its diverse membership brings to the table,” is less inclusive than its mission suggests: a mere eight of its thirty members are women. 

As EBA officials themselves stated in the 2016 diversity report, homogenous decision-making entities are susceptible to groupthink and herd behavior. In a major regulatory authority like the EBA, these two phenomena can make it harder to spot shortcomings in governance and risk management practices that drive financial systems into crises, as they did in 2008. Indeed, a recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) study of 115 countries found that a lower number of women in financial oversight institutions is associated with a poorer quality of supervision and overall banking stability. Despite its potential benefits, gender parity in financial supervision remains the least well-studied and well-documented dimension of financial inclusion globally, the study noted. 

However, whether the 2008 crisis could have been avoided if Lehman Brothers had been Lehman Sisters is not the question ESFS officials should be focusing on. More important, the current composition of the EBA boards hampers the implementation of the European Commission’s post-2008 crisis strategic agenda, within which gender equality is not only a driver for more effective decision-making, but also an affirmation of fundamental EU values. 

Addressing gender imbalances in ESFS decision-making bodies can be challenging due to idiosyncratic board selection processes. For example, the EBA’s male-dominated Board of Supervisors comprises the heads of the national banking supervisors from each of the 28 EU member states. The EBA, as well as the broader ESFS network, has no direct control over the gender composition of governmental financial sector regulators, which oftentimes fall under the authority of national central banks. There, an even grimmer picture of women’s representation emerges: men constitute 79 percent of members of key decision-making bodies and 96 percent of central bank governors in the European Union. 

Nonetheless, the EBA can still contribute to achieving a gender-equal Europe while avoiding infringements on national interests and prerogatives. Building on the experience of the European Central Bank in introducing an explicit diversity agenda, the EBA can set long-overdue gender targets for the Banking Stakeholder Group. Since the group consists of interested parties outside of national authorities, the EBA can influence the group’s gender composition without compromising the sovereignty of European states. The Joint Board of Appeal is another EBA body whose independent, if opaque, selection process provides an opportunity for better diversity practices. Clearly, the EBA has sufficient autonomy in appointing and approving members of some of its critical decision-making bodies. What it lacks is willingness to utilize that authority to ensure women are equally represented.

The EBA is the watchdog of the European banking sector. Its treatment of gender diversity sets a standard for financial institutions across the EU. Women’s lack of representation in authoritative oversight entities reduces the already low likelihood that gender equality will be prioritized on regional and private institutional agendas. Setting concrete gender targets for EBA decision-making bodies whose gender composition is not controlled by national authorities would be a needed step toward giving women voice in the formulation, implementation, and assessment of policies that affect both providers and receivers of services throughout Europe’s entire financial sector. 

As a regulatory authority with the power to shape the gender diversity practices of thousands of financial institutions, the EBA must lead by example and demonstrate a genuine commitment to inclusivity. Until it does so, its demands to increase the visibility of women in the private sector will seem at best unconvincing, and at worst insincere. 

“Princess Charming of Wall Street:” Forgotten Legacy of Sylvia Porter and Persisting Gender Inequality in Finance

A holder of fourteen honorary doctoral degrees and a syndicated columnist with a readership of over 40 million people, Sylvia F. Porter once was America’s most famous financial editor. She was the first woman in the history of U.S. journalism to challenge the male-dominated world of business and economics writing. Porter’s works on personal money management, income taxes, and United States government securities, span across more than four decades – from the turbulent 1930s, through the booming 1950s, and to the crisis-stricken early 1980s.

However, Sylvia Porter’s legacy has since faded away, and few are now familiar with the name that used to be synonymous with financial journalism. As the ongoing conversation on gender equality in finance is expanding to include women’s role not only as receivers and providers of financial services but as leaders and decision-makers, shaping the fundamental ways in which the financial system is structured, it is a fitting moment to revive the memories of Porter’s immense contribution to the field of finance, which she made through her writing, policy advising, and public appearances. While considerable progress has been made on providing women access to the financial sector of the economy, most of those efforts are focused on ensuring women’s essential rights to open a bank account separate from their husbands’, receive a business degree, and compete with men for employment at financial institutions on fair terms. Countless decades after Sylvia Porter’s extraordinary career took off, it is time to expand this focus and work on closing the gender gap not only in MBA programs and hedge funds or investment banks but in the establishments that oversee the operations of the entire financial system and have the power to profoundly impact it: central banks, regulatory institutions, and international organizations.

Sylvia Porter’s career is a telling example of the significance women leadership can carry in a male-dominated professional world. Although her leadership was mostly ideational by the virtue of her occupation as a journalist, Porter left a long-lasting mark on numerous aspects of America’s financial life. In 1935, shortly after graduating Hunter College, New York, magna cum laude with a degree in economics, Porter wrote an article for The American Banker that vocally criticized then-Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr.’s handling of government debt. The article carried the byline of S.F. Porter to conceal her gender. When Secretary Morgenthau sent a request to meet with the author of the piece, presuming in his letter that S. F. Porter was a man, The American Banker responded with a vague note, from which all pronouns were conspicuously missing. Nevertheless, the Secretary persisted and eventually succeeded in his attempts to meet the author of the piece. Sylvia Porter arrived in Washington, D.C. in 1940 to advise senior policymakers on the issuance of a new class of government bonds. Porter was only twenty-two when she wrote the milestone article that would make her column a must-read for every secretary of treasury since Morgenthau. Despite her tremendous professional achievements and undeniable expertise, it was not until 1942 – eight years after the beginning of her career as a financial editor – that S.F. Porter revealed her full name and gender to the readers.

Nicknamed by the press the “glamour girl of finance” and the “Princess Charming of Wall Street” once her identity became public, Porter wrote about complex business and economics issues with authority assumed only by men at the time. Not only did she tremendously influence the way ordinary Americans handled their money but also worked to shape U.S. fiscal and monetary policy. Throughout the 1960s, she advised presidents Gerald R. Ford and Lyndon B. Johnson on the anti-inflation fight and export financing. In 1966 Porter recommended President Johnson the appointment of Andrew Brimmer, the first African American to serve on the Federal Reserve Board. She was regularly invited to speak on radio and television and gave hundreds of speeches to the audiences of financiers and policymakers.

Porter passed away in 1991, leaving as legacy of a score of books on money management and investment and a daily financial column circulated by 450 newspapers, read virtually by every economics professional in the nation. Her hope throughout a half-a-century-long professional journey was that women take charge of their personal finances. Today, nearly ninety years after Porter’s transformative career began to shape the landscape of the financial world controlled by men, at stake is something even more important: women’s access to spaces where critical decisions about the functioning of the financial system are made.

Financial regulation is not something we think of when gender equality is brought up. But it is exactly because the topic has not been given the attention it deserves in the echelons of powerful financial authorities. When the conversation on gender in global and national financial governance is initiated, it tends to be confined to the feminine-stereotyped and masculine-stereotyped features of women’s and men’s leadership styles. Such traits as lower risk tolerance, weaker propensity for competitive behavior, and natural “protectiveness” are typically attributed to women and deemed desirable for individuals overseeing the functioning of financial institutions and markets, due to unsustainable leverage appetites and irresponsible risk management policies financial actors are susceptible to. In May 2010, almost two years after Lehman Brothers filed for what was the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history, Time magazine featured Elizabeth Warren, Sheila Blair, and Mary Schapiro on its cover, with a subheading that read: “The women charged with cleaning up the mess.” Times was among the dozens of prominent publications advancing the narrative that female leadership in financial governance is the key to “cleaning up the mess” in the short run and economic stability and sustainable growth in the long run. The world needed less of self-interested, risk-taking male financiers and regulators and more of cooperative, caring female leaders.

Those narratives of expanding women’s involvement in supervision and oversight for the sake of safer financial practices - aside from being products of binary thinking grounded in poorly supported behavioral psychology research and gender essentialism - never materialized. National and international regulatory institution have indeed gained salience since the crisis exposed hidden fragilities of the modern financial system. Establishments like the European Banking Authority, the Bank for International Settlements, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, and the International Monetary Fund are now looked upon as upholders of global financial stability. While those organizations gained a considerably more prominent role in the operations of the global financial system since the devastating turmoil of 2007, women did not.

