who is the head of the household?
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Who is the head of the household?. Kim Robertson Human Development Programme, Secretariat of the Pacific Community. Presentation. Background on the SPC, PICTs The misuse of the ‘household head’ Palau: re-defining the household head using wage and salary income traditional definition - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Who is the head of the household?
Kim Robertson Human Development Programme,
Secretariat of the Pacific Community
Presentation
Background on the SPC, PICTs
The misuse of the ‘household head’
Palau: re-defining the household head using wage and salary income
traditional definition
a closer look at head and spouse
using all household members
The Secretariat of the Pacific CommunityPacific regional organisation providing training and technical assistance from land, marine and social resources divisions – all PICTs are members (research a new mandate)
Recently moved to joint country programming – 5 completed in 2007 – refocusing activities on PICT needs
SPC Pacific Women’s Bureau providing assistance to PICTs to improve use of gender statistics
PRISM regional Internet database
www.spc.int
Pacific Island Countries and Territories
14 UN countries
1 NZ ‘affiliate’ (Tokelau)
1 UK territory
3 US territories
3 French territories
Mis-use of the household headNot ‘true’ head of household – more like a ‘household reference person’
PICTs: culture dictates that the oldest or highest ranking male will be the head of the household
Matrilineal societies (2 countries; other ‘islands’) female heads normally nominate a male son/relative to manage affairs outside ‘culture’: husband or this person is usually the ‘survey’ household head
‘Relationship’ question not used other than for household head identification (edited but not used to derive family structures)
Palau – matrilineal culturePopulation around 19,000.
Former US territory, independent since 1994 (Compact of Free Association Trust Fund, US major donor)
Consists of more than 340 islands, of which only 9 are inhabited (south and north excluded from HIES because of cost and availability of administrative and Census data)
Relatively ‘high’ development in terms of HDI (GDP per capita around USD6,000, high literacy, low-ish fertility, high labour force participation)
Sex of household head Households
Sex of household head Number Percent
Male 3,499 74%
Female 1,245 26%
Total 4,744 100%
28% of households headed by females
High proportion of adults in workforce, low subsistence activity; other significant income is superannuation (social security)
3,838 households have income from wages or salaries (c. 80%)
Using wages & salaries because this is related to person number … so can analyse using other variables such are relationship, sex and so on
‘Traditional’ definition of headAverage wage and slary income of hhold head
11,366
10,386
9,800
10,000
10,200
10,400
10,600
10,800
11,000
11,200
11,400
11,600
Male Female
BUT we know there is a high LFPR
‘Traditional’ analysis would say that women’s wage and salaries in households they head are 9% lower than males
‘Head and spouse’ definition of income
When ‘head’ is defined by highest wage & salary income of head and his or her spouse
11,876
11,366
13,140
10,386
0
2,000
4,000
6,000
8,000
10,000
12,000
14,000
Traditional Economic A
Definition of head
Ave
rage
hou
seho
ld in
com
e
Male head Female head
Female head average income higher than males
‘All members’ definition of income
When ‘head’ is defined by highest wage & salary income of all household members
11,366
11,87611,542
10,386
13,140
12,519
0
2,000
4,000
6,000
8,000
10,000
12,000
14,000
Traditional Economic A Economic B
Male head
Female head
Using all household membersUsing head and spouse only
‘All members’ definition of income
Average household income based on ‘traditional’ and ‘all members contribution’ 40% female headed
25,596
15,598
14,270
17,903
-
5,000
10,000
15,000
20,000
25,000
30,000
Traditional head Economic head
Male Female
Further workFinal edited data – ‘poverty’ datasets rather than ‘national accounts’ datasets
Derive family structures / living arrangements
Relate as many sources of income to household members as possible
Check sampling and non-sampling errors
DEAL WITH MAJOR PROBLEMS – National Statistics Offices do not have the capacity for this kind of analysis and are reluctant to release this data to researchers; Women’s focal points probably don’t know that this kind of data / analysis exists
Pacific Island Country and Territory National Statistics Offices Internet websites, regional summary tables (MDGs) can be accessed through
http://www.spc.int/prism
Population and projection information is available from
http://www.spc.int/sdp