Youth Employment in Asia and the Pacific:

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Youth Employment in Asia and the Pacific
Equality at work for young women and men
Key issues and strategies Nelien Haspels
and Busakorn Suriyasarn ILO, Bangkok February 20
02
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• Equality between women and men or Gender
  equality, refers to the equal rights,
  responsibilities, opportunities, treatment and
  valuation of women and men in employment and in
  training.
• Gender equality is about ensuring that all
  persons are treated with dignity and allowed to
  develop to their full potential, leading to a
  higher quality of life for all. It includes
• the same human and workers rights
• equal value and fair distribution of
• responsibilities and opportunities
• workload and decision making.

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Trends in the labour market ? Young and older wo
men form an increasing share of the worlds
labour force in Asia and worldwide.
Women who are economically Womens share
in the labour force active (20-54 years) in 2000
in 2000
Region Africa
58 Asia 64 Latin America
46 Caribbean Europe 69 Nor
th America 73
Region Worldwide (ILO 2000) 41
Asia (ILO 2000) 40 Thailand (NSO 1998) 4
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? shift from agriculture to manufacturing and
services Table 3 Percentage distribution of t
he labour force, by sex, 1990/1997 in East,
Southeast and South Asia Female labour f
orce Male labour force
Agriculture Industry Services
Agriculture Industry Services
East Asia 14 23
63 11 33
56 South-east Asia 46 13
41 45
20 35 South Asia 66
18 15 54 13
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________________________________
Source UN, 2000 Prepared by the Statistics
Division of the United Nations Secretariat
from ILO, 1999. Key indicators of the Labour
Market (table 4.), Geneva.
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• ? Young women migrants from rural areas
  predominate
  
• in low skill jobs in labour intensive
  manufacturing industries EPZs, but decline of
  women in jobs when production becomes more
  skill, capital and technology intensive
• in the service sector in lower skilled jobs
• - shop attendants
• - data entry, finance and administration
  workers
  
• - domestic workers
• - entertainment workers

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? Increase in low quality jobs for women

• 3 D jobs Dirty - Dangerous - Demeaning
• - lower quality working and employment
  conditions
  
• - flexi-jobs irregular and part-time
• - little training or promotion prospects
• - no or little job or social security, dismissal
  upon marriage or pregnancy
  
• - in the informal sector as subcontracted or own
  account workers
  

• Gender wage gap Wide-spread discrimination on
  basis of sex Women earn typically 2/3 of mens
  earnings
  
• Only partly due to less education and work
  experience.

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WHY direct and indirect discrimination.
? Direct gender or sex discrimination Someone i
s not hired or not promoted, because of his or
her sex, and this is stated openly. For
example Sales executives wanted Dispatch driv
ers needed Attractive females 18-22 Young abl
e-bodied men years are invited to apply, are
invited to apply, enclose photograph and CV.
enclose copy of driving license and CV. ?
Indirect discrimination No explicit exclusion
of one sex officially, but exclusion of one sex
because of preferences or gender stereotypes.
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• Gender stereotyping Common beliefs on suitable
  work for men and women
  
• All women are mothers first, and all girls
  become mothers.
  
• Men are better in technology and handling
  machines
  
• Womens nimble fingers and patience qualify
  them for
  
• repetitive low-skilled work in factories
• Men are natural leaders and managers
• Women are last hired and first fired If jobs
  are scarce,
  
• men should be given preference as they are
  considered to be the main income earners.

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• Job Segregation Mens - Womens Jobs
• Horizontal segregation
• across jobs
• women cooks - men guards
• Vertical segregation in job hierarchy
• women workers - men supervisors

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• Horizontal segregation
• women in narrower range of occupations
• horizontal segregation going down world wide
• lowest in Asia, except China
• more women in mens jobs, not more men in
  womens jobs
  
• women jobs less pay, status, career options

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• Vertical segregation in job hierarchy
• Higher in Asia and the Pacific than in other
  parts of the world
  
• Old idea not enough qualified women out of
  date, but
  
• Glass ceiling remains intact worldwide
• -
• - 1-5 women in top jobs

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Horizontal and vertical sex segregation in
enterprises
Glass ceiling walls
Female graduates
Male graduates
Support staff (majority women)
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• Equality in practice is good for workers and
  businesses
  
• It is the right and the smart thing to do
  Social justice and sound economic sense
  
• Sex is not an indicator of competence
• Equality in recruitment means choosing from the
  widest
  
• pool of talent
• Benefits to the enterprise because of
  diversity of approach,
  
• background and priorities Balanced mix of
  feminine and
  
• masculine attributes e.g. competitive,
  decisive, forceful,
  
• cooperative, consensus - oriented, (too)
  emotional,
  
• sensitive, people management
• Good image of companies

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How to promote equality in youth employment
1. Labour market information needs to be
disaggregated (broken down) by sex and age.
2. Equal employment policies (EEOP) Commitment
to employment practices and procedures which
- do not discriminate - provide equality to al
l irrespective of age, sex or other grounds to
achieve productive and freely chosen
employment 3. Practical measures
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• Practical measures step-by-step approach
• Identification of bottlenecks and opportunities
  for promotion of equality in
  
• - job recruitment
• - selection
• - promotion
• - transfer or training
• When recruiting
• - advertisements should not indicate a
  preference for applicants of a certain group
  or sex unless the preference is clearly justified
  
• - encourage everybody to apply, select adequate
  information channels reaching young men and
  women
  
• - selection criteria, tests and interviews
  should be related to job competencies and be the
  same for everybody

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Practical measures step-by-step approach
(continued) 3. At the workplace -
ensure respect and a healthy working
environment free of (sexual) harassment for all
workers - ensure that workplaces ar
e family friendly. 4. Positive action, also kn
own as positive discrimination or
affirmative action Practical temporary
measures to combat the direct and indirect
results of past discrimination by favouring
training and employment opportunities for the
group suffering from past discrimination.
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• Examples of practical measures
• Setting a quota or target, for example
• If in a company all supervisors are men, a
  certain percentage of positions are set aside for
  women.
  
