(Sources: “Women Workers in the Global Economy”, Rachel Kurian, May 2002; “Key Indicators of the Labour Market 2000-2002, ILO - www.ilo.org;)

Women’s engagement in economic activity continues to increase world-wide. They are motivated to take up and remain in economic activity even during their reproductive years. The increase in involvement reflects both financial need and economic empowerment. The hardships experienced under the economic reforms (e.g. those associated with unemployment, increased costs of living, increase expenditure on health, education, etc.) have been a major factor in many women taking up economic activities, especially in developing countries.

The most significant difference in the labour market conditions between the industrialized and the transition countries on the one hand, and the developing countries on the other, is the existence in the former of social security and welfare arrangements. Even if these have been reduced over time they nevertheless provide a basic financial support for all people who are unemployed and in need. Such arrangements do not exist in the developing countries for most of the population. Under these circumstances, people, and poor women in particular who are basically responsible for taking care of the day-to-day needs of the family, have to take up all kinds of economic activities in order to basically survive and provide income for their dependents. This has also resulted in many women working in the informal economy with problematic working conditions and with few or non-existent labour rights. (see Discussion Sheet 1.9)

Thus, while economic empowerment can be a powerful tool for social and political emancipation, it must be noted that the pressure on women – especially in developing countries - to take up economic activity is linked in many cases to increased pauperization.

The right to employment...

The right of women to employment is a fundamental right. What is more, women’s work makes a significant contribution to economic growth in all societies. All efforts must be made to achieve and maintain full employment. Women should have full access to economic life, and their rights to paid employment must be recognised in every country. In compliance with ILO Convention N° 111^[1] all discrimination must be eliminated, notably in relation to access to jobs and profession, education, vocational training, promotion at work, and job security. There should be no more arbitrary division between female and male tasks.

...and to training

Women and girls should have equal access to vocational guidance and training including on-the-job training in technical skills. A special effort must be made to train them for new technologies and to ensure the retraining of those who have been absent from the labour market.

(ICFTU Charter of the Rights of Working Women)

Women constitute less than half of the labour force

In spite of these increased rates of activity, women’s share of the labour force is less than that of men. With the exception of the Ukraine where women comprise 50% of the labour force, women continue to constitute less than half of the labour force worldwide although the gap is getting less over time. In 1980 women comprised little over a quarter of the labour force in Central and South America, these figure rising to one-third and nearly two-fifths in 1997 (UN, 2000).

The highest male-to-female differentials are found in the regions of the Middle East and North Africa and in Latin America and the Caribbean. The male-to-female gap ranged from 67 percentage points in Pakistan (in 2000) to 2 percentage points in Rwanda (in 1996). In many economies, women's low labour force participation rates are attributable to cultural factors. In the Middle East and North Africa, for example, the education of young women and women's work outside the home are often discouraged, owing to strict gender segregation based on concerns of religion and marriageability. Cultural practices and high fertility rates play a large role in limiting women's economic opportunities in Latin America and the Caribbean. On the other hand, high female labour force participation in Scandinavian countries (within the developed (industrialized) grouping), may reflect high levels of education, as well as government policies and subsidies for childcare that diminish discrimination and facilitate the combination of market work and family responsibilities. In several sub-Saharan African countries, it is the large share of women in agricultural work that accounts for their high labour force participation.

This lower proportion of women in comparison to men in the labour force does not necessarily mean that women are doing less work. Rather, much of their work is unpaid and not recognized as work and not valued as economic, and are therefore left out of the calculations of the labour force.

For the overwhelming majority of economies, the gap between male and female labour force participation rates has been falling between 1980 and 1999. This stems both from reduced rates for men and rising rates for women. All trends suggest that the contribution of adult women to economic activity will only increase in the subsequent decades and a major challenge to trade unions is to organise them.

