ISGN > Publications > WOMEN and GENDER

WOMEN IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC:  A TRADE UNION PERSPECTIVE*
By Rosalinda Pineda Ofreneo**

The new millennium poses many challenges to the  world’s women, given various developments pointing to increasing global inequality and  worsening working,  living, and environmental conditions for disadvantaged and vulnerable groups. Women in many countries in Asia and the Pacific, who comprise sixty percent of all females,  have been hit by financial, economic, and social crises in varying degrees.  Disasters and armed conflicts add to the violence they continue to suffer from various sources, and put more strain on increasingly scarce resources and social services. (Asia Pacific NGO Regional Symposium, 1999). Women at work have  to contend with the impact of  new technology and  increasing global competition, which have led to more intense exploitation and/or further marginalization. The increasing ascendancy of transnational banks and financial institutions through the “intensifying phenomenon of mergers, consolidations, foreign takeovers  and other restructuring programs in the financial sector of different Asia-Pacific countries” has led to the loss of tens of thousands of jobs held by women and men  in the region. For trade union women in particular, the problems brought about by helter-skelter globalization can be overwhelming, as the jobs and basic rights of workers are “sacrificed  in the name of global competition, privatization and deregulation.” (UNI-APRO Statement, January 2000).

This background report  seeks to present the trends in the position of women in societies within the Asia and  Pacific  region, in the globalizing economy, and in the trade unions. It highlights key challenges facing women within a trade union context, and reviews policies relevant to their concerns and interests. Lastly, it proposes strategic responses which may be pursued to address the challenges of the new millennium

    Despite undeniable gains in asserting women’s rights in the last few decades, women in Asia and the Pacific still suffer from discrimination in many spheres of life.

___________
*Paper originally prepared as a background report  for the First UNI APRO Regional Women’s Conference, September 2000, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia.

**Ph.D. and Professor, Department of Women and Development Studies,  College of Social Work and Community Development , University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City


Personal and family relations.  Equality between husband and wife within marriage and the family is a relatively new idea, especially in traditional societies within the region.  Even if it is affirmed by law in many countries, it is not realized in practice. In some states, notably those with Islamic influence, the wife has to subordinate herself to her husband in law and in fact.

Religious and ethnic marriage customs  continue to adversely affect women’s interests in many countries. These include  practices like requiring dowries or bride price, arranged marriages, polygamy for men,  abuse of young brides, and unfavorable divorce and  inheritance laws.

Women still do more work within and in the vicinity of the home than men. In Japan, the time spent by women on unpaid tasks is nine times more than men.  In India, women spend 20 hours a week  more than men doing unpaid work in the home. (Hale,1996).

Health.  Many women, especially those who are poor and overworked, still cannot expect to live long. Life  expectancy averages 67.5 years in Asian countries but it  is 50 or below in Nepal, Laos, Cambodia, and Afghanistan. Although there is a decline in fertility rates among women worldwide (in Asia the average is 3.7 children per woman),  they remain high (six and above) in a few countries in the region, notably Saudi Arabia, Laos, Afghanistan, and Yemen.  High fertility rates are related to poor health for mothers, and mortality for infants.  The average maternal mortality (deaths per 100,000 live births) in Asia is 373,  with Singapore registering only 10 (and Japan, 18) while the following countries have more than 500: India, Myanmar, Indonesia, Laos, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Yemen, Nepal and Afghanistan.The availability of and attitudes towards contraception vary from country to country and are also influenced by religious positions. The percentage of couples using contraceptives can be as high as 83 percent, as in China, and as low as two percent, as in Afghanistan. Teenage pregnancy continues to be a worrisome problem. The percentage of teenage births to total births is 10 percent or above in Nepal, Yemen, India, Indonesia and Thailand,  among others. Safe abortion is allowed only in a few countries  such as China, Vietnam and Singapore, so maternal deaths due to unwanted pregnancy still need to be addressed. (Neft and Levine,1997: 102-148 ).

There has been a decline in both the quantity and quality of health services in many countries due to decreased government spending on these, a development linked to globalization and the attendant economic crises (Asia Pacific Regional NGO Symposium, 1999:24-26).  Consequently, women’s occupational, reproductive and environmental health have suffered.  The work load of many women  has also increased because they have to take care of the sick, the elderly, and the young, within the traditional  family context.

Violence Against Women.  The recognition of women’s rights as human rights is a notable gain of women’s movements in the last decade.  Freedom from gender-based forms of violence such as female infanticide,  battering, incest, and rape (including marital rape) dowry deaths,  sexual harassment,  exploitation and molestation  (including prostitution and  trafficking, now facilitated by the Internet)  is already considered  a primordial right of women and girls. But in many countries, such forms of violence are a daily fact of life. For example, “Female infanticide and the abortion of female fetuses are not uncommon in China, India, South Korea, and other countries where sons are greatly valued over daughters.”  (Neft and Levine,1997:152).  It is estimated that in India, about ten thousand baby girls are killed annually. In many parts of South Asia, dowry deaths  (which occur when brides are murdered or driven to suicide by their husbands’ families) are still being reported in the thousands. Rape in countries like Pakistan is in many instances unreported, being a source of shame, guilt, and sometimes incurring a reverse charge of adultery on the part of the reporting woman. In the recent past,  mass rapes and other sexual assaults in connection with armed conflicts and internal strife have been reported in Bangladesh and Cambodia.  Prostitution and trafficking are rampant in a number of countries in the region.

 It must, however, be said that there are signs of progress in some countries regarding legislation and protection and care of survivors. However, much more needs to be done in practice, and governments have to exercise more political will and allocate more resources to address the problem.

Education and Training.  Literacy levels are generally rising and in some countries these increased by leaps and bounds.  The literacy rate for women in the developed economies is above 95 percent and in East and Southeast Asia at least 75 percent. (ILO, 1998-99:147).  But  half the women in South Asia and in Islamic countries  still cannot read and write. These are the countries where primary-school enrollment of girls is also very low. In Pakistan and in  Afghanistan, more than half of  primary-school age girls are not in school. In at least two countries (Afghanistan and Nepal) the difference between girls’ and boys’ enrollment exceeds 25 percent. (Neft and Levine, 1997: 28-41 ). The gender gap in education remains high in South Asia and in the Arab states. Computing the female adult literacy rate as percentage of the male rate, the figures for South Asia is 59;  the Arab states, 66;  East Asia, 83; East Asia excluding China, 96; Southeast Asia and the Pacific, 91. (UNDP,1999:232).

But there is also good news. In some countries, like India, Nepal, Pakistan and Thailand, there are special learning centers for girls where they can study for free, during times when they are available, in places accessible to them and providing care for their siblings. (Neft and Levine,1997:43).

 In terms of higher education, women comprise 50 percent or more of the student body in the Philippines, New Zealand, Australia and Thailand  but 33 percent or less in Afghanistan, India, Laos, Pakistan, Nepal,  Bangladesh, Yemen and Indonesia. (Neft and Levine, 1997:42-43). Although there are gains in women’s and gender studies resulting in  gender-fair curricula (e.g. both boys and girls take home economics and practical arts), gender tracking is still evident in higher education  and training. Thus women still tend to enter fields such as teaching, nursing, humanities and social sciences, while men are still concentrated  in high-prestige areas such as law, engineering,  mathematics and the so-called “hard’ sciences.

The impact of globalization and structural adjustment programs  on education has generally been negative. Governments allocate less resources for it, and privatization makes it available only to those who can afford it

Generally, women still have little access to vocational  training, workplace-based training, lifelong learning, and new technology training, which is a factor behind their limited occupational choices and the perpetuation of gender-based occupational segregation. (ILO, 1998-99:150-157).

