Improving Gender Equality and Quality Employment Opportunities for Women in APEC Economies

1.Overview

Over the past decade, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member economies[1] have witnessed dynamic economic changes. However, economic gains have not always translated into equal opportunities for women and men and progress varies across countries. The Asia and the Pacific region[2]still presents some of the widest global gender gaps, with South Asia exhibiting excessively low female labour force participation rates. This indicates deep-rooted obstacles to women’s economic opportunities and gender equality. Even if women’s employment opportunities have generally improved, their access to decent work remains elusive.Women continue to face horizontal and vertical occupational segregation, and in many countries they remain overrepresented in “low-skilled” and low productivity sectors, in informal work arrangements and as contributing family members. As a result, many women lack access to labour protection and social protection, which further hampers them from realizing their full potential, with severe and multifaceted negative impacts on economic growth and well-being.If the status quo is maintained and gender gaps are not addressed, countries will face sizeable opportunity costs. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that greater gender equality could increase the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Asia and the Pacific by as much as 4.7 per cent in 2030 (using the baseline of 2015).[3]

Investing in women is one of the most effective drivers of gender equality and inclusive, sustainable economic growth.[4]Gender equality has been recognized as a key area by APEC for over 20 years, after being introduced into APEC’s Action Program in 1996. Since then, the economic empowerment and participation of women has been increasingly acknowledged, and in the 2011 APEC Women and the Economy Summit, a need to measure progress was identified as an important means to tackle the barriers to the full economic participation of women.In2016, APEC Leaders made a commitment to advance women’s participation in the economy, which will be followed up by a workshop on quality employment opportunities for women, held 6-7 March 2017 in Bangkok.[5] This session note provides a background to this APEC workshop and gives an overview of gender gaps in the world of work, identifies measures and policies in APEC economies for gender equality, and points to gender transformative policies that could contribute to realizing the unmet potentialof women in the APEC economies.[6]

2.Gender gaps in the labour market

A large body of research shows that the intensifying rate of women’s entry into the labour market has been a strongmotor of global growth and competitiveness.[7] Nonetheless, globally, women are nearly 27 percentage points less likely to participate in the labour market than men, a gap which varies across regions. For the Asia and the Pacific region, the labour force participation rate for women is 32 percentage points lower than men’s, standing at 47 per cent. The gaps are highest in South Asia, at over 50 percentage points. In the Americas,[8] where 54 per cent of women are active in the labour market, this gap is at above 20 percentage points[9] (see Figure 1).

While there has been some progress in narrowing gender gaps in participation in Northern America, which has among the lowest gaps in the world, they have been widening in South Asia and EastAsia during the past two decades, and progress for the Asia and the Pacificas a whole is slow and uneven. In addition to lower rates of labour force participation in certain Asian sub-regions, women also have a higher propensity to be unemployed. The gender gap in employment rates was prevalent in all Asian sub-regions, except in Eastern Asia, where the male unemployment rate was higher than that of females by almost a percentage point.[10]

Figure 1: Labour force participation rates, by sub-region & sex (2016)

Source: ILO Trends Econometrics Models, November 2016

However, labour force participation does not provide the full story, and the quality of work and economic opportunities availed by women are also important to consider. The most recent available ILOdata reveals that in 2015-16, the Latin America and the Caribbeanlabour markets faced increasing unemployment – at a faster pace than in the 2008-09 financial crisis – and this has worsened the quality of employment. This has a greater impact on women than on men, and youth unemployment has increased sharply.[11]The recent data contrasts the previous decade’s progress, during which women’s participation in the labour force grewconsiderably; from 45 per cent in 1995 to 53 per cent in 2015. This is likely related to improved education and health elements, including declining fertility, as well as to the rise in subsidized childcare provision experienced in the region.[12]

Unequal distribution of unpaid care and household work and deficient care services are root causes of gender inequalities at work

Women’s participation in the labour market is constrained due to uneven share of unpaid care and household work. Globally, the gender differences in hours per day spent in total work have decreased, largely because women spend less time on unpaid work while spending more time on paid work. In the United States, for example, women spend 19 minutes less per dayon unpaid work than a few years ago, and nine minutes more on paid work.[13] Still, the time women invest in unpaid care and domestic work exceeds that of men across the globe;by almost three times in China; over three times more in Japan and Mexico, and five times more in the Republic of Korea.[14]

