The purpose of my introductory remarks is to summarize the contents and findings of the report.
The Office set out to draft a report on the fields of the Beijing Platform for Action that fall within the ILO's competence.
Chapter 1 on the labour market and chapter 2 on women workers' rights are deliberately pitched at comparisons of periods longer than the four years since the Beijing Conference. Very few data exist for this period. Moreover, subjects such as poverty or obstacles to women's participation in economic or social life are not amenable to short-run solutions.
The first sections of chapter 1 recall and document that women are poorer to a greater extent than men because
The Asian crisis that is briefly analysed has generally worsened women's situations relative to men's. It will take some time for the now resurgent economies to make good the losses incurred by both women and men - no doubt, it will take longer for women than for men.
Chapter 1, section 5 analyses gender gaps on the basis of harmonized statistics for the 25 member States of the ILO in Asia and the Pacific. Table 1.5 is an example regarding labour force participation. The full table can be found on p.13 of the report. Gender gaps are calculated for various points in time - 1980, 1990 and generally just prior to the onset of the Asian crisis, the latest year for which cross-Asian data were available.
Gender equality exists where numerical parity or comparability obtains for women and men at broad levels of distinction. Where there are disparities, gender gaps exist. We have calculated these with a simple tool indicated in the Appendix. Deducting the gender gaps in one year from the gaps in another year shows how much they have narrowed.
The Office's intentions in the report were, not only to document gender differentials, but also to explain them. The explanations can simplifyingly be grouped under economic developments, on the one hand, and cultural or social values, domestic policy influences and the impact of external factors, on the other. External factors might include the Beijing Conference, the ratification of ILO Conventions or technical cooperation activities.
Economic factors explain part of the narrowing of gender gaps. High economic growth has a favourable impact. But high growth needs to be underpinned by policy measures to realize its full potential. Low economic growth or stagnation tends to have an unfavourable impact unless legislation or institutional support helps women. This conclusion is tellingly illustrated in Figure 1.1 on page 14.
This figure focuses on the most basic and most comprehensive factor, labour force participation. Figure 1.1 visualizes the narrowing or widening of gender gaps from 1980 to 1990 and from 1990 to 1997. The countries are arranged by decreasing economic growth rates from left to right: China and the Republic of Korea, which had the highest growth, are at the left side of the Figure; the Philippines and the Solomon Islands, which were characterized by low growth, appear on the right side.
What does Figure 1.1 indicate? It indicates that, with the exception of Thailand, high-growth countries enjoyed a narrowing of gender gaps in labour force participation. Where women's positions have been underpinned by educational and other policies as in Singapore for instance, their participation in the labour force has increased strongly.
South Asian countries do not score well in terms of economic growth or gender gap changes. Gender gaps widened in Bangladesh and India. Sri Lanka is an exception. Sri Lanka is known for the educational measures it took to help women. They appear to have been the prime mover behind the striking improvements in the labour force participation rates of Sri Lankan women.
Remarkable improvements were also recorded in Australia, Fiji and New Zealand. Again, it would be difficult to attribute these to economic growth. Legislative and institutional measures must have been responsible for them!
Figure 1.1 tells us that policies matter. "On its own, market-led economic growth appears insufficient to achieve gender equality in the world of work - both because prevailing cultural factors impede progress toward equality, and because policies have to be in place to transform the economic potential into equitable distribution of gains... (P)olicies can go a long way to improving women's situations, even where economic growth is not a predominant feature" (p. 29).
Chapter 1, section 6 looks at Asian women who migrate for employment purposes to other countries in the region. The report finds that women are catching up with men in terms of numbers but not in terms of the type or quality of work. Migrant women are concentrated in two vulnerable occupations: household work and entertainment or commercial sex work. In both occupations women are vulnerable because of the particular nature of their work and because, in most countries, private households and the entertainment or commercial sex industries remain outside the purview of labour laws. In these countries women lack public means to challenge exploitation or abuse.
Another fact highlighted by the report is that much of the migration in Asia and the Pacific - probably in excess of 50 per cent - is irregular in terms of the legislation of the countries of departure or the countries of employment. Moreover, fees were imposed on migrants at the point of departure and in the country of employment. Not only is this contrary to a long-standing ILO principle that workers should not have to pay for getting a job, but it is also something migrants want to avoid and, therefore, a cause of many irregularities.
Chapter 1, section 7 provides some facts and figures concerning the 70 million or so Asian girls who work, thereby often missing out on education. One conclusion drawn by the report and supported by research carried out under the auspices of ILO's International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) is that "more than economic growth is required to eliminate child labour" (p. 25). Even if poverty was totally eliminated in the region, and even if agricultural employment somehow disappeared, there would still be many girls - and boys - working when they should not.