Hurdles to overcome in the labour market

Analyses show that in every economy for which information is available, women are less likely than men to participate in the labour force. Only 54% of working age women are in the labour force as compared to over 80% of men. This reflects the fact that for women, more so than men, demographic, social, legal and cultural trends and norms determine whether their activities are regarded as economic. In this sense, women have to overcome more hurdles to enter the labour market than do men. In addition to the educational, institutional and cultural barriers that they face, most women must also deal with the competing demands of household work (including childcare). (See Discussion Sheet 2.7)

Important Trends and Characteristics of Women’s Work in the Global economy

• For the overwhelming majority of economies, the gap between male and female participation rates has been falling between 1980 and 1999. This stems both from reduced rates for men and rising rates for women.
• For women, more than for men, demographic, social, legal and cultural trends and norms determine whether their activities are regarded as economic.
• Women face more hurdles than men and are less likely to participate in the labour force than men.
• Women, on the whole, tend to have higher unemployment rates than men.
• The share of informal economy employment to total employment has increased in the 1990s. Women more than men are employed in the informal economy in Asia and in Africa.
• Men have higher proportions of their employment in industry than do women. In contrast, women’s share exceeds men’s in the services sector.
• For Asia and Pacific and sub-Saharan Africa, the share of women in agriculture is greater than that of men.
• In most economies women outrank men as contributing family members.
• A much larger proportion of women than men work part-time
• Labour Markets continue to be segregated with women occupying the positions with little or no authority, and usually receiving less pay.
• In many Asian and Pacific economies where the economic crisis has hit hard, there is both an increase in unemployment and an increase in the labour force, as persons, mainly women, rejoined the workforce in order to offset a loss of household income.
• Women’s jobs in the global economy are synonymous with: part-time, low-paid, a-typical, home-based, sub-contracted, non-standard, flexible, out-sourcing, temporary, casual, and – in particular in the developing countries - informal economy, export-processing zones, migrant domestic workers, entertainment workers, prostitution.

Strategies for re-training women

After the mass-layoffs following the closure of many state institutions in Colombia during the mid-1990s, the Women’s Department of the CUT devised strategies to retrain women for occupations in great demand. This led in 1995 to the creation of the Centre for Women Workers who are Heads of Households (Casa de la Mujer Trabajadora Jefe de Hogar). The Casa has launched a number of programmes to assist women complete secondary education, gain access to national programmes of apprenticeship, find employment caring for elderly people, etc. Universities and other training institutions have also extended their programmes to the Casa.

(Source: “Promoting Gender Equality”, ILO, 2002)

Where do women work?

There has been a long-term trend in the growth of services both in the industrialised and in the developing countries, although it is more significant in the former where in 1999 the proportion of total employment in services exceeded 50 per cent. In the most recent period (1990-1997), the trend to services has become more accentuated. However, agriculture constitutes the most important source of employment for the sub-Saharan region, South-eastern Asia and Southern Asia, also because women in these regions are often less mobile than men and cannot easily migrate to the cities in search of better prospects.

Men tend to have a higher proportion of employment in industry in most economies (109 out of 156 countries) than women and particularly within manufacturing. The services sector is the most important employer of women with nearly half of all economically active women working in the sector. The shift towards women in services is more pronounced in the developed countries although it is not insignificant in the developing countries. However, within this sector women tend to be more in the “community, social and personal” sectors (which include education services and household services such as domestic work). Many of the public sector services such as health and education which employ large numbers of women have had to come to grips with privatisation (see Appendix 1 of Discussion Sheet 1.1) and face a new threat from the GATS regulations (see Appendix 2 of Discussion Sheet 1.1).

The entertainment/prostitution/sex industry that is dominated by women also technically comes under services. It is particularly important to pay attention to women in this sector, as they form part of the most exploited workers in a society, often subject to physical violence and low wages. The distress experienced by many women under the recent market oriented reforms has also forced many to take up prostitution as a means of survival. It is also an industry that has been boosted by globalisation and the expansion of the tourist/hotel industry.

Domestic workers

In Latin America, around 15.4% of women’s employment is in domestic services, which represent 22% of the “new” women’s jobs created in the region during the last decade. Majority of the women who work in the domestic sector in the cities are migrants belonging to ethnic groups and/or coming from the rural areas or neighboring countries. 77% have no social security whatsoever.

