Full production or vibrant economy can only be achieved when all factors of production are in use. One of the fundamental elements is labor; it is essential and involves men and women, old and young as a source of input. The fruit of employment is to elevate peoples living standards through enumeration shown by the increase in money, and every responsible government provides job opportunities for its citizens both in the private sectors and public sectors. For the most of the years, there has been an economic and social disparity between men and women in the society caused by various cultural beliefs and stereotype perception. The success of any economy is achieved when the entire stakeholders works smartly without any household left lagging behind like in this case women and young people.
Time is a resource in an economy and should be distributed equally in the economy. What differs in many countries is the allocation of time according to groups or households, and this might affect general well-being of a person and the economy. The disparity in time spent in work is shown by the difference between those who have no paid labor and those who have a paid labor and seldom occurs to the allocation of no time in the household. Time allocation inequalities have triggered by determinants like social factors which mostly women find themselves at the receiving end. This might be a bad omen for the economy as women take the largest share of most countrys population, and so the general revenue in the economy reduces and so as the countrys GDP. This can be reflected by figures like 27% of those working part-time only consuming only 16 hours instead of 40 working hours in a week; women take the lion share of 74% with their large population number in the economy. The government should reverse such policies that only discriminate women through less working hours allocation and distribute it equitably depending on the nature of the job and skills required but not by social roles.
From the statistics, it can be noted that more men are employed than women with the standing employment rate of 10% for men. Employment increases the living standard of the people through salaries and wages. People need money for various purposes in the economy to meet their needs. According to Keyness theory of demand for money, he highlights three different motives why people demand money and they include; transaction motive, speculative motive and precautionary motive (Callaghan et al., 2007, p. 47). Everyone needs money for the three factors mentioned, and therefore, when women are not employed, then they may achieve their demand hence no improve living standards. Even though many men have been employed than women but it is still not healthy for the economy as overdependence on the working men will increase. The disparity in employment level between men and women, which seems to be dangerous to the economy can be shown in the pie chart as:
It is also delicate in balancing when all people are employed, and there is too much money in the economy, which may result in inflation within the economy. It is upon the government to come up with various fiscal and monetary policies through the central/federal banks to ensure that the money being circulated does not affect the general demand and supply of money. The central bank may come with policies, which control interest rate whereby once people get the money they either consume or save (Callaghan, 2007, p. 175). When people consume money in the economy, fewer savings are experienced, and there is a possibility of an increase in money circulation, and when not handled well it can cause inflation just like in the case of Zimbabwe economy.
Consumption goes hand in hand with investment and therefore when the rate of consummation is high; it is assumed that the level of investment also goes up. On the contrary, when people save, the rate of consumption goes down as well the rate of investment in the economy. Too many savings may cause less circulation of money in the economy, and the government can intervene by increasing their expenditure through initiating infrastructural development as well as buying bonds (Rumsch, 2013, p. 174). This action will inject more money into the economy and increase the money supply and circulation.
From the statistics, we note that women earn less compared to their male counterparts because it is evident that they work for fewer hours as compared to male and therefore their weekly revenues is less than the monthly income of men who are employed and working 40 hours in a week (De Tray and Greenberg, 1975, p. 14). It also reduces women hour earning by 20%. As mentioned earlier, time wasted in an economy results into less accumulation of revenue. Looking this from the other angle, most of the tax collected by the government is based on the basic salary of an employee. When women cannot generate enough basic salary to be taxed, it becomes a drawback to the revenue arm of the government to collect enough tax to facilitate government budget. Similarly, the government should consider the equal participation of everybody in the economy as every citizen has a role to pay tax to its country.
Since the general money received by women mostly fall below 10,000 and therefore cannot be registered under pension plan as the policy dictates. Women should be allowed to form SACCOs to enable them to save their small salaries, or the government should revise this policy and reduce it. Every government does not only think of the current financial situation but also future. It goes in line with Keynes policy of demand where an individual demands money for precaution motive to cater for the unforeseen or future events (Kapoor, Dlabay and Hughes, 2004, p. 112). When women do not participate in pension schemes them then government risk having this burden in future as over dependency results causing the government to spend more in future by allocating elderly funds something they could curb by putting sound policies on pension plans.
About both unpaid and paid work, gender, and the social position plays a very critical role. Sex and age are used as a determined on how time is allocated. We realize that young people despite their energy they have but some of them are perceived not to be in the bracket of getting into the pension plan as most of them fall below 22 years and yet can have enough money to pay (Rosinsky, 2004, p. 89). Future of every country depends on how much the government spent on the youths either by creating more employment opportunities or making better policies for them. It is therefore very imperative that when allocation of time is being considered, then youths should be considered as their input in production is assumed to be high.
Politics is one of the pillars that are necessary for the growth of the economy, but the question is, which type of politics should be played for a better economy? Investors and business would not invest in an economy, which is politically unstable due to the fear of loss of property and lives. In most cases, changes in personal finances are linked with changes in both political and economic environments. In many situations women by nature fear politics and so they find themselves few in leadership and cannot muscles much support in economic issues or fighting for economic space thereby creating the dominance of men and in the long run there is social inequality that exists (Callaghan et al., 2007. p. 48).
The economy has a bride spectrum of issues that must be considered; it cannot be achieved by an individual nor the government, but it is a collective responsibility for all the stakeholders to make sound social, economic and political policies which enhance the growth of the economy. Gender parity, age, tribe differences should be used in job allocation because economy requires the efforts of all these elements without discrimination of victimization. The governments should put sound economic policies that cannot bar any individual depending on the age or gender difference. The culture of saving should be developed from childhood, and therefore, every household and government should think of offering training and advertisement concerning both group and personal saving. The government should create more jobs for its citizens, and if it is necessary, they partner with private sector then let it be so. There are many ways the government can create jobs even privatizations of its assets is also vital and mature politics should be embraced.
References
Callaghan, G. S., Fribbance, I., & Higginson, M. (2007). Personal finance. Chichester, West Sussex, England, John Wiley.
Kapoor, J., Dlabay, L. and Hughes, R. (2004). Personal finance. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Rumsch, B. (2013). Saving & investing. Minneapolis, Minn.: ABDO Pub.
De Tray, D. and Greenberg, D. (1975). A note on the analysis of male-female income differences. [Santa Monica]: [Rand Corp.].
Rosinsky, N. (2004). Saving money. Minneapolis, Minn.: Compass Point Books.