Further, with rapidly ageing societies and growing populations, many countries face shortages of long-term care workers. The Asia and the Pacific region presents the world’s biggest shortages, a demand which will continue to increase. As women take up the bulk of unpaid childcare and eldercare, this shrinks the formal workforce and limits their career choices. This has negative implications on countries’ economic performance. Therefore, to achieve a higher labourforce participation of women and sustain economic growth, countries should consider increasing the provision of accessible and affordable care, and promote a more balanced distribution of unpaid care between women and men. The ILO anticipates that in contrast to most members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN),[15] where the labour force is expected to growby 25 to 35 per cent until 2030, a negative or close-to-zero growth path is foreseen in China, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Thailand.[16]

Box 1: Investing in the Care Economy

In two recent publications by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)[17], a gender analysis of employment stimulus in seven high-income[18] and seven emerging[19] economies in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) hasbeen conducted. They show how public investments in paid care jobs generate large economic and gender equality benefits. Both reports reveal that investing in social infrastructure would increase productivity; address the care provision deficit; reduce gender inequality, with several positive gender equality outcomes in both paid and unpaid work;and improve people’s quality of life.

The report on high-income economies estimates that if two per cent of GDP was invested in the care industry, it would create 600,000 new jobs for women and men in Australia, 3.5 million jobs in Japan, and nearly 13 million jobs in the United States. This would increase the overall employment rate by 4.0, 4.3 and 6.1 percentage points in Australia, Japan and the United States, respectively, and as a larger share of those new jobs would be taken up by women, the gender gap in employment would decrease by 20 per cent in Australia, 10 per cent in Japan, and by half in the United States. (In comparison, investing a similar amount in construction industries would create only around half as many jobs and instead increase the gender gap in employment).[20]Emerging economies would also face progress from investment in the health and care sector equal to two per cent of GDP.In China, it would generate as much as 24 million new jobs, and in Indonesia, almost 2.8 million jobs. The employment rate would increase by 2.4 and 1.8 percentage points in China and Indonesia, respectively. (In both countries, investment in health andcare wouldcreate almost 25 per cent more jobs than a similar investment in construction).[21]

The absence of universal care services further blocks women’s capacity to access decent work. While available and affordable childcare solutions, flexible working arrangements and other measures to balance work and family life are crucial for all workers, it creates a particular impact on women. Today, young women and men tend to have greater expectations for achieving work-life balance, flexibility and mobility than previous generations have had.[22] Therefore, to meet this demand, work-life balance policies and measures by governments and enterprises will be essential. Research has found that work-life balance policies and measures are associated with increased productivity and better business performance.[23]

Womenare often invulnerable and informal employment, taking up jobs of lower quality

Over 46per cent of the world’s female and male workers,and around 54 per cent in Asia and the Pacific,are in vulnerable employment (i.e. own-account work and unpaid family work)(see Figure 2). Women in the Asia and the Pacific region tend to be overrepresented in unpaid care and household work, in particular in Southern Asia, South-Eastern Asia and the Pacific.Estimates suggest that as many as one in thirteen female wage earners in Asia and the Pacific are domestic workers, many whom are migrants. Like other groups of vulnerable workers, they are often working in informality, with low pay, excessive working hours and high levels of precariousness.[24] Only about 12 per cent of domestic workers have the right to a minimum wage in the region.[25]

The domination of domestic work is even bigger for women in Latin Americaand the Caribbean, where over 18 million womenare domestic workers, representing above one in four of all female wage earners. As much as 92 per cent of the region’s domestic workers are women.[26]

Figure 2: Status in employment, by sub-region & sex (2016)

Source: ILO Trends Econometrics Models, November 2016

The ILO estimates that worldwide, only just above five per cent of workers who are in vulnerableemploymenthave access to contributory social protection measures, such as pensions,unemployment benefits or parental leave. Over half of the workers in non-agricultural employment across regions with low- and middle-income countries are in informal employment. These trends are firmly entrenched in countries’ inability to create enough formal, decent jobs and livelihood opportunities.[27]Efforts should be made to recognize, respect and value the work performed by women in the informal economy, including those in agriculture, migrant workers and domestic workers, and to integrate them into labour and social protection policies so that they can gain access to coverage for unemployment, pensions, benefits and parental benefits. Some recent policy measures are highlighted in Box II.

Box II: Progress in domestic workers’ rights

  • Hong Kong (China) and the Philippines are the only nations in the Asia and the Pacific region in which domestic workers have the right to a minimum wage.[28]
  • In 2012, Thailand passed the Ministerial Regulation on Domestic Work. It provides several protections, including mandating one day off per week and paid sick leave and holidays.

