Unit 3: How to mainstream gender in ILO operations

Gender-responsive monitoring and evaluation

CIDA’s Guide to Gender-Sensitive Indicators

Indicators related to women, work and labour force participation, and problems with their use

[The following is an extract from Annex 7 of CIDA’s Guide:]

Indicators and their problems

A UN report on social indicators has noted: "It is particularly important that [measures of labour force participation] be based on good data on men and women’s participation. There are often particular difficulties in identifying economically active women, and the stereotype that women are usually confined to home-making activities can result in a serious loss of data on women’s economic activity. The problem seems to be most pronounced in rural areas...."

The under-representation of women’s work has been one of the key areas that gender specialists have sought to redress, through pressure on public institutions in order to redefine women’s work, and through more general advocacy. As a result of this advocacy, the definition of labour force participation now includes subsistence labour. The ILO now defines labour force participation as, "All persons of either sex who furnish the supply of labour for the production of economic goods and services as defined by the United Nations Systems of Accounts and Balances" (1988).

The inclusion of subsistence production has made the definition more relevant to developing countries, but also means that information on labour force participation is more difficult to collect. In theory, the UN System of National Accounts requires the inclusion of all primary production together with the "processing of primary commodities by the producers of these items in order to make such goods as butter, cheese, flour, wine, oil, cloth or furniture for their own use though they may not sell any of these manufactures." Beneria (1993), in a detailed discussion of the practical implications of the resolution, makes the point that while the resolution included subsistence production in national accounts, what was to be included in subsistence production was not always clear. A survey of 70 countries in 1975 showed that most countries now attempt to incorporate subsistence production in agricultural statistics, but their treatment of other subsistence activities varies greatly. For example, differences were found among countries regarding the inclusion in national accounts of activities such as home gardening, water carrying and food processing.

Apart form subsistence production, conceptual and methodological problems remain with estimating women’s other contributions in the domestic and voluntary spheres, e.g. houseworking and child-rearing. The survey quoted above of the 70 developing countries in 1975 showed that "whereas 69 included crop production and 53 covered fishing, only 6 included water carrying and none included housework [in their national accounts]." Beneria (1993) provides background to the conceptual and methodological problems involved in including housework and volunteer activities within the national accounts. many authorities now recommend the production of separate or ‘satellite’ accounts to deal with domestic work, which would permit the generation of ‘augmented’ estimates of gross domestic production. Consensus regarding the inclusion of volunteer work has yet to be reached. While conceptually there has been considerable progress concerning what women’s work involves, methodologically and practically there has been little progress.

Indicators of work and employment should be disaggregated by sex and age. "Tabulations of detailed occupational categories by sex are needed in order to monitor the extent to which sex segregation in jobs and industries exists and is increasing or decreasing" (UN 1984). Certain standard employment indicators may not capture women’s work, e.g. average expected years of working life may not be a useful indicator because women enter and leave the work force many times (UN 1984).

Ms. Marnie Girvan, Director, Women in Development and Gender Equity, CIDA
200, Promenade du Portage, Hull, Quebec, Canada K1A OG4
Ph: 819-994-3256; Fax: 819-953-6356]

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