1. Introduction 3 Understanding women’s economic and social rights 10
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3.3 Women’s work: Formal and informal, paid and unpaid“[M]any laws still make it difficult for women to fully participate in economic life – whether by getting jobs or starting businesses. Discriminatory rules bar women from certain jobs, restrict access to capital for women-owned firms and limit women’s capacity to make legal decisions. Gender differences in laws affect both developing and developed economies, and women in all regions.” -- World Bank, ‘Women, Business and the Law 2014: Removing Restrictions to Enhance Gender Equality – Key Findings,’ 2013183 Y Summary of Global Trends The economic crisis has had major ramifications on the right to work globally, and the International Labor Organization has noted a host of negative consequences in this area, including increased unemployment, reduced wages and working hours, reduction in social security benefits, and reduced de jure rights (such as loosening restrictions on termination of employment). At the same time, there has also been a general decline in collective bargaining. For women, the ILO points to worsening gender gaps in the labor market, and highlights that the crisis destroyed 13 million jobs for women, with projections showing no significant reduction in women’s unemployment expected even by 2017. The period of the crisis has also seen a reversal in the historically higher employment growth rates for women, again with no projected return to the earlier trend even by 2017. ___ Sources: David Tajgman, Catherine Saget, Natan Elkin and Eric Gravel, ‘Rights at work in times of crisis: Trends at the country level in terms of compliance with international labour standards,’ ILO Employment Sector, Employment Working Paper No. 101, 2011. International Labour Organization (ILO), ‘Global Employment Trends for Women,’ International Labour Organization: Geneva, December 2012. oung adulthood for women may mean many things. It may mean advanced education. Often, it means the beginning of participation in the labor market, whether formal or informal. In many cases it also means staring a family, and balancing the demands of work inside and outside of the home. The balance of roles and responsibilities that women shoulder are heavily influenced by gender and age, with women’s reproductive years generally spanning from age 15 to 44, according to the World Health Organization. When it comes to women’s paid work, whether formal or informal, women as a whole are more likely than men to be concentrated in part-time and low wage work, limiting their economic independence and compromising opportunities for career advancement and eligibility for social benefits.184 They tend to be under-represented “in positions of power and status”185 and overrepresented in precarious, atypical and vulnerable work or employment.186 Segregation in the workplace is a related problem, with women clustered in what some have referred to as ‘pink-collar’ jobs, largely service sector jobs which offer inferior working conditions, less job security and provide lower pay.187 In 2012, the ILO reported that women “are confined to a more limited range of occupations than men” and that there are significant gender gaps in economic indicators of job quality, including gender gaps in employment vulnerability (where there is a global gender gap of 2.3 percentage points) and occupational segregation.188 Women are also less likely to be represented on corporate boards and in positions of senior management.189 Globally, women hold just 24 per cent of senior management roles and just 19 per cent of board roles are held by women.190 One notable exception is China, where women now hold 51 per cent of senior management positions, and there has also been a recent rise in the number of women CEOs.191 In terms of occupational segregation, in most developing countries, women have increasingly moved out of agriculture and into the service sector, with the exception of countries in East Asia, where women’s employment in industry has risen to 25 per cent.192 In more affluent countries, more than 85 per cent of women work in the service sector, primarily in education and health.193 The ILO reports that a number of countries have taken important steps to reduce segregation in the workplace (including Czech Republic, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom) and recommends that policies to combat occupational segregation should also encourage men to enter industries or occupations traditionally associated with women.194 According to one study by the ILO, in high income countries: … gender inequality in the labour market remains a pressing problem. Despite women’s gains in education, wage gaps remain substantial. Wage gaps are usually wider between men and women with tertiary education. Women are still less likely to participate in the labour market, and when they do, they are more likely to work part-time. In most countries, women are overrepresented in low-wage work and are more likely to be poor or socially excluded. This trend is particularly pronounced among women over age 65: for this group, gender gaps in poverty rates are alarmingly high.195 For further information on women in the labor market, please see the background paper prepared by Sandra Fredman, which provides a review of laws and best practice in relation to women’s labor market equality in a selection of countries.196 The ILO has also indicated “striking inequalities” between female workers with and without young children, noting that “the gap in employment rates is often wider among these two groups of women than between the sexes.”197 This reality has in part caused sociologists to coin the phrase ‘motherhood penalty,’ for the systematic disadvantage that many mothers face in the workplace. For further information about the motherhood penalty, please see the background paper prepared by Efrat Herzberg, which addresses these issues in additional detail. Sexual harassment and discrimination on the job are also pressing problems. According to UN figures, between 40 and 50 per cent of women in the European Union experience “unwanted sexual advances, physical contact, verbal suggestions or other forms of sexual harassment” at work.198 In the Asia and Pacific region, the figure is estimated to be between 30 to 40 per cent.199 For further information on women’s right to work and sexual harassment, please see the background paper prepared by Frances Raday, which addresses these issues in additional detail. Domestic violence also directly impacts women’s ability to work. Researchers report that: Domestic violence often causes victims to miss days of work due to injuries, mental health problems, and fear of the abuser locating the victim at her workplace. The CDC [n.b. Centers for Disease Control, a Government public health agency in the United States] estimated that abused women in the United States missed nearly 8 million days of paid work in a single year – the equivalent of losing more than 32,000 full-time jobs from the U.S. economy.[ Domestic violence also reduces victims’ productivity when at work as a result of lowered self-esteem, depression, elevated stress levels, poorer concentration, and other mental and physical health issues stemming from the violence. Absenteeism and decreased productivity in turn can lead to missed promotions and even job loss. Victims of domestic violence have higher rates of job turnover than non-abused women, contributing to victims’ reduced earning capacity and restricted job mobility. A victim’s friends and family members may also miss work in order to assist the victim, multiplying the productivity costs to households and the larger economy. In Bangladesh, researchers calculated that each incident of domestic violence costs the victims’ household, on average, roughly 4.5% of the household’s total monthly income.200 Women’s work is not limited only to paid employment. Care work – largely preformed by women and girls in both developed and developing countries – is generally unpaid, and undervalued. 201 Care work also places a heavy time burden on women and girls. In Mexico, for example, UNDP has documented that on an average day, women spend close to 6 hours on domestic activities and childcare, severely limiting the time available for income-generating and leisure activities.202 Caregiving is also not limited to child care (which is further addressed below), but encompasses the support and care of older persons, the sick, persons with disabilities, and others. Again, intersectional discrimination also profoundly affects women’s experiences in the workplace. In the US, income data disaggregated by race and sex show that on average African-American women earn just 63 cents for every dollar earned by a white man, while Hispanic women earn just 54 cents for every dollar earned by a white man.. 203 White women earn on average 77 cents for every dollar earned by a white man.204 Women’s right to work with a focus on economic crisis UN-Women has reported that, since the crisis, gender gaps in unemployment have worsened across all regions.205 It has also noted that labor market deregulations which in some countries have followed the crises led to a general worsening of working conditions and to a weakening of wage bargaining power that has pushed even more women into vulnerable employment.206 Similarly, since the crisis, the ILO has also highlighted that gender gaps in the labor market have worsened, and that the crisis has increased what was an already large gender gap in unemployment.207 In the midst of economic crises, the World Bank has reported that: The experience of past crises suggests gender-specific first and second round impacts of the current crisis on women’s income and their work choices. First round impacts include the fall in women’s income in developing countries as result of employment losses in export oriented industries, tightening micro-finance lending, and/or drop in remittances. Second round impacts are part of households coping strategies and result in women joining the work force to help poor families weather drops in family income.208 Data demonstrates the significance of women’s income in situations of economic crises, and one result has been what has been termed as the ‘added worker’ effect, whereby women enter the labor force in order to provide additional income security to the household, particularly in cases where there is male unemployment or wages are reduced.209 In previous economic downturns, Argentina, Mexico and Peru all experienced the added worker effect.210 These economic pressures can also force women into precarious, exploitative or dangerous forms of work,211 or lead them to migrate aboard in order to find employment.212 Eva Biaudet, the OSCE Special Representative and Coordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings has also warned that the economic crisis could make women more vulnerable to trafficking, noting that “[w]idespread unemployment, a drastic decline in opportunities and a loss in remittances from labour migrants result in desperate situations both in countries of origin and of destination, where people have few viable alternatives and are prone to take more risks.”213 Women in the informal economy have also been deeply affected by the crisis. According to research conducted between July and September 2009 by the Inclusive Cities Project by Women in Informal Employment, Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO), in developing countries there was an “overall deterioration of employment and income levels of women workers in the informal economy.” 214 Results were based on interviews with 219 informal workers, 82 per cent of whom were women. For example, 77 per cent of waste-pickers interviewed in Pune, India, reported a decline in their income; between January and June 2009, the prices of waste materials had dropped between 5 and 7 per cent.215 In Bogotá, Colombia, and Santiago, Chile, prices had dropped even more, by 42 per cent and 50 per cent respectively.216 Researchers went on to highlight that: Of the 52 street vendors interviewed, 62 per cent reported a decline in the volume of trade since January, 2009; 77 per cent reported a reduction of weekly profits; and 83 per cent reported an increase in business costs. Eighty-four per cent of own-account home-based workers reported that their monthly incomes had fallen during the first half of 2009, and 75 per cent also reported a reduction in the volume of trade. One third of these home-based workers worked longer hours than before, in order to maintain the profit margin.217 The same research shows that nearly 40 per cent of female respondents were the primary income earners in their household, and in other households, women’s income made a vital contribution to household income. Twenty per cent of respondents reported recent retrenchments of household members during the previous six months, whilst 40 per cent reported a drastic reduction of income provided by one or more members of the household over the same period. 218 Survey results indicated that an increased number of informal women workers were supporting their entire families on substantially less income.219 To combat these kinds of repercussions, some Governments have established special programs which have greatly benefitted women – typically by increasing women’s employment in the public sector. Such programs have been developed in Peru (through the Programa de Apoyo al Ingreso Temporal – PAIT), Chile (through the Programa de Empleo Mínimo – PEM), India (through the Employment Guarantee Scheme) and Argentina (through the Programa Jefes de Hogar -- PJH).220 According to the ILO, in the wake of the most recent crisis: Ten countries reported on labour market measures targeting women, all high- and middle-income countries where female participation was low (except Latvia). These measures included training for unemployed women in Argentina and Chile and training for women returning to the labour market (Italy and Japan). Four countries increased their public works programmes with quotas for, or focus on, female participation (India, Latvia, Serbia and South Africa), while Turkey increased the scope of subsidized employment for long-term unemployed women. Two countries also targeted female entrepreneurs: Egypt introduced a 2 per cent cut in interest rates on loans to micro- and small enterprises targeted at women-headed households and Turkey introduced special credit lines for female artisans, as a crisis response.221 In Brazil, Chile, Singapore and Korea, Governments have invested in re-skilling, training and unemployment protection, unemployment benefits and measures for women workers.222 In Brazil, the National Technical Education and Employment Program (PRONATAC) is a national program for capacitation and professionalization which covers 66 per cent of women.223 In the Republic of Korea, the Initiative for Women’s Reemployment seeks to resolve the problem of women’s career interruption due to childbirth and childcare, and supports women’s re-employment.224 The Women’s Re-employment Support Center is an institution supporting employment, where various services such as internship opportunities, job training and career management are provided for women who interrupted their careers due to childbirth and child rearing.225 As of 2012, the Government reports that there are 100 Centers in operation throughout the country.226 In Malta and Portugal, States have similarly invested in re-training of unemployed persons to new jobs which break gender stereotypes, especially for those with family responsibilities.227 In India, quotas for women in employment guarantee programs targeted at the poorest households.228 In the Czech Republic, the Government instituted