Women,  Media, Science and Technology. Negative images of women continue to be beamed through media.. Pornography and trafficking in women have become features of the Internet. (Asia and Pacific NGO Regional Symposium,1999:40-41). There is still no effective way by which  illicit materials which degrade women and facilitate their sexual exploitation can be eliminated from new  and increasingly pervasive communication technologies like the Internet .

Women still have little say in how mainstream media are managed and run because  men still control most of the decision-making positions and  big business  interests still have the final say as owners and employers.  Women are also being marginalized in terms of access to and control over new information and communication technologies which are increasingly monopolized by giant firms based in the North. As  the UNI elaborates:


   A small group of increasingly global corporations already dominate telecommunications, finance, commerce and huge areas of entertainment and the media. These corporations have bigger turnovers than nation states while the states themselves de-regulate and give up “hands  on” control of increasing areas of their economies in favour of market forces. (UNI Asia and the Pacific, 2000)


The  1999 Human Development Report  observed that “Women make up just 27% of the Internet users in Japan, only 7% in China.” Most users are still male, white, and relatively well-off.  The digital divide becomes a very real issue when income gaps between  North and South are taken into consideration.  The 1999 Report, for example, points out that “South Asia, home to 23% of the world’s people, has less than 1% of Internet users.” And more tellingly, “To purchase a computer would cost the average Bangladeshi more than eight years’   income, the average American, just one month’s wage.” (UNDP,1999:6).

Women’s groups cite continuing problems with  various forms of technology in other spheres of life. Women in agriculture, for example,  still do not have access to gender- and culturally sensitive machinery and devices. Their knowledge of indigenous and earth-friendly ways of cultivation and healing is still looked down upon and underutilized. Instead, export-oriented,  cash crop monoculture is being encouraged in the light of globalizing trends , replacing subsistence agriculture and endangering food security.  Women’s  health is threatened by increasing levels of pollution and the emergence of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Reproductive technologies still give women problems in taking full control of their fertility; family planning methods and campaigns are still directed mainly to women, leaving men with less or no responsibility at all.

Politics and Decision-Making. Asia has had a few examples of women becoming heads of state, beginning with Sirimavo Bandaranaike, who became Prime Minister of Sri Lanka in 1960, 1970 and then again in 1994. Indira Gandhi led India from 1966-1977, and again in 1980-84. Corazon Aquino, after fighting the Marcos dictatorship, became president of the Philippines in 1986. Benazir Bhutto was prime minister of Pakistan from 1988-1990, and 1993-96, and Khaleda Zia served Bangladesh in the same capacity from 1991-96. (Neft and Levine, 1997:20).  However, the visibility of women in the upper reaches of government remains an exception rather than the rule in the region.

In terms of women in national legislatures, the average of countries in Asia is seven percent, and for Oceania, 24 percent. (Neft and Levine,1997:24).  These percentages are still quite low, considering that the ideal is 50 percent.

The Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) developed by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) gives an idea of how various countries fared in key areas of economic and political  participation and decision-making. Indicators used include the percentage of seats held by women in parliament, percentage of women among administrators, managers, professional and technical workers, and women’s share of earned income.  Of the 116 countries  included in the table,  New Zealand,  Australia, Japan, and the Philippines were among the top 30; some of the South Asian, Islamic, and Pacific states were among the bottom 30.  (UNDP, 1995:84-85). The same pattern is revealed in the subsequent Human Development Report (UNDP,1997:40-41).

Things are changing however. Women’s interest in transformative politics is growing. Women are emerging as key leaders particularly at the grassroots levels. Governments are enacting laws encouraging women’s political participation if not setting actual quotas for women’s representation. (Asia Pacific  NGO Regional Symposium, 1999).



WOMEN AT WORK IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY

The fact that women are key economic players under globali­zation has been underscored by recent data. Even the ILO talks about "the worldwide feminisation of the labour force and employ­ment." The figures for women have been increasing in the last two decades and today, some 45 percent of them worldwide "have or are seeking a job." (David,1996:7). In contrast, employment rates for men have been declining.

These trends are explained by changing patterns of work. There is an increase in export‑oriented manufacturing exemplified by enterprises located in economic zones which employ 80 percent women on the average. Service industries such as data processing, telecommunications, tourism, finance and insurance, which also employ more women, are on the rise. The number of women in the informal sector who are connected to export production through subcontracting is growing. Women also have increased opportunities to work abroad as migrants. (Hale,1996:7).

Another explanation for the increasing economic participation of women  has to do with changing conditions of employment as globalization demands more "flexible" labour which companies "can use more freely to suit their changing needs”, principally the need to be more mobile and to maintain profit margins in an increasingly competitive environment. Women are more "flexible" in the following sense: "They are recruited when needed and more easily dismissed when the time comes to move on. They have always been vulnerable to temporary, part‑time work without proper agreements or trade union rights. They are paid less, particularly if they are young and inexperienced." (Hale,1996:8). As a result, they suffer from "increased insecuri­ty, intensity of work, health and safety risks, disregard for family responsibilities, and problems of organizing." (Ibid.,9).

The vulnerability of women is aggravated by technological transformation which can be double-edged. Technology makes outsourcing and subcontracting more prevalent, which can increase jobs for women in printing, publishing, electronics, telework, electronic homework, and offshore data processing.  However, technological developments also lead to polarization in the work force between the high- status and multi-skilled specialists (mostly  men), and the  semi-or low-skilled flexible workers (mostly women).  When jobs require higher skills due to technological trends, women who have less access to training tend to be displaced. With globalization, it is also likely that  clerical jobs such as data encoding would be moved from high-wage to low-wage countries, thus displacing  women in the former and engaging women in the latter.  (Lim, 1996:32). Whatever the case,  employers who have greater access to cheap pools of suitable female labor gain a huge advantage at the expense of  displaced and exploited women workers.

 The ILO has the following summary of the state of women’s employment in Asia and the Pacific:

Women’s jobs, generally, can be characterized as predominantly low skill, low pay and low quality in a limited range of sectors and occupations at the lower rungs of the job ladder. In some economically and socially advancing countries, women have succeeded in gaining greater access to training and employment and increased economic autonomy and social status. The flexible forms of employment that are an inherent characteristic of globalization offer opportunities to both women and men, provided women can combine paid work with family responsibilities – in Asia and the Pacific only the privileged few can.  Globalization likewise fosters deregulation, downsizing, outsourcing, informal sector and part-time or home-work arrangements, indeed all kinds of flexible employment, which tend to stay beyond the reach of labour legislation and social protection. Women are disproportionately involved in the more precarious and vulnerable employment.  In the poor urban and rural areas they are driven to the apparent refuge provided by self-employment or micro-  enterprises. They are more likely to be unemployed or under-employed than men, and are over-represented in both the agricultural and the informal sector, where work is least remunerative. Therefore, women are on the average, poorer than men. Lack of access to technology, vocational, technical and business training or to market information and micro finance means that they and their families have to cope with dire conditions and dim prospects for the future. (ILO,1999:28).

The above summary is supported by a welter of data gathered from the region.

In five countries (Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, Philippines and Thailand) where data were available, women were found to be over-represented in the urban informal sector. The gender gap (difference between  the percentages of women and men) ranged from 7.2 percent in Thailand to 60 percent in Bangladesh.  Women were also over-represented in the percentages for underemployment (defined by the ILO as “involuntary insufficiency of hours worked”).  The gender gap in this case could be as high as 150 in Japan,  115 in New Zealand, and 91 in Australia, and as low as  0 in the Philippines and 2.0 in Thailand.  Regarding part-time work, women’s share in Australia, Japan, and the Republic of Korea was about two-thirds of total. Women also do a lot of the unpaid household work. In Japan, their share reached a high of 89 percent.  (ILO,1999:2-3).