(Source: “Decent work and gender equity in Latin America”, Lais Abramo, in ‘Mujer Sindicalist Hoy’, No. 1, July-September 2002, ICFTU-ORIT)

Export processing zones

The negative effects of globalisation on workers’ rights, as demonstrated by such phenomena as the spread of export processing zones (EPZs) with serious effects on women workers in particular, have accelerated since the creation of the WTO in 1995. EPZs are but one, very visible, sign of the downward pressures that exist through trade and investment and which stand to be accentuated by the impact of China’s accession to the WTO. (See Discussion Sheet 1.1)

The expansion of export processing zones (EPZs) and clothing, textiles and light manufacturing industries in developing countries over recent decades has generally been based on low-wage female labour working in unacceptably bad conditions and without any protection of their right to organise into trade unions.

On average, 80 per cent of the workers in EPZs are women. Their average wage can be half of what men get. Some countries even boast about the fact that they employ women workers in advertising aimed at attracting foreign investment, pointing out that not only are the women cheap, but they are also supposedly more docile and less likely to become trade union activists. Many companies have been only too happy to take advantage.

This phenomenon is worsening. The update in 2000 by the OECD of its 1996 report on “Trade and Labour Standards” noted that the number of export processing zones in the world had risen from some 500 zones at the time the 1996 study was written to about 850 zones – not counting China’s special economic zones - in 1999.

There are many differences between export processing zones around the world but they tend to have one over-riding characteristic. In almost all zones, trade unions are not tolerated. In some cases, this is due to special exceptions to national laws so that freedom of association cannot be exercised in the zones. In many cases, it is not so much the law but simply the reality that trade union officers are physically prevented from entering the plants or even from entering into the zones at all. The consequences of the lack of union representation can be seen in poor and often dangerous working conditions and low wages.

Furthermore, at least fifteen million children are working in export production, in sectors like mining; garments and textiles; shoe production; agriculture; carpet-making; footballs; and even production of surgical instruments.

Following up on the Recommendations of the 7th World Conference

The 7^th World Women’s Conference in 1999, noting that women had become an important part of the labour force throughout the world, stressed that more than ever gender issues must become central to labour market policies and programmes. It called on union women to: a) develop strategies to commit union leaders to include gender issues when negotiating solutions to structural adjustment programmes; and b) make our own gender action plans in our trade unions against globalisation’s negative effects.

It urged unions to: a) undertake awareness campaigns within the unions on the issue of gender and trade; b) share information on strategies and experience, bearing in mind the importance of co-ordinated strategies; c) co-ordinate the international trade union strategies at the ITS level, aimed at countering the tactics of the multinational companies; d) strengthen democratic tripartite systems for the negotiation of structural adjustment programmes at local levels; e) develop bilateral contacts and structural relations between National Executives and officials of the World Bank and the IMF, and urge them to take into account fully the social dimension of SAPs and to support the unions’ efforts to alleviate poverty; f) include aspects of all core labour standards at all national level negotiations and also within other new framework regulations of the IMF, World Bank and WTO; g) develop and strengthen collaboration with women’s and other non-governmental organisations working in the field of gender and trade; and h) actively encourage women’s participation in trade union training on research and economics.

In the last four years, follow-up actions have included:

• closer monitoring of the integration of gender perspectives in the position papers and publications issued by the ICFTU, the GUFs and regional organisations;
• improving women’s participation in trade union meetings and discussions dealing with economic issues
• inclusion of women unionists in trade union delegations to meetings, conferences and missions to the IMF, World Bank, WTO and regional financial and economic institutions and bodies (OECD, APEC, ADB, Mercosur, etc.) as well as major conferences of the UN (e.g. Financing for Development, Monterrey, Mexico, 2002)
• strengthening our links with women’s organisations and NGOs at the UN and other international forums to get support for our agenda.
• Where a lot of work still has to be done is in the area of training and skills development of women unionists in economic issues, including on how to effectively put our views across at the national, regional and international levels, as well as training of trade union economists and leaders (mostly men) on how to mainstream gender in all our work on the global economy. Worth noting is the proposal for sisters from the Trade Union Women’s Group on the Mercosur to share their experiences with sisters from other regional economic integration bodies (e.g. FTAA, Comunidad Andina, APEC, etc.).

^[1] ILO Convention concerning discrimination in respect of employment and occupation