Gender dimensions of the global financial and economic crisis

1
Gender dimensions of the global financial and
economic crisis

• ITUC PERCRegional workshop Women in the
  economic crisis and informalisation of the
  economy
• 7 Mai 2009
• Verena Schmidt, Senior Specialist on Conditions
  of Work/ Gender Equality
• Subregional Office Budapest
• schmidtv_at_ilo.org

2
Structure

• Context
• Different Impact of Crisis on Men and Women
• Empirical Evidence
• ILOs work on the Crisis
• Policy recommendations

3
Setting the gender context of the crisis

• Even before the onset of the current financial
  and economic crisis, globalization was not
  economically or socially viable. While the world
  economy had experienced consecutive years of
  robust growth, the benefits were not shared by
  all
• ? Inequality between states
• ? Inequality within states
• ? Inequality between men and women

4
Why does the crisis affect women and men
differently?

• Gender based job segregation
• Women as buffer workforce
• Male-breadwinners, female care-givers
• Women as cheaper substitute for mens labour
• Remittances
• Unpaid care work and womens double burden
  impact on poor

5
Empirical Evidence
6
Global unemployment rates

• ILO has estimated that the financial and
  economic crisis is expected to increase the
  number of unemployed women by up to 22 million in
  2009.

7
Gender inequality in sectoral employment (2008
figures)

• Out of the 3.0 billion people that are employed
  around the world, 1.2 billion are women (40.4 per
  cent)
• Industry
• 18.3 per cent women as compared to 26.6 per cent
  men
• Services
• 46.3 per cent of women as compared to 41.2 per
  cent for men
• Agriculture
• 48.4 per cent of women as compared to 40.1 per
  cent for men are employed

8
Gender Differences in working conditions

• The share of vulnerable employment was 52.7 per
  cent for women as compared to 49.1 per cent for
  men
• There is still a big gender gap in wages with
  women earning an average of 15 per cent less than
  men for every hour worked
• ?In the Ukraine, women earned on average 27 less
  than men on a monthly wage in 2006 and 2007

9
ILOs work on the Crisis

• March 08 GB Call for Global Jobs Pact
• January 09 Predictions on Unemployment figures
• Upon request country responses (Ukraine)
• March 09 G20 ILO assessment for September G20
• March 09 Global Employment Trends for Women
• June 09 ILC DGs Report on Crisis
• ILC CoW _at_ ILC 09 -gtGlobal Jobs Pact (3-19.6)
• ILC Report/Discussion on Gender

10
Global Jobs Pact

• Financial support conditional on giving credits
  to real economy
• Making DW the cornerstone of fiscal stimulus
  packages by creating labour intensive
  infrastructure projects
• Avoiding wage deflation by increasing wages in
  line with productivity
• Promoting international coordination in policy
  responses and avoiding protectionist solutions

11
Policy responses to the crisis

• In developed economies, stimulus packages
• In Central and Eastern Europe, fiscal space is
  limited in most countries and conditionalities
  are set by the IMF in Latvia, Ukraine, Hungary,
  Belarus, Serbia, Rumania
• In Latin America social transfer programmes

12
Conclusions and recommendations

• Consider gender specific impact of responses to
  the crisis
• Stimulus packages in what areas?
• Protect social spending
• Social transfer payments
• Social dialogue
• Analysis of labour market and public employment
  service
• Labour inspection and occupational health and
  safety