                All the above factors contribute to the increasing feminization of poverty in the region. In addition,  poverty is higher in the agricultural sector and in countries such as Pakistan, Cambodia, Nepal and Bangladesh, women are over-represented in agriculture. Modern-sector unemployment is likewise a factor. In Sri Lanka and Indonesia, for example, there are more unemployed women than men. (ILO, 1999:4-5). Poverty is also related to the incidence of women-headed households . In Cambodia, this was as high as 20 percent, and in Vietnam, 26 percent. (ADB,1995 and 1996, cited in ILO, 1999: 5).

The Asia-Pacific Regional NGO Symposium identified the following policies as contributory to the feminization of poverty: “privatisation of public services, trade liberalisation, deregulation of economies, withdrawal of subsidies, downsizing of government, substitution of food production by cash crops and the inflow of foreign capital and enterprise.” These policies have resulted in “unemployment, under-employment, retrenchment, and the shift of labour from the formal to the informal sector and from regular to unprotected, sub-contracted labour of women workers.”  (Asia-Pacific Regional NGO Symposium,1999: 12).

Variations within the Region. Employment trends in Asia and the Pacific have either worsened or stagnated. The financial, economic and social crises in East and Southeast Asia have resulted in a steep rise in open unemployment. In South Asia, there has been no significant increase in the narrow share of formal-sector employment and no dramatic reduction in the large numbers of underemployed.  Economies in transition to a market economy (Cambodia, China, Laos People’s Democratic Republic, Mongolia, and Viet  Nam) are witnessing  a lot of lay-offs in state enterprises due to increasing privatization. The Arab states in the Middle East are affected by  changes in the oil-producing countries, where there is a trend towards less dependence on foreign workers, which in turn affects labor-sending countries. The Pacific Islands had varying economic performances, with Papua New Guinea and Fiji suffering declines.  All still have largely a subsistence, agricultural economy. (ILO,1998-1999: 15-18).

Women’s participation in the labor force, sector and status in employment, and incomes compared to those of men are as varied as the national economies within the region, depending not only on economic trends but also on cultural factors and national policies.

The gender gap when it comes to the laborforce participation rate is highest in the low-growth economies of South Asia (but not that high in Bangladesh and Nepal  where there are a lot of women employed in labor-intensive industries such as textiles and food processing); it is lowest in the transition economies.  It is important to note that in Australia and New Zealand, where policies to advance gender equality have long been in place, the gender gap narrowed dramatically in the eighties and nineties. (ILO,1999: 11-18). The UNDP provides another picture using standard subregional  geographical categories: In terms of the gender gap in economic activity (female economic activity rate as percentage of the male rate),  the Arab states have the worse figure (38.6), followed by  South Asia (55.9), East Asia excluding China (69.7), Southeast Asia and the Pacific (74.1), and East Asia (86.6). (UNDP,1999: 236).

In terms of where they are employed, more women are engaged in agriculture in the low-growth and transition economies. In the high-growth economies (Australia, Hongkong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand), they are found more in the service sector, and are increasing in the industrial sector.

There are more wage workers in the high growth cluster, and less difference in the numbers of women and men with such employment status.  The opposite is true for the low-growth cluster.

The wage gap between men and women is narrowing but is still substantial, even in high-growth economies.  In the case of Korea and Japan, this went down from about 40 percent in the beginning of the nineties to 10-20 percent. (ILO,1999:11-18).

Impact of SAPs.   Structural adjustment programs (SAPs)  imposed as conditions for availment of foreign loans  by a number of developing countries in Asia have been instrumental in globalizing their economies. SAPS have also had a lot of negative effects. Deregulation and import liberal­ization leave domestic markets wide open for penetration and inundation by foreign products at the expense of locally‑produced ones.  Local jobs are lost when local business can no longer stand the often unfair competition. Privatization drives government out of the scene, at the same time throwing public sector employees out of work.  Devalua­tion and wage freezes make domestic labor even cheaper than before, and in the process make local exports more competitive in the increasingly tight global market. SAP programs are imposed in combination with IMF stabilization programs which call for belt-tightening through reduced government budgets and subsidies so that foreign debts can be repaid.

Among the worst losers in relation to SAP are the women. They suffer most from the cutback in social services ‑ educa­tion, health, family planning and child care - resulting from the fact that a big slice of the national budget is actually spent on debt service. If they are teachers, nurses and other public sector employees, they are forced to make do with the meager salaries that the government can afford to give them. If they belong to government corporations about to be abolished or privatized as a result of SAP, many of them are likely to get laid off.

As consumers who are also in charge of family survival, women bear the burden of increased electricity and power rates as well as higher taxes on basic goods and services because the government needs more money to service its debts and to comply with the conditions of its creditors for more loans.

As workers inside the home, their working day gets longer and their double burden becomes heavier, as they try to earn more and save what they can to fulfill the family's survival needs. Often, they save on what they eat and go hungry or become mal­nourished just so the rest of the family can have their fill.

As peasant women, they have to do more unpaid work on the farms so that their families can save on labor expenses in the face of the skyrocketing prices of farm inputs connected to devaluation and inflation. As local agricultural products are forced out of competition by the flood of foreign goods on the market resulting from SAP‑related import liberalization, women involved in the production of such products face financial ruin.

As cheap labor in export‑oriented industries meant to earn more dollars for the country, women are oftentimes subjected to super‑exploitation and deplorable working conditions. Many women workers who are unorganized, unheard and/or invisible (because they work in their homes, in the streets or in the so‑called informal sector) have to make do with stagnant wages while prices escalate.

As migrant women earning foreign exchange to sustain their families, they are often subjected to grave indignities, physical and sexual abuse, violation of contracts, harsh working condi­tions, forced prostitution, even rape and murder.

In many parts of Asia, poor women bear a disproportionate share of the debt burden because of their multiple roles in production, reproduction, and community management. They have had to cope by working more, risking more, and suffering more.

GATT-WTO.The general opening up of the global economy  reached a new and more comprehensive level with the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the implementation of  the General Agree­ment on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).

GATT has meant  more import liberalization, allowing the entry of agricultural products into countries to the detriment of local producers. It has meant more export orientation, which has resulted in more land devoted to export crops and less land  left for the production to meet the basic food needs of the people.

There have been winners and losers in the scramble to compete and survive in a globalized economy.  Among the losers are  the biggest employers of women ‑ the garments and textile indus­tries in countries which are losing out to others which can produce cheaper products because their labor costs are much lower. Among the winners is  the electronics industry in countries where wage rates of electronics workers,  who are mostly women , are still competitive.

Recent international agreements are also designed to allow easier entry not only of foreign investors but also of foreign workers. With the  implementation of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS),  foreign professionals and consultants can compete directly with nationals  for jobs in  banking, insurance, communication, transportation, distribution, construction and engineering, environmental, educational, recreational, health,  and other social services. This is highly significant since  trade in  the past was limited to industrial and agricultural  products.   Now, services have  also become “tradeable”, with financial services provided by the transnational banks taking the  lead.  Foreign firms providing services could set up shop in whatever country they choose, could move their personnel into the country to fulfill contracts, or could use various communication modes like the Internet. (Ofreneo,2000).

While liberalising flows of capital and labour, goods and services, GATT also acts to shore up the advantages already enjoyed by the more economically advanced nations. For instance, GATT guarantees intellectual property rights for patent and copyright holders, 90 percent of whom are in the North.  Advanced knowledge and technology are being monopolized by them.  They are able to control seeds and other life forms, new reproductive technology (embryo transfers, in‑vitro fertilization, etc.), computer hardware and software.

Already, foreign patenting of local herbal medicines and even of the genes of  indigenous communities have become urgent issues. Indigenous women have spoken out against this in no uncertain terms. In the words of Vicky Tauli‑Corpuz, "The intellectual property rights regime privatizing knowledge and patents life forms, commercializes and commodifies human and animal generic resources, is despicable and immoral. It is antithetical to the indigenous values of collectivity, sharing, nurturing and stewardship." (Tauli‑Corpuz,1995:36).