Chapter 2 pulls together recent gender-relevant legislation of Asian or Pacific countries and ILO standards. The descriptive analysis is arranged under two broad headings: protection and equal opportunities. There is no need to dwell on any of the subjects dealt with, which require attentive reading. Instead, I should like to highlight the conclusions.
As regards protection, labour codes across the region often exclude women from particular types of work even where the hazards involved affect men and women indiscriminately or where hazards could be eliminated without denying employment opportunities to women workers. By contrast, there are new subjects where protection is lacking such as trafficking or the worst forms of child labour. Here legislation sometimes simply does not exist; elsewhere it is ineffectively applied or it hits those who deserve protection - notably women and children in commercial sex work - rather than the perpetrators of trafficking.
Equal opportunities legislation is being phased in - gradually, haltingly and mostly in the more advanced countries where formal sector employment predominates. Appendix 3 of the report provides a set of basic suggestions that developing member States of the ILO in the region may wish to examine and adapt to their circumstances. These comprise, firstly, equal opportunity and anti-discrimination training of officials, managers, etc. Secondly, the establishment of an independent body to promote gender equality at work through the collection and dissemination of information, mediation or conciliation services, etc. Thirdly, the adoption of a range of specific laws and regulations to combat discrimination in access to work.
The most flawless legislation, by itself, will not be enough to bring about gender equality. A whole range of institutional mechanisms is required to change the way in which societies - wittingly or unwittingly - disadvantage women. Chapter 3 throws light on recent institutional developments in the region. A number of topics are touched upon: national machineries, the participation of ILO constituents in them and the participation of women in decision making.
The bulk of chapter 3 contains brief descriptions of what the Office believes are noteworthy examples or initiatives taken recently by ILO counterpart ministries, employers' and workers' organizations. Our selection reflects a concern to cover different subjects rather than all countries exhaustively, which would have been impossible. Among the subjects you will find home work; the Department of Labor and Employment in the Philippines; the collection of statistics; the role played by employers in New Zealand's Equal Employment Opportunities Trust; the Springboard Women's Development Programme; an ICFTU initiative to increase gender sensitivity in trade unions; how women workers linked up in the face of the recession in the Republic of Korea; and how migrant workers organized themselves in Hong Kong, China. Attention is drawn to these initiatives as encouraging examples - encouraging to other governments, employers' and workers' organizations to do likewise or inspiring them that the vision of gender equality can be realized if one puts one's mind to it.
Chapter 3, section 4 illustrates the gender composition of decision-making or other positions. The data base for this presentation was weak. We had to rely on what each country or organization defined as "decision making."
The visualization for selected ministries of labour in Figure 3.1 indicates that women are beginning to claim the place that is rightfully theirs. But in many countries they still have a long way to go to achieve equal representation.
As far as employers' organizations are concerned, the data kindly made available suggest that, although women are numerically quite well represented in a number of employers' organizations, men are usually entrusted with the important posts at decision-making level.
When looking at trade unions, the report shows (in Figure 3.2) that women constitute a significant proportion of rank-and-file members.
That fact is not always reflected in women's participation in decision-making, as Table 3.1 reveals.
The comparison between the 1992 and 1996 figures (of Table 3.1) suggests that unions in developing member States have made strides towards more equal representation. Equality has been reached in Sri Lanka's unions' General Councils. But most of the workers' organizations still have a long way to go before their ideals match reality.
In chapter 4 of the report we take a critical look at the technical cooperation activities during recent years that were designed to benefit ILO's constituents and, in the end, women or children.
Once again, our findings are somewhat mixed. On the positive side can be shown, as the report does, that many projects and activities have been carried out in the region in fields relevant to gender concerns and the Beijing Platform for Action. On the other hand, many projects have been either "gender neutral" or "women specific". "Mainstreaming" is the exception rather than the rule. The report goes on to suggest, inter alia, that:
The Office hopes that its report for this Consultation will not give rise to a string of further declarations, goals or targets, of which one can find plenty in the UN system. The Office hopes that the report, notably chapters 2 and 3, will contribute to the identification of what is practical and can be realized. As the Director-General of the ILO, Mr. Juan Somavia, put it on an earlier occasion: "We need to be imaginative in thinking about the future, and realistic in seeking to achieve what is possible. We need to be creative in inventing new solutions to old problems and practical in obtaining concrete results" (People's security: Globalizing social progress, by Juan Somavia, 1999, p. 18).
1The full report is available from the ILO's Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok, Thailand and from SEAPAT's office in Manila, Philippines.
For further information, please contact the South-East Asia and the Pacific Multidisciplinary Advisory Team (SEAPAT) at
Tel: + 63.2.815.2354 or + 63.2.819.3614 and Fax: + 63.2.812.6143
E-mail:
seapat@ilo.org
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