From 2007 to 2018, only four of the twenty-eight member-states of European Monetary Union - Cyprus, Serbia, Macedonia, and Norway - had a woman central bank governor. Despite the fact that global financial governance institutions did witness some improvement in its gender composition, women still comprise only 21 percent of all key decision-making bodies in national central banks across Europe, and an overwhelming 76 percent of leaders in supervision agencies globally are men. All twenty-four members of the IMF’s executive board are men, and the Basel Committee, established in 1974, is yet to have a woman chair.

The current state of gender equality in financial governance is therefore not much different from that of the business and economics world at the time Sylvia Porter was carving out her extraordinary professional path as one of America’s most celebrated financial experts. While women now have more liberties as consumers and providers of financial services, an astoundingly high proportion of seats at the tables where critical decisions about the global financial system are made still belongs to men. In her famously controversial 1959 speech to women journalism students, Porter expressed frustration with media hysteria surrounding the growing number of women joining the labor force, and the financial industry in particular, in which, as Porter noted, American women had been active since the 19th century. Exasperated, Porter proclaimed finance to be a “woman’s field,” hoping to once and forever put an end to the debate over whether women belong on Wall Street as authoritative decision-makers shaping the financial world. Regrettably, more than five decades later, the case is still being pondered.

Fishers, Farmers, Craftspeople—Women: Gender in Post-Conflict Economic Reconstruction

“Api anaarakshithay” repeat the widows created by 30 years of protracted war in northern Sri Lanka. The phrase translates to ‘we lack security,’ and such security can result from expanding women’s post-conflict economic inclusion. In the post-conflict setting, populations face new challenges that are created not only by the persistence of violence, but also by limited access to resurging economies. For women, such challenges compound with changing demographics and the ensuing societal restructuring. Women enter into new roles in restructured economies, offering key opportunities to establish stable post-conflict livelihoods, yet obstacles to women’s economic access too often linger unaddressed. Without addressing such structural impediments to gender equity, any progress made towards gender parity remains acutely vulnerable to backsliding if conflict reignites. Conflicts in both Sri Lanka and the Kashmir Glacier originated in the 1980s, and women’s roles in the economies of both nations transformed throughout the nearly three decades of both conflicts’ duration. Each case demonstrates a disparate component of the challenges that women face during regions’ economic reconstruction. In Sri Lanka, discriminatory systemic structures and sexual violence create obstacles to women’s economic independence. In Jammu and Kashmir, reliance on craftsmen for training and middlemen to sell their products impede women’s success as craftspeople. Analyzing both distinct contexts provides insight into the new roles that women take on in post-conflict economies. Both case studies illustrate that the full economic empowerment of women requires resolving underlying power disparities in structures that predate conflicts. Given the duress that extended conflicts inflict on nations’ female populations, it is crucial to expand women’s economic access in order to insulate their self-sufficiency against the shock of further conflict. Women in the post conflict setting can neither be essentialized as ‘helpless victims’ nor can they be assumed to be ‘fine on their own.’ National governments and international humanitarian aid organizations must consider women’s changing roles in post-conflict economies in order to most effectively support the conflict-affected populations.

Sri Lanka

The civil war in Sri Lanka lasted from 1983 until 2009, with insurgent actors endeavoring to create an autonomous Tamil state in Sri Lanka’s north: the length of the war adds emphasis on national unity in the post-conflict setting. Despite this emphasis, such call for national unity cannot be allowed to serve as grounds to prevent the discussion of gender inequity and social change. Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese majority population and the Tamil and Muslim minority groups in the nation’s north all exhibit historical gender inequity, yet conflict between the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan government permanently altered the role women play in northern Sri Lanka’s economy.

The significant number of majority-male casualties in northern Sri Lanka acted as a catalyst for more women to transition into the role of primary income generators in order to support their households. The Sri Lankan government reports that the total number of war widows in the nation is greater than 80,000, with many husbands still missing but not yet confirmed dead. Scholars in The International Journal of Human Rights explain that “war widows, female heads of households, female ex-combatants, employed women and girls are especially at risk due to their often impoverished contexts, their lack of education as a result of the war and their lack of opportunities in post-war economic reconstruction and development plans.” These war widows assume traditionally male roles in the nation’s economy to support their families, now working in the fishing and agricultural sectors at higher rates than in the prewar economy. Indeed, as elucidated by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, “another shift of women’s traditional to strategic roles occurred when women moved out of the domestic sphere and took on male roles in the absence of male family members; women consequently acquired more self-confidence and greater mobility and decision making powers within the family.” Such a transition in economic roles contributed to a 44 percent increase in hours worked by women in the service sector following Sri Lanka’s civil war. Troublingly, women’s transition into new sectors of the economy corresponds with 60 percent of women experiencing sexual harassment in the workplace in Sri Lanka, according to one survey in Colombo. Furthermore, upwards of 90% of women attested that they experienced sexual harassment in public spaces. This misogyny carries over to the conduct of regional government officials, who abuse their positions of power to ask women for sexual favors in exchange for services. While sexual violence may not be a direct result of the war, the predominance of men in positions of power and women’s need for self sufficiency during economic reconstruction creates conditions that inimically threaten to perpetuate such sexual violence. The combined antagonistic impacts of sexual violence and discriminatory land inheritance laws demonstrate the need for policies that address structural impediments to women’s success as they enter new roles in the post-conflict economy becomes clear.

In order to account for Sri Lankan women’s greater labor force participation, social and institutional impediments to their success must be confronted. The economic success that Sri Lanka enjoyed following the conflict’s close should not be seen as an overt success story, because structural gender inequalities remain. Women in Sri Lanka earn less than half of what men do, on average. While pay disparities are not a new challenge, the need for adequate compensation for women serving as their families’ primary income generators in the post-conflict setting is critical because “women who play multiple roles within households and society (such as cooking and carers of children and elderly) endure an opportunity cost for working outside the home for a wage,” according to Sri Lankan scholar Muttukrishna Sarvananthan. Women face additional challenges when working in the agricultural sector, resulting from inequitable inheritance laws. In Sri Lanka’s northern Jaffna province, women can control property in name only under the traditional Thesawalamai laws. In order to invest, receive loans, or sell their property, women need the written consent of a spouse – a spouse who the conflict possibly robbed them of. Additionally, when litigating disputes surrounding such property in court, women are treated as minors. Further difficulties are created due to the lack of equal economic growth across different sectors, for while Sri Lanka’s economic growth soared following the end of the civil war, 70 percent of this growth is in non-tradable sectors such as infrastructure construction. This unequal growth negatively impacts the livelihoods of women working in the agriculture and fishing sectors. Moreover, a large part of such construction is due to the heightened militarization of Sri Lanka’s north, and the expansion of the military presence often involves the military appropriating land that might have otherwise been farmed. The deep correlation between the military presence and sexual violence creates further impediments to women’s post-conflict livelihoods.

During the civil war, the use of sexual violence by both sides was prevalent, and the legacy of such violence persists in the post-conflict economy. The LTTE forcefully abducted women and girls previously both to use as human shields and for forced marriage, in addition to conscripting women as suicide bombers and combatants. The Sri Lankan military also used rape as a tactic to intimidate and procure information from the civilian populations in the north. Today, the growth of the Sri Lankan security sector continues, while its tendency towards sexual violence remains unresolved. Reports indicate that soldiers and police officers in some camps for displaced persons demand sexual favors in exchange for food and housing. Even outside of these camps, the military plays a large role in local economies, and that role in the economy prevents women from reporting sexual violence for fear that they will lose access to governmental support. Close to military bases, women report higher instances of sexual violence, and may experience societal exclusion due to the stigma attached to contact with the military, even when such contact was forced. In order to empower women to successfully manage their transition to the new role of breadwinners for families in the post-conflict setting, the government and international organizations must work to combat sexual violence and to promote growth in the economic sectors that women are primarily employed in.

Jammu and Kashmir

Conflict over control of Jammu and Kashmir exhibits both deep roots and sundry participants due to entrenched disputes surrounding territorial control. While China and India fought briefly over a portion of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, the brunt of the conflict manifested between Pakistan and India over control of the state in 1989. In the years following, intermittently flares of violence turned the region into a flashpoint, and spurred the creation of irregular military forces such as the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). The persistence of conflict damaged the success of sectors that rely on tourism, such as the craft industry that many women are transitioning in order to generate income in the post-conflict economy.