Such control of advanced knowledge by the North will also sharpen the global division of labour, with many workers in Asia being even more inescapably consigned to labor-intensive, low technology industries such as assembly work, computer encoding etc.

Labor Market Adjustments Due to Globalization. Globalization has led  to three main trends in the labor market: flexibilization, informalization, and migration.   These trends are built on gendered realities which place women in more vulnerable, disadvantaged, and marginalized positions in relation to men.

Flexibilization is now a growing reality in the Asia-Pacific region.  Labor flexibility means “flexibility in the deployment of human resources, in working practices and in wages.”   It means “the ability to reduce or increase employment or wage levels with ease; the ability to increase mobility; the ability to make more elastic use of skills; the ability to introduce non-conventional working arrangements.”  (Kanawaty, 1989:299)  This movement towards labor flexibility takes many forms but invariably, the various flexibility measure can be classified as follows (Edgen, 1990)

- reducing the core of permanent workers, increasing the proportion of temporary and casual employees;
- increasing the use of women, apprentices and migrants;
- subcontracting the production of components previously manufactured within the factory;
- subcontracting services like transport, packaging, maintenance, security, etc., which are carried out on factory premises;
- increasing the number of shifts per day or the use of overtime;
- replacing pay systems based on working time and length of service by systems based on piece rates and bonuses;
- introducing internal training systems which facilitate redeployment of workers within the factory or enterprise; and
- reducing influences from external trade union organization by either eliminating unions or establishing a controllable union.

Informalization of female employment has been a growing phenomenon in the region, especially in countries experiencing economic downturns and loss of jobs in the formal sector. Among the women in the informal sector are the vendors, hawkers, home-based workers, variety-store owners, unpaid family workers in agriculture and in services, vegetable and animal raisers, domestic helpers, laundry women, beauticians, prostituted women, girl workers, etc.

The concentration of women as entrepreneurs and as workers  is at the micro-enterprise level.  Asset size at this level is  quite small,  employment usually ranges from one to five, mostly family members, and technology is simple, not formally learned,  labor-intensive, hand-operated,  often home-made, and relying on indigenous or local resources. Micro-enterprises are unlicensed, unregulated and untaxed, but these conditions also make them vulnerable to police and other forms of harassment. Urban poor women engaged in hawking and other commercial activities, for example, are often victims of authorities who displace them not only from their sites of livelihood but also from their habitat.

Women realize additional income and much-needed employment for family members from micro-enterprises. They are able to combine reproductive and productive work because of  flexible time and involvement.  Through these enterprises, they provide essential goods and services to low-income groups as well as to other industries.  Their problems, however, include: multiple burdens, and therefore, overwork; lack of capital and victimization by usurers;  lack of management skills; limited supply of raw materials and other needs due to inability  to purchase in bulk;  no formal recognition and support, which leaves them open to harassment;  competition for and limited access to profitable markets. Micro-enterprises  can also be exploited by larger firms which can just order from them at  low prices or subcontract certain stages of the production process to them to save on labor costs or to weaken the bargaining leverage of regular and/or unionized workers.  (MCSI, 1988; Stearns, 1988).

As workers, women  comprise most of those in the micro-cottage and small industries but  on a per-industry basis, they are  concentrated (irrespective of  enterprise size) mainly  in garments, electronics, gifts, toys, and houseware, where jobs require manual dexterity and patience with monotonous and repetitive work.

The trade liberalization that has flowed from GATT-WTO and APEC agreements has led to increased and intense competition  in both domestic and world markets. Women-led enterprises, especially at the micro- and small-scale levels, have been  vulnerable to fluctuations in demand and to widespread availability of cheaper foreign goods and services.

More women have been  shunted to the informal sector due to layoffs in vulnerable industries, and to a general lack of  remunerative employment oppor­tunities  for women in the formal sector because of  gender discrimination. Women workers in the informal sector suffer from:  lack of social protection due to the absence of clear employer-employee relations e.g. no medical, maternity, and other benefits; no retirement pension; irregular and unstable employment dependent on fluctuations in labor demand; exposure to occupational and environmental health hazards, since their working and living conditions can hardly be monitored; vulnerability to super-exploitation and abuse, such as below-minimum  wages, non-payment of work done by runaway orderers,  etc;  low awareness of their rights as workers and as women; and  low levels of organization.

Such problems are dramatized in the plight of homeworkers. These problems have a strong gender dimension (an overwhelming majority of homeworkers are women), in that their earnings are just considered supplementary to those of the male breadwinner and therefore do not really have to be substantial. Because they are women, they can be consigned to repetitive, monotonous, and detailed work requiring manual dexterity. They cannot enter formal-sector employment because they have small children and a household to take care of. Their husbands seldom help in either reproductive or productive work, and society does not provide child-care centers which can free them towork as long as they need to. Male-dominated trade unions do not bother to organize them because they are scattered in separate households, and the costs are not commensurate to the gains. And up until recently, when they began to organize and  the ILO started to give them the attention they deserve in selected countries in the region,   they had suffered from government's benign neglect.

International  migration has increased by leaps and bounds with the relative ease in transportation and communication which is a feature of globalization,  The number of international migrants has ap­proached staggering levels in contemporary times, reaching at least 125 million at the latest count (World Bank,1995:65). The migratory flows, however, are not simply from the underdeveloped South and East to the industrialized North and West. A large number of migrants are also moving from South to South, under­scoring economic differentiation which has seen some Southern states evolve into "tiger economies," (e.g., South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore), as emerging Newly Industrializing Countries (NICs) like Malaysia, and as aspiring  NICs (e.g.,Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia), leaving others behind. Of course, as a result of the Asian economic and social crises, some of these tigers and would-be tigers are in trouble, threatening to send migrants back to their home countries.

In the mid-1990s, the total stock of migrant workers in Asia was estimated at around six million, of whom about  25 percent were women, and 75 percent were working in the Republic of Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. (ILO,1999:20). There has been a marked trend towards the feminization of migration as more and more Asian women get jobs mainly in vulnerable, unprotected and unregulated occupations  abroad, especially in domestic service and in entertainment. Women now comprise the  majority of  new hires in the Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka for land-based overseas employment. Even if their contracts are terminated, they stay on as illegal or undocumented workers accepting SALEP (“shunned by all nationals except the very poorest”) jobs which make them even more vulnerable to harassment and maltreatment.

Thus, the globalizing trend in the world labor market is built on many givens, including the gender division of labor, as indicated by the niches occupied by specific categories of migrating people. International migration within the changing global and regional divisions of labor has to be looked at from a gender perspective, given the trend towards the feminization of migration in some of the more significant labor-sending countries.  The existing gender division of labor is crucial in explaining why women occupy low-skilled, low-paying, and low-status jobs in a segregated labor market.  They are disadvantaged in relation not only to workers in their host countries but also to men in both the receiving and sending counties.   For example, the increasing demand for Filipina domestic helpers in Singapore, Malaysia, and Hongkong, is a function of better employment opportunities for the women in these countries, given their high rates of economic growth. But still, reproductive work which involves taking care of the home is considered a strictly feminine occupation, which has to be passed on to other women of lower station.  It is the same story in the Philippine setting, where the domestic sphere is reserved mainly for women who are obliged to serve men and other family members in their capacities as wives, mothers or daughters.

Prostitution and Trafficking. Trafficking is characterized by “(a) the use of threat of coercion or the abuse of authority or dominant position at the stage of contact, recruitment or transport; and (b) the introduction to or the placement in work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or  morals of the trafficked person or result in forced or compulsory labour, debt bondage or serfdom.”

