Dialogue on economies that work for women
AHIGH-level dialogue at Sofitel Philippine Plaza this afternoon will tackle the issue of whether women today have greater access and participation in the economies of their countries. If not, what can be done to ensure fair and equitable treatment in the long run? The dialogue is being held in conjunction with the visit of the UN Undersecretary-General and Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, and in cooperation with the Philippine Commission for Women. The speakers which include Department of Trade and Industry, Gregory Domingo, DTI Undersecretary Nora Terrado, Ms. Jeanne Javelosa, president of ECHO Sustainable Institute and Prof. Marina Durano will discuss the results and recommendations of the Women’s Flagship Project Report on the Progress of the World’s Women in Transforming Economies.
In an earlier opinion editorial, the UN Undersecretary-General stressed existing imbalances in the world today, such as the fact that the world had become wealthier, but there is much more inequality; and that, although we have the largest cohort of educated women, they still find themselves struggling to find work. Unemployment rates remain high and though the women have jobs, they are paid 24 percent less than their male counterparts. These are also low-salaried and insecure occupations such as small-scale farming or domestic work, a sector where women comprise 83 percent of the workforce. Conventional measures like the GDP are blind to the work that women and girls do. Thus, she recommends the need to apply a “human rights lens to economic problem-solving.” Our public resources are not flowing where they are most needed, she notes, as she cites examples such as providing safe water and sanitation, quality health care, and decent child and elderly-care services.
The UN Fact Sheet notes inadequacies such as the persistent gender gap in labor-force participation and pay rate in Asia and the Pacific as shown by a decline from 69 to 62 percent between 1990 and 2013. Too often, women are trapped in low-paying, poor-quality work. Women have reported doing a large share of unpaid care and domestic work than men. Women were also shown to have greater vulnerability to poverty and less access to social protection.
Over time, policies that transformed the labor markets were enacted. By 2014, 59 countries had passed laws stipulating equal pay for equal work of value; 125 had laws to prohibit sexual harassment in the workplace and 128 countries laws that guaranteed married women’s equality when it comes to property. In 112 countries, daughters had equal inheritance rights to sons. However, there is still further to go in the area of legal reform as 77 countries still maintain restrictions on types of work that women can do such as banning them from working at night or working on occupations such as mining or construction.
Countries like Colombia, Mongolia, the Philippines, and South Sudan have used quotas to increase women’s participation in decision-making in the public sector.
A report by Fiona McPhail analyzes the recent World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report of 2014 where the Philippines ranked 9th out of 142 countries in gender equality by saying that this ranking is driven by its high performance on two indicators – education and health and survival. However, gender inequality persists in economic opportunities and political empowerment where it ranked 24th and 17th respectively. Its ranking for labor force participation was at 102 out of 142 countries.