Women-headed households: Searching for a common definition

By Ruvani Fonseka for the Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA)

As we try to understand the unique circumstances faced by women-headed households (WHHs) in Sri Lanka, we need a definition that captures their full variety. Unfortunately, one definition that works for all stakeholders has been difficult to find.

 

Option 1: Women without men

Many censuses around the world define WHHs as households where no adult males are present. Missionaries first spread across the globe the idea that a “normal” household includes a male head that makes the major contribution to household income. This definition can be used with little training – a simple yes or no question (“are there any adult males?”) speedily identifies WHHs. In some cases, even the presence of male children makes a household male-headed – a widowed mother is automatically considered a dependent of her sons. 

This definition ignores households with dependent adult men, such as men with disabilities or men who are unemployed. It also harmfully supports the patriarchal ideal of men being the “default” heads of households by suggesting that, irrespective of a woman’s contribution to her family, if a man is present he must be in charge.

 

Option 2: Popular opinion

Other surveys, like Sri Lanka’s Household Income and Expenditures Survey (HIES), and those run by the United Nations, simply determine the head of a household through popular opinion. Researchers ask members of a household to identify their head, and sometimes also ask community members to identify neighbouring WHHs.

This method, while helpful for understanding community and individual perceptions, has many disadvantages. The meaning of headship can vary among communities and individuals, with some people deciding it based on social status, while others consider economic contribution. 

A grandmother could, in a society that respects age, be considered the “head” of her household, but she might not contribute to the income of the household or take part in day-to-day decision-making. This definition also ignores the power dynamics and gender hierarchies that can prevent WHHs from being identified. 

Women in Sri Lanka sometimes refuse to self-identify as “head” of their households, being more comfortable to admit that they also fulfil a father role for their children than to say they lead a household in a patriarchal society, and in other cases family members may not recognise women as heads because of their gender.

 

Option 3: Breadwinners

If we think of households as economic units, one promising WHH definition is that of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), used by FOKUS WOMEN in their recent study of WHHs. The ILO defines WHHs as households where either no adult man is present; or where men, although present, do not contribute to the household income. 

Previously, the UN also defined a head of a household as the person who economically maintains the household, regardless of gender. This definition eliminates gender-related bias in its application, defining household headship in a way that can be objectively and quantitatively determined.

The UN gave up on using this definition, however, because of the difficulty of collecting this information. Accurate information on income is hard to collect through surveys, and to use the breadwinner definition, a researcher would need to observe all members of a household’s earning and spending patterns. They would also need to decide the role of assets, such as property, in contributing to the economic maintenance of the household. 

In addition to being difficult to determine, this definition is limited because it places primary value on economic activities. It disregards women’s contributions to households through activities like caregiving, subsistence farming, and decision-making. 

 

Option 4: More than money

One final definition of a WHH would be what is also called a “woman-maintained household.” It sometimes called the “cooking pot definition” – the head is the member of the household who authorises the activities of the household including expenditures, and is accepted by all members as the head. 

This definition combines options 2 and 3 above, to find the women who CEPA called in a 2005 study in the North and East of Sri Lanka “women who have taken the lead role in supporting their families”. It acknowledges the importance of women’s contributions as both decision-makers and income earners in their households, for a more complete picture of their household headship.

While more robust than any of the previous definitions, this definition of a WHH still comes with challenges. In male-dominated societies, there is a lot of pressure for men to fulfil the role of most authority in the household. It might be that a woman can provide the most money for her family (such as a young woman working in a garment factory). Should she be considered the head if she does not decide how her money is spent? There are valid reasons to answer both yes and no to this question. 

 

Finding WHHs in Sri Lanka

As researchers, policymakers and development workers seek to identify WHHs in Sri Lanka, they are presented with a number of challenges. In some cases, such as migration, the male head’s absence is only temporary, or de facto, and he might still contribute economically though the woman has to manage the household on a daily basis; or a woman’s husband could have disappeared years ago, but, hopeful for his return, she might refuse to identify as the head of her household.

People in charge of counting WHHs also struggle when deciding whether to differentiate between those WHHs with a de jure legal standing (divorced, widowed, never-married) and those without legal proof (disappearance, abandoned, etc.). Even the definition of a household may cause challenges, as many widowed women move their family to live within a male relative’s household, where their financial contributions and vulnerabilities might not be recognised by those observing the larger household. 

 

A new approach to defining women-headed households in Sri Lanka

Most approaches to identifying, studying or working with Sri Lankan WHHs in a development context involve choosing a pre-existing definition and then collecting data on people matching that definition. A better idea might be to go the opposite direction instead. An extended amount of field research will allow researchers in Sri Lanka to define WHHs in a way that resonates with women, their households, and their communities. 

We might even need to change the term. If women are more comfortable with terms such as “dual-parent caregiver” or “woman breadwinner”, why must we stick to this vague concept of household heads? By questioning this norm, we might find that there are more effective ways to define gender-sensitive targets for development in Sri Lanka. 

[This is the second in a series of articles by CEPA about women-headed households (WHHs), considered a vulnerable post-war group in Sri Lanka. Each article questions some of the assumptions associated with Sri Lankan WHHs and gender-selective development interventions.]