in 2012 ‘Priorities and Procedures in Promoting Equal Opportunities for Men and Women,’ which aimed at redressing discrimination in employment and guaranteeing equal participation of women and men in the labor market.229 The ILO notes, however, that countries that were able to offer labor market measures to unemployed women on a large scale already had programs in place. There were few major new programs.230 For example, South Africa expanded the country’s public works program, which has a quota for female participants.231 A similar approach was followed in Turkey, where an additional 65,000 women benefited from subsidized employment between 2009 and 2010.232 In addition to these challenges, in the wake of the economic crisis, women’s rights advocates have described a ‘care crisis,’ in which women have to increasingly pick up the slack in care left by crumbling social protections in health, education, and other sectors.233 Feminist economists warn that: There is an important relationship between the work of social reproduction and market work since there are only 24 hours a day. Demand for the unpaid work of social reproduction puts pressure on the time available for paid work in the market economy. Many studies of the impact of the 1990s Asian financial crisis and 1980s structural adjustment policies document consequences such as reduced incomes as women have to go out of work or take up less remunerative and part time work, or make compromises on time devoted to caring for children.234 Other crises, for example the HIV pandemic, can also lead to increased care burdens on women. In addition, economic policies which may seek to increase women’s participation in formal employment may not pay sufficient attention to women’s caregiving role, thereby having the effect of increasing women’s double burden. At the same time that public policy must recognize caregiving and afford it more value, public policy should also not reinforce gender stereotypes and roles by maintaining women’s disproportionate burden when it comes to care work. More affluent families may choose to hire domestic workers in order to alleviate the care burden. The ILO and UNICEF note that domestic workers are often used as a ‘coping strategy’ by wealthier families to help reconcile paid work with household responsibilities and childcare. However, shifting the burden of care work onto domestic workers brings up a range of other issues, as domestic workers remain among the most vulnerable to exploitation and abuse: Because domestic workers, the overwhelming majority of whom are women including some girls, most often are in the informal economy, they are unprotected by labour legislation. Because they carry out their work in private homes and hidden from view, they are not recognized as workers and do not benefit from labour rights guarantees such as minimum wages, regulated hours of work, overtime pay, paid leave, and maternity protection. Oftentimes, they work very long hours for low pay and without entitlements to leave periods. Typically, they come from low-income, rural or migrant groups, and lack voice and representation to improve their conditions of work. Many are exposed to highly exploitative working conditions and violence, including sexual harassment and verbal or physical abuse.235 Several options exist for reducing women’s unpaid care burden. One important strategy is to provide “subsidised care services – for children, older people, and people with disabilities – to enable women’s more active participation in the public sphere.”236 In developing countries, provision of water, electricity, and sanitation facilities all can significantly reduce women’s time burden with respect to household labor and caregiving. In particular, research shows that provision of electricity and water in or near to the home can reduce the burden of care work in poorer countries where such infrastructure is not in place, for example in remote and rural areas: Easier access to fuel and water lessens the time that women and children must spend collecting these resources and makes it quicker to complete tasks such as cooking and cleaning. In addition, adequate safe water and fuel contributes to the health of family members and reduces the time care-givers must spend looking after sick people. The Millennium Project Taskforce on Water and Sanitation also notes that mothers with improved domestic water services are better able to care for their children, in part because they devote less time to fetching water and seeking privacy for defecation, which in turn contributes to reducing child mortality rates … In addition, access to fuel and water in the home facilitates home-based income-earning activities such as hairdressing and cooking, making it easier for those responsible for unpaid care to combine paid work with their unpaid care responsibilities.237 In the Republic of Korea, Elderly Care Insurance (ECI) entitles all citizens over the age of 65 to public care services, covering costs associated with a range of potential needs, including help with domestic work, delivery of prepared meals, and institutional care.238 A similar program exists in Japan (called long term care insurance, or LTCI), which is aimed at shifting responsibility away from the family (i.e. women) and