A disturbing dimension of increasing international migration is the globalization of the sex trade."Trafficking in women and girls, primarily for purposes of prostitution, is today a phenom­enon of global magnitude that violates the human rights of mil­lions of women and girls all over the world." (Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, 1996:5). It  involves an intricate web which stretches across borders and continents. Marketing of women as commodities has become more sophisticated, invading even the Internet which is extremely difficult to regulate.

In Asia, countries such as China, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines and Viet Nam experience large-scale trafficking of their own nationals outside and inside their territories. Trafficking usually occurs from poorer or less developed states to higher-income ones. In the South Asian subregion, the flow of trafficked women and children is towards India and Pakistan; in Southeast Asia, towards Thailand. Between 1990-1997, for example, some 80,000 women and children from Myanmar were trafficked into Thailand for purposes of prostitution. (Archavanitkul,1998, cited in ILO, 1999:27).


WOMEN AND TRADE UNIONS

Unions cover only a tiny fraction of the total employed and not all of them have collective bargaining arrangements. Unions not only have a rather narrow base from which to operate, but they are also at a disadvantage, given the large numbers of unemployed and underemployed in most of the region. Thus, when it comes to hiring and retaining workers, management can afford to be choosy.  If it smells trouble brewing from workers who are trying to organize unions, it will not hesitate to find means to obstruct their efforts.   Termination for various concocted reasons is a common recourse. “Blacklisting, intimidation and lay-offs are often used by employers to curtail union activism.” (CNV and FNV, n.d.: 33). Compounding the problem is the long history of trade union disunity in some countries,  punctuated now and then by short‑lived efforts towards trade union unity.

Globalization has placed many unions in crisis. Many unionized firms have closed down due to losses as well as labor unrest, eroding the membership base of labor federations. More sophisticated management techniques at coercion and persuasion have prevented the unionization of large masses of workers, including those in economic zones where women predominate. There are many other hindrances to getting women organized, among them the lack of emphasis on equality issues in trade unions, lack of family support, more vulnerability to employers’ retaliation, isolation and marginalization ( especially in the case of women in homebased work, for example),  and legal restrictions in countries where ILO conventions are not observed. (Ibid.) Despite persistent  and emerging issues and obstacles, however,  there are also some gains and advances.

Increasing membership but many more to be organized. All over the world, the trend is towards increased women’s membership and participation in trade unions.  In the mid-1990s, the proportion of women rank-and-file members  ranged from between 10-20 percent in  India and Bangladesh , between 20-30 percent in the Republic of Korea, Japan and Fiji, between 40-50 percent in the Philippines, Malaysia, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and New Zealand, between 50-60 percent in Sri Lanka and Thailand, to between 60-70 percent in Mongolia. (ILO,1999:76).  Exclusively male unions are fast disappearing. However, there are many fields  of work where the predominantly female force remains unorganized, particularly export processing zones, agriculture, the informal sector, and other precarious areas of employment such as part-time, casual, or homebased work.  Trade union centers and movements are paying more attention to these non-traditional fields for organizing, conscious that women workers comprise a fertile source of  membership and revitalization. (CNV and FNV, nd).However, there is a lack of women leaders and organizers to undertake such a task. Conscious of the limitations of traditionally male-dominated trade union structures, some groups have attempted organizing women into separate organizations in order to give them the freedom and the space to develop without having to deal with male-centered hierarchies and practices.

Leadership is another story. At the leadership level of most trade unions, women have always been under-represented. They usually comprise a small minority of union boards and general councils. For example, in 1996, the number  of women executive board members ranged from three percent  in Sri Lanka to 25 percent in Australia; that of women General Council members, from two percent  in Japan to 50 percent  in Sri Lanka. (ILO,1999:76, citing ICFTU  APRO surveys and estimates).  Despite the increasing number of women unionists, male dominance in union leadership has prevailed.  This is true even in service industries where women abound, and in sectors where females outnumber men as union members (such as wholesale and retail trade as well financing, insurance, real estate and business services).  It is also the case in individual manufacturing firms where the majority of the work force are women (such as electronics and garments).  Thus, while male union Presidents lord it over union organizations, women play minor roles as members of the Board of Directors, as second in command or as treasurers or secretaries -traditional spheres of women even in business and other organizations.  This is true not only at the level of the local union but also at the level of the federation.

Why are women not more assertive in the trade unions? Why do they not want to get involved in union activities? The following reasons were cited by the South Asians in the recent joint UNI-APRO Workshop for Women Activists (1999):  women have “more responsibility in the family” and therefore lack time for union work;  society has a “negative attitude” to such involvement, given the traditional roles and stereotypes which inhibit women from entering what is perceived to be a male domain; unions have a “negative reputation,” being associated with aggressive and confrontational activities such as strikes and pickets; and  they “do not recruit or represent women...”  Aside from these issues, Filipino women unionists cite women workers’ low self esteem, their  belief that unionism is a male turf,  and  their being repelled by exclusively male methods and practices  such as drinking alcohol while conducting trade union meetings, dialogues, and negotiations (Angsioco,1994).

Limited gender mainstreaming. International trade union federations have done a lot to put gender equality on the agenda of their affiliates. Although there is increasing recognition among trade unions regarding the need to mainstream gender equality in the work place,  in policy-making, in collective bargaining and other forms of union work, this usually just remains  on paper and is seldom put into practice. (ILO,1999: 69). Setting up Women’s Committees is a step forward for many unions, but more needs to be done in terms of  staffing,  resource allocation and other support mechanisms to prevent them from being marginalized as mere tokens of women’s participation. In this regard, there is need to recognize and address “negative male attitudes and unwillingness of men to give up power.” (ICFTU Trade Unions and Working Women Manual, Appendix, 4) Gender-sensitivity and awareness raising activities tend to involve only  women. They should also target the men within trade unions to give gender equality the necessary push towards realization in practice. The good news is that initiatives have been taken toward this end, notably the 1995 campaign conducted in six countries (Fiji, India, Malaysia, Philippines, Western Samoa and Sri Lanka) by the Equality Department of the ICFTU and coordinated by the ICFTU-APRO. Among others, this campaign resulted in the formation of Gender Perspective Teams (GPTs)  composed of women and men in each country.



II. Review of Policies Concerning Women

A lot has been done in recent years to advance the status of women in terms  of policies and programs.  Much of this can be discerned in legislation pertaining to women  in the world of work,  with the ILO taking the lead in terms of setting international standards. But are laws and policies translated into practice through programs which make a difference on the ground? It is in this light that gender mainstreaming in government, employers’ and workers’ organization may need a second look.


PROTECTIVE LEGISLATION

Legislation is important  to ensure protection for women, especially in “safeguarding their reproductive and maternal capacities or combating sexual abuses.”  (ILO,1999:33).

Maternity. The ILO Maternity Protection Recommendation, 1952 (No. 95) calls for 14 weeks’ maternity leave and cash benefits that will give a working mother the equivalent of 100 percent of her current earnings (prior to the leave).  Data show that the maternity laws of many countries are still not consistent with this recommendation. For example, in some countries like Malaysia, only private-sector workers are entitled to maternity leave but in others like Australia, public sector employees benefit widely while only 20 percent of private firms give the same entitlement to their workers.  In terms of length of maternity leave, the variation ranges from 60 days in Korea to four months in the Islamic Republic of Iran. As to cash benefits, many countries give women workers the equivalent of their normal salaries while on leave. Others, like the Philippines, peg the salary credit to 60 days for normal delivery and 78 days for caesarean section, and  only for the first four deliveries. There are also examples of countries which give only a fixed percentage of normal salary, such as Solomon Islands, which provide only 25 percent.