• Quota is a stronger measure than a target
• Quota No men are recruited until the desired
  number of suitable women staff is on board
  
• Target Suitable women will be recruited in
  addition to suitable men.
  

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Equality in Training

• Education
• Vocational Skills Training

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Education the big picture

• Progress
• Higher enrolment for girls and women
• at primary level in almost all countries
• similar enrolment between men and women at
  tertiary level in industrialized countries
  

• However
• Gender gaps in access to education still remain
• at primary level in South Asia, Sub-Saharan
  Africa Arab region
  
• higher enrolment rates for boys and young men in
  developing countries
  
• illiteracy among girls women in low-income
  countries higher among adult women
  

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Education the big picture

• Progress
• Worldwide increase in access to education for
  women and girls provide them with better
  employment.
  
• Women and girls have performed as well as men and
  boys in all levels of education.
  

• However
• Gender equality in education is insufficient to
  overcome job segregation and wage disparities.
  
• Gender equality in access to education is not
  matched with equal access to vocational and
  on-the-job training.
  
• Womens lack of access to quality training
  bottleneck to gender equality at work.
  

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Obstacles in skills training

• Less training in a few skills of low demand
• sex segregation segregation in job
• in education training
• Women are trained in limited number of skills
  considered suitable to women.
  
• Training is often supply-driven, not based on
  demands of local job market.
  
• Women tend to be trained for self-employment in
  similar skills and in shorter courses, while men
  are in formal vocational training with longer
  duration.

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Once in the job market,

• Women tend to
• receive only minimal on-the-job training
• be under-represented in retraining programmes
• have extremely limited opportunities for
  apprenticeship
  
• Because
• women often work part-time or for short period of
  time
  
• training schemes favour the better educated and
  better skilled who are usually men
  
• workplace-based training is often under direct
  responsibility of employers only few have equal
  opportunity policies
  

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Lack of access to retraining,Women who are
particularly at risk

• 1. Women who spend some time out of the
  labour market because of pregnancies, child care
  or other family responsibilities
  
• 2. Retrenched women workers who carried out
  largely unskilled work in industries, which
  collapsed due to economic transitions or reforms.

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In some countries

• Women tend to be excluded from handling
  equipment, machines and new technologies.
  

• Women are encouraged to enter new fields such as
  information technology and finance sector.
  

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Training for self-employment and entrepreneurship

• Women are major actors in growth of micro- and
  small enterprises around the world.
  
• Between 1970-1990 gap between men and women as
  employers and own account workers narrowed from
  26 to 40 women for every 100 men.
  
• However, women predominate in smaller, more
  precarious, subsistence type of businesses with
  low returns.
  
• Training in self-employment for women is being
  organized in many countries but suffers from low
  quality and limited skills, among others.

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Vicious cycle of lack of trainingand
low-quality, low-pay work
concentration in low-skilled
jobs with no prospects Lack of education
few women in high-tech
training or capital-intensive
fields which provide better trainin
g women seen are primarily
family care-takers, hence
higher risk for skills investments
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Priorities in training retraining for girls
and women (1)

• Adoption of explicit equal opportunity goals and
  measures in vocational training systems
  
• Meaningful inclusion of both males and females in
  the full range of standard vocational training
  programmes, rather than provision of
  traditionally female-oriented skills to women
  only.
• Progressive revision of all training curricula to
  avoid gender stereotyping and promote equality
  between the sexes
  

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Priorities in training retraining for girls
and women (2)

• Encouraging both boys and girls to go into
  non-traditional occupations to break existing
  patterns of job segregation, e.g., girls into
  scientific and technical fields and boys into
  jobs in the care sector
• EFFECTIVE MEASURES INCLUDE
• Introduction of technical, science and care
  subjects including life skills for boys and girls
  in the formal educational system from the primary
  level onwards
• Career counseling for school-leavers which
  discourages gender stereotyping and channels both
  girls and boys into marketable and productive
  occupations in new fields
• Job placement programmes

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Priorities in training retraining for girls
and women (3)

• Establishment of more effective linkages between
  training systems and labour markets, so that
  girls and women are trained in employable skills
  alongside boys and men.
• PRACTICAL MEASURES INCLUDE
• Combining classroom with workplace-based
  training
  
• Seeking the active involvement of employers in
  selecting types of training, in job-search
  programmes, in job-placement schemes and
  obtaining their commitment to gender equality in
  employment

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Priorities in training retraining for girls
and women (4)

• Special tailor-made training for potentially
  vulnerable groups of women, e.g., women prone to
  migration to urban centers or to foreign
  countries, ethnic minority women who may lack
  cultural and language skills realistic
  information and basic life skills as protection
  against exploitation and abuse
• Awareness raising among men workers on their role
  in sharing family responsibilities could be
  incorporated in many work-place based training
  programmes.
• Training in prevention of sexual harassment and
  gender-based violence at work in vocational
  training situations

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Priorities in training retraining for girls
and women (5)

• Development of flexible training programmes for
  young and adult women and men with family
  responsibilities, who need or seek to combine
  paid and unpaid work in terms of the design,
  delivery and location of the training (e.g.,
  child care services)
• Integrated training for women who will become
  self-employed consisting of relevant and
  productive vocational skills training and
  enterprise development
• Special measures such as targeted information
  campaigns may need to be designed to facilitate
  the entry of workers with family responsibilities
  into labour market-based training and retraining
  programmes

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THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION