Part A (Q2): What is the relationship between gender and livelihood?

Gender and livelihood are deeply intertwined, with gender acting as a massive structural determinant of how people secure their livelihoods. The relationship is characterized by severe inequality:

1. The Burden of Unpaid Care Work: Women bear the disproportionate burden of unpaid domestic and reproductive labor (cooking, fetching water, childcare). This drastically limits the time and energy they can invest in paid, income-generating livelihood activities.
2. Access to Assets: Patriarchal norms often deny women equal access to crucial livelihood assets, particularly land ownership, credit (loans), and advanced education. Without assets, it is nearly impossible to build a sustainable livelihood.
3. Wage Discrimination and Occupational Segregation: When women do enter the paid workforce, they are often segregated into low-paying, informal, or vulnerable sectors (like domestic work or marginal farming) and frequently face the gender wage gap, earning less than men for the same work.
4. Vulnerability to Shocks: Because women's livelihoods are often informal and asset-poor, they are much more vulnerable to economic shocks, climate change, or health crises compared to men.