The Philippines provides a range of social services (with life and personal accident insurance) to the country’s 3.8 million migrant workers, including domestic workers, under the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act (Republic Act 8042).

Informality and vulnerable employment are also characterized by strong gender dimensions. In Latin America and the Caribbean and in Southern Asia, more women than men are found in informal, non-agricultural employment, and ILO data has shown that in Latin America and the Caribbean, informality disproportionately affects women, youth and households at the bottom tiers of income distribution.[29]The gender dimensions of informality are also manifested in entrepreneurship, as many women entrepreneurs remain in informal micro- and small businesses and self-employment, without access to opportunities to formalize and grow. This has multiple negative implications, not only in terms of vulnerability and limitations on income generation, but it hinders them from realising their full potential to contribute to socio-economic development, job creation and environmental practices.[30]

Therefore, while the increased participation of women in the labour force is important, the quality of the jobs availed to female workers is equally important to ensure that women can contribute fully to inclusive and sustainable growth and leverage their educational and skills investments.[31]

The glass ceiling and glass walls that impede women’s access to managerial jobs

There has been significant progress on closing the gender gaps in education but these gains have not necessarily led to improved career opportunities for women. The distinctive obstacles to career advancement, particularly encountered by women, shrink the available talent pool for employers. For companies across Asia and the Pacific this has a large cost, as many face challenges related to recruitment of candidates with the right skills. This indicates that the region’s high unemployment rates, skills mismatches and gender inequalities are interlinked and mutually deteriorating problems.[32]

Although the number of women who are business owners and managers has increasedin most regions, to a large extent, women remain excluded from leadership positions and decision-making. There is a persistent “glass ceiling” that prevents women from reaching top positions, such as chief executive officers (CEOs)and company presidents, as only a small fraction of those positions are held by women.[33]In addition, there are “glass walls” that impede women from breaking into typically male dominated jobs and sectors, causing a concentration of women in certain types of occupations and management functions. This creates a viscous cycle as women’s career paths often prevent them from achieving the diverse management experiences that senior management positions require.[34]

Figure 3: Percentage of women on boards (2013)

Source:GMI Ratings: 2013 Women on Boards Survey[35]

Furthermore, women’s voice and representation in employment institutions, employers’ organizations and trade unions is insufficient. Increased representation of women in such organizations, and in industrial relations,will be akey driver for gender equality, for example by promoting gender inclusive business policies, or by raising gender equality issues in collective bargaining.By tackling gender biased recruitment processes;improving training access and remuneration systems;setting targets in representation of women; addressing sexual harassment and violence in the world of work; recognising care responsibilitiesof women and men; as well as tackling the norms and attitudes that shape the “corporate culture”, such problems can be overcome.[36]

Box III: A steep climb up the career ladder

In 2013, the ILO Bureau for Employers’ Activities surveyed around 1300 enterprises in five regions.[37] The survey identifies women’s family responsibilities as the key barrier to women’s leadership.China, New Zealand and Viet Nam are the only countries in the world with a larger share of female CEOs than 5 per cent,based on available datafor publicly listed companies.In the public sector, New Zealandand the Philippines are the only APEC economies in which women hold a share of 40 per cent or more of the legislators, senior officials and managers.[38]

Gender pay gaps underpinned by discrimination

Gender pay gaps are associated with various forms of discrimination. As in other parts of the world, women in Asia and the Pacificface sizeable wage discrimination, including those in salaried jobs. It is estimated that women held only 38 per cent of all salaried jobs in the region in 2015.[39] In some countries, wage discrimination causes low wagesfor women and is a deterrent for them to enter and remain in the labour force.

The gender pay gap can be divided into components that are “explained” (referring to observable labour market features, such as experience, education level and employment sector) or “unexplained” (such as discrimination and certain behaviours). For example, the gender pay gap is mostly explained in the United States, where a larger share of those who earn the minimum wage or less (62 per cent) are women,[40]although the gap for better-paid women is largely unexplained. In Chile and the Russian Federation, differences in pay between women and men are primarily unexplained.[41]

In high-income countries, the gender pay gap is partly explained by disparities in wage rates, and the fact that women are more concentrated in lower paying sectors and job categories, such as health, social work, education and other services.[42]Differences in the number of hours worked do also have a negative impact on women’s monthly wages, as women are more likely to work part-time, often owing to childcare duties. High-income countries’ gender gaps in monthly average wages are however not fully explained by these factors, as there are other aspects of relevance which are more difficult to measure, such as biases.[43]