Occupational Health and Conditions of Work.  There are ILO standards which aim to protect working women’s health, particularly during and after pregnancy. These include  excluding women from types of work involving exposure to lead and radiation, and prohibition of night work and overtime work for them. There are conventions which say that women should as much as possible not be made to carry heavy loads and do underground work in mines. However, there are moves within ILO to extend protection to all workers regardless of gender.  In terms of reactions to these standards, there are two trends.  Recent national legislation in Thailand and Korea  affirms the need to protect women from potentially dangerous work situations.  But there are bodies such as the UN Committee supervising the application of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against  Women (CEDAW), which point out the double-edged character of protective laws, claiming that they reinforce gender segregation in the labor market. (UN,1996b, paragraph 46).

Trafficking in Women and Girls.  Although there are no specific ILO instruments on this,  migration- related abuse is outlawed in the Migrant Workers (Supplementary Provisions) Convention, 1975 (No. 143).  Employment-related trafficking can also be classified as a form of forced labor and is prohibited under the Forced Labor Convention (No.29),1930, which has recently been reaffirmed as a “core labor standard.”  In terms of national legislation, countries like Cambodia, Nepal and China have enacted  laws which address trafficking. In the Philippines, a bill addressing the issue is already being discussed in the House of Representatives. There are efforts on the part of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to have a regional convention on trafficking.


EQUAL OPPORTUNITY LEGISLATION

Legislation is also crucial for women in attaining equal opportunities  in employment and occupation, taking into consideration women’s specific and special needs, interests, and concerns.

Non-discrimination in employment or occupation.  The ILO Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) and Recommendation   “aims to promote equality of opportunity and treatment of men and women in the workplace by means of national policies to end discrimination in employment and occupation” (ILO,1999:45) through national policies and mechanisms that are meant to eliminate discrimination. In many countries, gender discrimination  is prohibited and in some (Cambodia, India, Lao PDR, Mongolia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea and Vietnam) this prohibition is also  enshrined in the Constitution.  There are instances when this is the subject of more specific legislation such as in the Labor Code of the Philippines, which states that training opportunities should be offered to women and men and should not favor men over women.   In Australia, discrimination that is prohibited under the Workplace Relations Act (1996)  now includes that based on sexual preference, marital status, family responsibilities and pregnancy.   In Fiji, the Human Rights Commission Act (1999) specifies as discriminatory any job advertisement or notice that makes unfair differentiation between the sexes.

Special measures to advance women.  The ILO Discrimination Legislation permits affirmative or positive action measures “designed to meet the particular requirements of persons who, for reasons such as sex, age, disablement, family responsibilities or social or cultural status, are generally recognized to require special protection or assistance”   and maintains that such measures should not be considered as discriminatory.  Such a principle has been affirmed in the constitutions of Fiji, India, and Thailand, and in the Sex Discrimination Ordinance of Hongkong , among others.  In China, Korea and Nepal, government is obliged to increase employment for women and access to basic services.

Night work. The Night Work Convention of 1990 is an example of  the trend away from giving special protection to women workers towards equal treatment of both male and female workers working at night. It pays particular attention to safeguarding health, giving appropriate compensation, and providing assistance to night workers so that they can fulfill family and other responsibilities. For women workers giving birth, it suggests transfer to day work and extended maternity leave. In Fiji and Japan, women are already allowed to work at night due to recent legislation. In Mongolia, Thailand, and  Vietnam, night work is prohibited only for certain categories of pregnant and/or nursing women.   However, in countries like the Republic of Korea and Bangladesh, night work for women is still prohibited under any circumstance.

Sexual harassment legislation. This is “a relatively new area of action for the Asian countries, and a difficult one because of cultural constraints, traditional attitudes and perceptions of the role of women, endemic poverty and the significance of the informal sector. “ (ILO, 1993:17).   Nevertheless, strides have been taken  to make sexual harassment unlawful and punishable in Australia, Philippines, Japan, and Hongkong. Indirect references to the problem are also  contained in the Labour Code of Vietnam, the Labour Protection Act of 1998 of Thailand, the Punishment of Sexual Violence and Protection of the Victim Act (1993) in the Republic of Korea,  and in criminal legislation in Singapore and Pakistan.

Equal remuneration for work of equal value. The Equal Remuneration Convention (No. 100) and Recommendation (90) affirms the principle of equal pay for work of equal value and maintains that pay  rates should be defined without gender discrimination.  In some countries like Cambodia, China, Mongolia, Singapore, Vietnam, and India,  only equal pay for identical or almost the same work is guaranteed. But this may not be sufficient to address the wide wage gap existing between women and men inmany countries. This is so because many women are clustered in low-paying jobs  which are undervalued because they are feminized.  What would be more useful is the application of the principle of equal pay for male and female workers for work of equal value and the setting of objective criteria such as skills level, the amount of responsibility and risk etc. in job evaluation. In Australia, Korea, Hongkong, Islamic Republic of Iran, Philippines, and Indonesia,  there are efforts towards this goal.

Workers with family responsibilities.   The Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention (156) and Recommendation (165) have “a dual aim: to promote equal treatment of men and women workers with family responsibilities ; and to promote equal  treatment of workers with and without family responsibilities. “   Termination because of family or pregnancy status is prohibited  by law in Japan, Australia, Korea,  and Hongkong, China. In Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Islamic Republic of Iran,  employers are obliged to provide child-care facilities for women workers. In the Republic of Korea, the state is obliged to provide facilities, such as childcare centers, to enable workers to balance their work and family responsibilities.  In Singapore, the state has a Back-to-Work Programme  including free training, counselling, referral, and placement services to assist workers, especially housewives, to re-enter employment.

A newer development is parental or paternity leave. In Australia,  parents are entitled to up to 52 weeks of unpaid leave to care for their newborn. The leave may be shared by the parents.  In the Philippines, the Paternity Leave Act (1996) mandates seven days’ leave for married male employees for the first four children delivered.

Specific categories of workers.  Among these are domestic workers, homeworkers, and part-time workers, many of whom are women.

There are no specific labor standards applying to domestic workers but it is understood that they are covered by ILO Conventions affirming the most basic human rights of all workers.  In many countries, the law is silent on their protection.  In Vietnam and the Philippines, they are covered by the Labor Code and in the case of the latter, by the Social Security Act. In Malaysia, they are only partially covered by the Employment Act, and are excluded from maternity and other benefits.

The ILO Homework Convention (1996), which has not yet been ratified by any Asian country,  provides for equal treatment of homeworkers and other wage earners as regards wage levels, freedom to organize, occupational safety and health, etc. Few countries have laws specifically covering homework.

Japan requires those who order from homeworkers to keep records on wage levels and other information. New Zealand asks homeworkers to first acquire a homework permit.

The ILO Part-Time Work Convention (1994) seeks to guarantee equal protection to part-time workers and full-time workers as regards the right to organization, collective bargaining, occupational safety and health, and protection against discrimination.  There are a variety of ways in which part-time work is addressed. In Japan, it is considered a discriminatory act if only men or only women are hired for part-time work.  In contrast, Vietnam allows part-time work  in its Labour Code. In the Islamic Republic of Iran, part-time workers must receive the same wages and benefits as full-time workers calculated in proportion to hours worked. The principle applies in the Republic of Korea as regards working conditions.  In Hong Kong, employers must explain the difference in treatment of part-time and full-time workers in terms that do not involve sex, civil status, or pregnancy.


GENDER MAINSTREAMING. 

In order to make sure that the good intentions of policies are actually realized in practice, it is important to make sure that de jure is translated into de facto.  What is in law should also be in fact. This is the rationale behind the various National Plans of Action on the Advancement of Women (NPAs), which almost every country in Asia and the Pacific has now adopted. These NPAs are actually blueprints for gender mainstreaming – “bringing a gender perspective to public policies and programs, including special measures to address current imbalances, allocating adequate resources and establishing or strengthening mechanisms to implement the plan.” (ILO,1999:59). The implementation of such plans is pushed by a national machinery for the advancement of women, be this a ministry, a bureau, division, department, commission or committee. In some cases, as in the Philippines, such a plan has been formulated with the broad participation of civil society, including trade unions.