The discord that conflict over control of Jammu and Kashmir caused in the local economy forced many women in the region to assume new roles. Akin to the situation of women in post-conflict Sri Lanka, the region now has more women than men, with numerous war widows and ‘half widows,’ whose husbands’ whereabouts remain unknown. Such demographic changes coincide with changes in traditional roles in the economy, with one researcher’s fieldwork indicating that “the conflict has caused a shift in the gender ratio in terms of employment. Women have joined the crafts work force to generate income to support their families.” After losing their husbands in conflict, many women must now assume the role of the primary breadwinner in order to support their families. Given the historical strength of the craft industry in Jammu and Kashmir, many women joined the profession following conflict-induced demographic changes. The craft industry was traditionally dominated by men, with craftsmen also primarily driving the development of new techniques in the industry. This lack of historical experience in the craft leads women to follow established techniques, creating an obstacle for women hoping to launch their own businesses. Women entering the craft industry are prone to joining pre-existing enterprises in order to learn techniques from craftsmen already in the industry, due to the lower barrier to entry required to enter the industry in such a capacity. As more women transition into the Kashmiri crafts industry, further structural impediments to their success become evident.

Chart created by Neelam Raina.

Barriers to women’s success in the post-conflict craft sector include reliance on middlemen, attitudes towards women in the workplace, and the lasting impact of the conflict on the economy. The decentralized nature of the population in Jammu and Kashmir creates difficulties for craftspeople looking to sell their wares, resulting in many craftspeople entirely relying on middlemen to sell the products they craft. These middlemen pay for craftspeople’s pieces in advance, which provides income for craftspeople in the short term, but prevents them from accumulating a catalog in the long term. Craftspeople’s lack of a catalog forces them to rely on the word of middlemen to attest to the quality of their work. Furthermore, reliance on middlemen to sell their goods robs craftspeople of control over their financial futures, placing the sustainability of their livelihood at the mercy of fluctuations in the demand for their products. Middlemen reap the majority of the profits from the work of craftspeople, for because they are removed from the market, craftspeople do not have a good measure of the true value of their work. This disparity in power is exemplified by the chart above. Beyond this, Kashmiri women must also overcome the stigmatization of their employment. Kashmiri women who work to support themselves often feel shame in doing so, and combined with the prevalent lack of education and skills training among women, this contributes to women’s frustration and psychological struggles. Craftswomen also experience stigmatization from other people, who use women’s employment as grounds to question their morality and piety. This attitude translates to limited access to important information about opportunities for economic funding and support, due to an exclusionary tendency amongst majority male regional bureaucrats. This exclusion further extends to union involvement, which results in the benefits of such union action sometimes failing to extend to women. The conflict in Jammu and Kashmir greatly diminished the tourist trade in Jammu, and thus, “notwithstanding the fact that Kashmiri arts and crafts have enjoyed worldwide fame and name, their production suffered to a large extent …” according to economists in the International NGO Journal. To successfully ensure women’s livelihoods in the post-conflict setting, they must be equitably integrated into local industries, and regional and international actors must take action to spur the growth of such industries.

Conclusion

Women’s entrance into new roles in post-conflict economies heralds an opportunity to permanently, economically empower nations’ female populations. To achieve this goal, national and international actors supporting post-conflict economic development must proactively account for obstacles to women’s economic access and focus their support on the sectors of the economy that women transition into. Economic growth does not always extend to women, given that the specific industries they join may not grow at the same rate as nation’s broader economies. Moreover, antiquated laws and social dynamics hinder women’s ability to act independently, even when serving as their families’ sole breadwinners. Sexual violence in the workplace and by government officials must be eradicated. Women must be recognized as equal participants in the industries they join. While gendered power disparities in legal systems and industry practices may predate conflicts, resolving them is crucial to enabling women to fully participate in the post-conflict economy. Finally, gender-responsive development support requires a sector-by-sector analysis of women’s new workforce participation in order to rectify existing inequalities so that future conflict cannot erode the achievement of women in post-conflict economies.