into the public domain.239 In terms of employment, because women tend to be concentrated in certain sectors, women working in the public sector and in various export-oriented industries have been disproportionately affected by job losses following the economic crises. Despite this, much of the focus has been on male unemployment. The impact of austerity measures on women working in the public sector is considered below. But here we can highlight that export-oriented countries have experienced substantial declines in export levels due to a drastic reduction in demand from countries like the United States and the United Kingdom.240 This decline has disproportionately affected women working in certain industries, such as textiles and apparel. According to UNAIDS, women make up some 60–80 per cent of export manufacturing workers in low- and middle-income countries.241 For example, in countries like Nicaragua decreased demand for exported goods has led to the displacement of nearly a third of the maquila workforce, a workforce which is almost entirely made up of women.242 While the maquilas are notorious for their poor and exploitative labor conditions, these job losses have nonetheless made women’s economic lives more precarious. In Cambodia, over 38,000 jobs were lost in the textile and clothing sector, the largest formal sector employer for women and comprised of 90 per cent women workers.243 In the Philippines, more than half of the 40,000 jobs lost were in export processing zones, where 80 per cent of workers are women.244 Unfortunately, economic crisis is often used as an excuse to reassert patriarchal attitudes and stereotypes about the role of men as primary economic providers.245 The European Commission’s Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men has noted that “Gender based stereotypes may also exacerbate inequalities [in times of crisis]. For example, the ‘male breadwinner’ model which still predominates in many countries, may lead to a priority being given to men’s jobs and a reliance on women to provide a social safety net through informal paid and unpaid work.”246 Others have similarly noted that “Women bear the brunt of crisis because of the paradigm of the male bread-winner that prevails all over the world across cultural divides, from Cuba to Japan. When job retrenchment takes place, the tendency is to protect employment for men and compromise on women’s jobs.”247 During the Asian crisis, for example, women experienced unequal treatment in terms of dismissal, social security entitlements and rehiring.248 Similarly, seniority rules which determine whose jobs are kept and whose jobs are cut -- while gender neutral on their face – often favor men in practice. Add to this the fact that the impact on women in terms of unemployment is likely to be underestimated. Experts have found that regardless of what sectors are most harmed by the economic crisis, in some countries, gender norms are such that women are first fired, because men are generally perceived to be the legitimate bread-winners when jobs are scarce: A global survey conducted in 2005 found that almost 40 per cent of those interviewed agreed that when jobs are scarce, men have more right to a job. Experience with the Asian financial crisis confirmed this tendency, with women laid off at 7 times the rate of men in the Republic of Korea. We can expect this to be a dominant feature of layoffs in a large number of countries in the current crisis, and it is likely that in developing economies, many more women will be pushed into the informal sector as a result. Official unemployment data are likely to miss this trend because, even if underemployed, women will be counted among the ranks of the employed in labor force surveys. In developed economies, there is evidence that some unemployed women withdraw from the labor force as a response to joblessness. This too will result in the underestimation of the unemployment effects of the crisis on women.249 Economic crisis also has specific implications for women and men migrant workers. Migrant workers in general are often targeted during periods of economic instability and crisis. According to UNAIDS, reports from high-income countries that women migrant workers were forced to return to their homelands began appearing shortly after the crisis started: “This represents an entire shift in the global sphere of women’s labour from paid to unpaid domestic work, and increases the burden of domestic labour on women in all contexts.”250 In addition, nationalistic sentiment may increase, and local residents may perceive that migrant workers are shrinking the pool of domestic jobs.251 Some countries, for example Malaysia, have taken increased steps to discourage migrant workers from entering.252 According to the Programme on Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (PWESCR), return migration associated with the economic crisis has exacerbated pockets of poverty due to lost remittances and increased pressure on local labor markets. In India, for example, large numbers of migrants have returned to their former villages. It is estimated that out of the 60 million migrant workers, 10 million workers returned back. In the city of Surat, the rate of return migration was reportedly as high as 50 per cent.253 |