{"id":287277,"date":"2023-05-22T09:26:10","date_gmt":"2023-05-22T13:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?post_type=document&p=287277"},"modified":"2023-05-25T12:41:09","modified_gmt":"2023-05-25T16:41:09","slug":"gazas-recurrent-escalations-chip-away-at-womens-ability-to-make-a-living-un-women-article","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/gazas-recurrent-escalations-chip-away-at-womens-ability-to-make-a-living-un-women-article\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaza\u2019s Recurrent Escalations Chip Away at Women\u2019s Ability to Make a Living – UN Women Article"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

Arabic: \u0627\u0644\u0639\u0631\u0628\u064a\u0629<\/a><\/p>\n

Date:\u00a0<\/b>

\u201cI used to work as a secretary at the Bank of Palestine, but I lost my job in 2019. After having good living standards for seven years, I found myself in a very difficult financial situation.\u201d Said Souad,* a 41-year-old mother of five whose husband abandoned her. \u201cThis motivated me to put my cooking skills to good use and start my own business. Today, cooking is my family\u2019s main source of income.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Souad is one of the relatively lucky women in Gaza who has a livelihood. According to\u00a0OCHA<\/a>, under the 15-year-old Israeli blockade of the strip, livelihood and employment opportunities have become increasingly scarce. Around half of Gaza\u2019s households rely on NGO or charity assistance as one of their primary sources of income while 36.7 per cent on daily labour, and only 28 per cent on employment as their main source of income. For almost 60 per cent of Gaza\u2019s female-headed families, charity assistance is a lifeline.<\/span><\/p>\n

Women\u2019s livelihood is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of blockade and recurrent violent escalations as women often operate their businesses from their homes or nearby facilities. \u00a0The destruction of a woman\u2019s home can also mean the loss of her workplace, and consequently income. A\u00a0UN Women\u2019s study of the 2021 escalation<\/a>\u00a0found that 18 per cent home-based businesses owned by women were destroyed during the hostilities. This has made the quest for economic independence more elusive for many women, particularly young women. Luckily for Souad, her home was not impacted this time around, but her livelihood was disrupted.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNowadays, most women in Gaza need to support their families through daily jobs, so when violence flares up, their daily income gets disrupted.\u00a0 This increases their anxiety and fear of not being unable to feed their children,\u201d Said Souad. \u201cFor example, when the May escalation erupted, food orders stopped. Even when people placed orders, I couldn\u2019t accept them because delivery services stopped. \u00a0This put me in a very difficult financial situation. I could not buy food supplies for my business.\u201d Said Souad.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the\u00a02023 Humanitarian Needs Overview<\/a>, recurrent hostilities have worsened economic conditions. Since 2007 when Israel imposed its blockade, all of Gaza\u2019s socio-economic indicators and humanitarian conditions have continued to deteriorate. More than half Gaza\u2019s population now live below the poverty line, and one third live below the deep poverty line. This is compounded by a very high unemployment rate. Almost half of Gaza\u2019s population is out of work, with women being disproportionately affected. \u00a0In the last quarter of 2022, 65 per cent of women were unemployed compared to 39 per cent for men. Almost 65 % of households in Gaza blamed increased competition over scarce jobs as an obstacle to finding employment, reported\u00a0OCHA<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDue to the proliferation of food catering businesses online, I receive less orders because people want to try different foods. My daily income is not sufficient. But it is still only way to sustain my family.\u201d Said Souad\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The May 2023 escalation was not the first blow to Souad\u2019s livelihood. During the COVID-19 pandemic, her business also came to a halt. This was also the case for many women-led businesses in Gaza as the pandemic\u00a0exacerbated women\u2019s economic vulnerabilities<\/a>, with women suffering more than men in almost all aspects of their labour market participation, including higher job losses and business contraction.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDue to the COVID-19 precautionary measures, most people avoided ordering food. My income was completely cut off, except for few orders I received from relatives who trusted my sterilization methods. This forced me to sell the few pieces of jewellery that I had to buy food for my children.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0Said Souad.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite these successive shocks, Souad is determined to sustain her livelihood, expand her culinary business, and even lend a helping hand to women in need.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am now part of the Palestinian Culinary Society and studying culinary arts at Gaza College. I aspire to conduct cooking courses one day.\u201d Said Souad. \u201cMy goal is to open my own restaurant and hire battered women in need of work opportunities to stand on their own feet and educate their children.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*Name has been changed to maintain confidentiality.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Arabic: \u0627\u0644\u0639\u0631\u0628\u064a\u0629 Date:\u00a0Monday, 22 May 2023 \u201cI used to work as a secretary at the Bank of Palestine, but I lost my job in 2019. After having good living standards for seven years, I found myself in a very difficult financial situation.\u201d Said Souad,* a 41-year-old mother of five whose husband abandoned her. \u201cThis […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[2453],"document-source":[2481],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1769,1937,2005,6257,2349,1841],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6544,6542],"class_list":["post-287277","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-article","document-source-un-women","document-subject-armed-conflict","document-subject-economic-issues","document-subject-gaza-strip","document-subject-gender","document-subject-living-conditions","document-subject-women","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-arabic","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/287277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/172"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/287277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":287279,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/287277\/revisions\/287279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=287277"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=287277"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=287277"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=287277"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=287277"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=287277"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=287277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}