Gender mainstreaming is being promoted not only in government but also in employers’ and workers’ organizations.  For example, some employers’ groups in Korea, Sri Lanka, India, Australia and New Zealand have conducted training programs and advocacy campaigns against sexual harassment. International trade union organizations, for their part, have been pushing for increased gender sensitivity in the work of their national affiliates



IV. Proposed Strategic Responses

It should be clear at the outset that the goal of these strategic responses  is not only gender equality but also women’s empowerment since one is not possible without the other, given women’s disadvantage in terms of both  condition and position in society.

According to one definition, “Empowerment is both a process and an outcome”:

   …The process involves awareness-raising and capacity-building, leading to greater participation, decision-making and control of women over their lives. Key dimensions are how women can gain personal autonomy and access to and control over resources and rewards within the household and the workplace, in communities and societies. As an outcome, women’s empowerment is successful when they can participate with the same opportunities, treatment and rewards in economic and social life as men do who have comparable characteristics such as age, background and training. (ILO,1999:61).

The intermingling of work, family, and social issues and problems points to the need for a comprehensive and multi-pronged approach towards women’s empowerment. Such an approach has to consider both their practical, everyday needs in the areas of health and safety, economic rights and benefits, as well as their strategic interests towards changing not only their material conditions of life but also their position in society vis-a-vis men, employers, government officials and other power holders.  The empowerment process has many components, ranging from awareness-raising, facilitating access to and control of resources through capability-building, and participation in decision-making in the family, the workplace, the union and other organizations, the community, and the national polity.

A necessary element in this program is organizing women within a trade union and/or community-based context so that together, they can gain the knowledge, the skills, the linkages, and the collective strength to meet their needs and interests. These could pertain to the improvement of their material conditions of existence (e.g., better working conditions, social protection, skills training, seed capital, technical and marketing assistance, job placement,  access to water supply,  land and housing security etc.) or to  the strengthening of their positions in terms of power relations vis-a-vis their husbands and other men,  employers, government officials,  among others.

As women go through each stage of empowerment, they acquire more knowledge, skills, insights, experiences, self-confidence, influence, negotiating and bargaining strength to produce and reproduce resources at increasing levels through their own initiatives and efforts. Thereby, they are able to “gain ascendancy in the economic, social, and political arena.” (Lazo, 1993).


INTEGRATION OF WOMEN INTO TRADE UNIONS

A trade union is defined as “a continuing, permanent and democratic ORGANISATION created by the workers – or joined by them – to protect themselves at work, to improve their bargaining, to better the conditions of their lives and to provide a means of expressing their views on problems of society.”

Integrating or making women truly a  part of trade unions requires the following:

· Working women should be organised in trade unions alongside men.
· Women should have equal rights with men as union members.
· Working women’s problems should receive the same consideration as those of other groups of workers within unions.
· Women in unions should have the opportunity to make their problems and views known.
· Women should take part in decision-making and take up leadership responsibilities.
· Women should be aware of their own potentialities.
· Women attaining leadership depend on their own efforts as well as on graining the support of their colleagues and the confidence of workers.
· Solidarity among women is essential.  (ICFTU Trade Unions and Working Women Manual).

Organizing.  The future of trade unions depend on recruitment of members in order to maintain and expand their base. Without a critical mass of support, trade unions cannot bargain with management, cannot influence government, and cannot participate effectively in policy-making.  Women comprise large numbers of the workforce in many countries in Asia and the Oceania.   If trade unions do not  recruit women, they will not be as strong as they can be. They  will not be able to draw maximum moral and material support from workers, and worse, they  will be undermined in the workplace if unorganized women are pitted, for example, against organized men.

There is no one recipe for organizing. But the following  may be borne in mind if organizing is to proceed in a gender-sensitive way:

-                                    -Linking the struggle to improve women’s conditions in the reproductive sphere (child care, health care, etc.) with activities in the productive sphere (by creating regular sources of income and improving women’s position in the labour market through training and education)…

-                                    …When planning training courses, meetings and other activities, unions should take account of women’s time schedules, multiple roles, limited mobility and resources.
-                                    Women’s issues must be integrated into collective bargaining agreements, not only on matters of equal pay, equal treatment and opportunities for workers with family responsibilities, but also on effective measures against sexual harassment, violence and discrimination in the workplace. (CNV and FNV,n.d..:35)

Other suggestions include recruiting and training more women organizers from the ranks of the  women workers themselves;  inspiring and instilling commitment and discipline among union leaders, organizers and members so that they  can inspire recruits and serve as role models;  and networking with women’s organizations, religious groups, media, etc. to advance the workers’ cause.(Aganon et al, 1997).

The community-based  approach to workers’ organizing has also been attempted, in the light of  flexibilization and the temporary nature of  jobs in many work places, thereby making it difficult to sustain workplace-based organizing.  (Ibid) . Some trade union centers are also exploring innovative ways of organizing women in agriculture and  in the informal sector in order to reach the bulk of the working women. (CNV and FNV, n.d.). The FNV, for one, even considers supporting autonomous women’s organizations or NGOs to assist women who are not covered by traditional trade union movements.

Experiences in some countries point to the need for flexibility in trade union structures and practices:

-                                    Sometimes, it is more effective for women to organize in autonomous women’s unions. More often, the strategy is that of autonomous integration, where women create their own space and platform within the trade union. This implies, of course, that such contributions are taken seriously. Women’s committees and departments should have optimal statutory rights. They should be allowed to participate at all levels of decision-making.( CNV and FNV, n.d.:35).


Sensitizing and Awareness Raising. Given the rampant anti-union feeling spread by employers and reinforced by the negative images of striking and picketing workers projected by media, there is need to make unions more attractive to women. Women have to know what unions can do for them, what rights and benefits they will be able to enjoy by union involvement.

Gender sensitivity and awareness  seminars should be conducted among women members and non-members alike. Women have to recognize the gender-based problems they face at home, at work, in the union, and in the community. They need to know where barriers such as the  double burden actually originate.  They should be made aware of their rights both as women and as workers. There is a need to link the gender dimensions of their struggles to macro-economic trends connected to globalization and to show how these are affecting workers in general, and women in particular.

Methods for awareness-raising can be more creative, using many channels such as audio-visual materials, publications, theater, telephone hot-lines and radio programs  which can reach women who are not mobile or who fear retaliation from employers. (CNV and FNV,n.d.:35).


But it is not enough to educate the women. Men should also be gender-sensitized, particular those who are trade union leaders and members. Unions are often considered to be male turf, and trade union men are often resistant to gender equality. Their usual activities and traditional drinking sessions exclude and repel women. A few even sexually harass women members.

Setting Up Women’s Committees and Similar Groups.  This should be at every level of the trade union structure ranging from  local or branch level (plant, firm, service, office etc.), industry level (garments,textiles, clothing, electronics, transport, metal, construction etc.), provincial or district level, regional or state level, national level,  to international level (world, continental, regional, sub-regional).

Why is this necessary?

   The role of Women’s Committees as effective support to organising activities is important. These committees (or commissions, or whatever name is given to the appropriate bodies) should be set up at various levels of the trade union structure in order to analyse problems facing women workers, make proposals to solve them (in particular, discrimination against women workers), stimulate their interest and encourage their participation in trade union activities. They should also contribute to creating the conditions for equal opportunities and treatment within trade union organisations. They should have the means to function properly within the framework of the trade union organisation. (ICFTU  Trade Union and Working Women Manual, Part III/Section V).

The Women’s Committee is usually set up by the union’s executive board, and is composed of women trade union leaders who are either appointed or elected, and are ultimately accountable both to the board and to their members, especially the women. Ideally, the chair and vice-chair of the Women’s Committee sit on the union board with full voting powers.

In the case of UNI-Apro, the 15-member Women’s Committee shall be elected by the UNI-APRO Regional Women’s Conference and shall be composed of a President, a Deputy President,  Committee members, and a Director of Women’s Activities.  Both the President and the Deputy President shall be full members of the UNI-APRO Executive Committee. The President shall represent the UNI-APRO Women’s Committee on the UNI World Executive Board. (UNI-Apro, 2000).

Strengthening Participation and Leadership. This can include the following “strategies for the empowerment of women”:

-                                    ….Strengthening and consolidating existing organisational structures and networks of women within the trade union movement and support for new initiatives aimed at the creation of space for women within the trade union movement.

-                                    . Initiatives to promote democratic functioning of the trade union organisations in such a way that women are commensurately represented in decision-making bodies, that the status of women’s committees is strengthened, that these will be chosen by women and that their position is defined in constitutional terms.

-                                    Strengthening of the position of women in the trade union and increasing their negotiation power by increasing the support for more education, training and research for the benefit of women trade unionists.

-                                    Support to women who are not reached by the trade union movement. In such cases support may be canalized to autonomous women’s organisations or private agencies (NGOs) involved in organising and strengthening the position of women workers.

-                                    Activities (in and outside the trade union movement), which contribute to the integration of specific women’s issues in the mainstream trade union policy and practices.

-                                    Activities to support and strengthen the advocacy and lobbies for women’s interests, focused on the position of women in developing countries, with the intention of influencing policies that regulate working conditions , at national, regional and international level.

-                                    To strengthen the position of women in the labour market such as the creation of equal rights and conditions for participation in the labour market, and improving women’s occupational perspectives.

-                                    Promoting international solidarity between women trade unionists. (FNV,n.d.:9-10)

Mainstreaming Gender in Union Policies and Programs.  This has the following crucial elements: a clear framework and mandate promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment within the union; sensitivityto and awareness of the different roles, needs, and interests of male and female workers at home, in the workplace, and in society at large; and allocation of resources and provisions to implement policies and support programs towards equal partnership of women and men.

Gender analysis and gender-responsive planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation systems should be instituted within the union setting. The union structure could be subjected to a gender diagnosis, plotting where men and women are at every level. Research activities should incorporate “gender-specific research approaches” which should identify the needs and priorities of women and men, and come out with results that are useful to both sexes. The planning process should include the consideration of programs, projects, and activities, which address gender issues, reduce gender gaps, and aim at more equitable gender relations.  All target groups, both women and men, should be involved at every stage of  planning and implementation. Monitoring and evaluation activities should see to it that such participation is realized,  that gender concerns are included , and that both women and men benefit.

In mainstreaming, women-specific programs, projects, and activities may be the necessary prerequisites for effective women’s participation in trade unions, especially since they  face numerous obstacles and constraints in this area.


OTHER RESPONSES

The key challenges outlined in Section III should spur not only greater integration of women in trade unions but also integrated and comprehensive strategies for action, which should have the following main elements:


Gender-sensitive labour market policies and programmes  to promote full, productive and freely-chosen employment for women, to ensure their basic labour rights and protection, and to give special support to disadvantaged or marginalized groups of women.

A supportive legislative and regulatory framework and enforcement mechanisms, including the ratification and implementation of international labour standards and the improvement of legal literacy.

Advocacy and sensitization  activities to effect positive change in biased socio-cultural attitudes and perceptions and to encourage equitable sharing of family responsibilities by women and men, as well as the creation of social support structures and services to harmonize work and family responsibilities.

Gender-sensitive education and training policies,  with emphasis on skills diversification and flexibility, linked to emerging opportunities in the labour market.

Integration of gender, employment and poverty concerns in macro and sectoral economic and social policies,  as well as monitoring the impact of implementation of such policies on both women and men.

Ensuring that all major development efforts are gender-sensitive through “mainstreaming,” while at the same time ensuring that particularly disadvantaged groups are targeted through women-specific activities.

Effective and efficient institutional structures and mechanisms to promote gender equality, including reform of legal institutions, labour market institutions and national women’s machinery, as well as the promotion of tripartite structures among governments, workers and employers.

Involvement of all social partners  in close cooperation and through coordination of their efforts.

Empowerment of women through measures to increase their representation and participation in decision-making at all levels, and measures to mobilize and organize women in groups.

Generation and dissemination of an up-to-date, sex-disaggregated data and information base which better reflects the relationship between work and employment [and increasing the visibility of women in the economy].

(Lim,1996:48).


In the light of the negative effects of globalization on women’s work situation and the continuing onslaughts of transnational banks, multilateral institutions such as the WTO, IMF and World Bank, and global corporations against working people everywhere,  trade union women have to join the global movement to preserve jobs, defend workers’ rights and trade union gains, and extend safety nets and social protection to displaced workers and other vulnerable groups. They need to be active participants in the emerging international workers’network spearheaded by UNI-APRO “to intensify our solidarity efforts at the national regional and international levels, and in coordination with others ITSs, ICFTU-APRO and other groups such as non-governmental organizations, work for a new global financial architecture with a human face and whose main purpose is the well-being of every worker and his/her family.”(UNI-APRO Statement, January 2000).



REFERENCES

Aganon, Marie E., Rosalinda Pineda Ofreneo, Rosario del Rosario Ma. Socorro Paulin Ballesteros and Rene E. Ofreneno (1998): “Strategies to Empower Women Workers in the Philippine Economic Zones,” in the Philippine Journal of Labor and Industrial Relations, XVIII, 1 & 2.

The Asia-Pacific Regional NGO Symposium (1999): Asia-Pacific Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-First Century- A Report of the Symposium  31 August- 4 September 1999, Thailand. Bangkok: Thai Women Watch.

CNV and F NV (n.d.): New Trade Union Perspectives – Organizing women workers in the agricultural sector, export processing zones, and the informal sector. A joint publication of the Netherlands trade union centers CNV and FNV. Amsterdam.

Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (1996): Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in  the Asia Pacific.

David, Natacha (1996): Worlds Apart Women and the Global Economy.

            ICFTU, March.

 Hale, Angela ((1995): “World Trade is a Women’s Issue.” Women Working Worldwide Briefing Paper. Manchester.

FNV International (n.d.): Empowerment of Women in the International Trade Union Movement – policy document on ‘women and development’ of the Netherlands Trade Union Confederation (FNV)

International Labour Office (1998-99): World Employment Report 1998-99 – Employability in the Global Economy  How Training Matters.  Geneva

International Labour Office (1999): Towards Gender Equality in the World of Work in Asia and the Pacific – Technical report for discussion at the Regional Consultation on Follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women.  Manila, 6-8 October 1999.

Lazo, Lucita  S. (1993): “Some Reflections on the Empowerment of Homeworkers.” Bangkok: International Labour Office.

Lim, Lin Lean (1996): More and Better Jobs for Women.  Geneva: International Labour Office.

Neft, Naomi and Ann D. Levine (1997-98):Where Women Stand – An International Report on the Status of Women in 140 Countries. New York: Random House.

Union Network International Asia and Pacific Regional Organisation (2000): Union Network International Asia & Pacific.

Union Network International Asia & Pacific (2000): “Together, for a New Global Financial  Architecture,” Statement adopted at the Regional Seminar on “Trade Union Responses to Mergers and Restructuring in the Financial Sector,” 19-21 January 2000, Manila.

United Nations Development Program (1995):  Human Development Report 1995. New York: Oxford University Press.

______________________________ (1997): Human Development Report 1997.  New York: Oxford University Press.

______________________________(1999): Human Development Report 1999.  New  York: Oxford University Press.