Bringing women into the workforce

The global economic and financial crises have affected every economy around the world, some more than others: White and blue collar workers have lost their jobs; companies are either closing or struggling to make ends meet; governments are trying to secure additional funds for social spending and grappling with job creation strategies; and individuals are forced to make spending choices as their disposable income decreases. Women have been hardest hit by the economic crisis both in developing and developed countries because they often comprise the majority of the poor and occupy vulnerable jobs in any economy.

In the last year, key industries have closed down, especially textile and service industries that employ mostly women with the result that they will feel the brunt of this recession more than men. During the Asian Crisis, women were employed in low-ranking jobs to keep labour costs low and were employed above men because they were cheap, controllable and worked hard. Now women workers are being forced out of the economy and are returning to the household as more women lose their jobs and take up the burden of unpaid work in their communities and at home. In many instances, this is the first feminised recession.

INVISIBLE CONTRIBUTION

As the crisis deepens, women take on more responsibilities outside the formal market and public space. As long as our governments and economies do not give a financial value to women’s unpaid work in households, women’s work will remain unaccounted for and not contribute to GDP. This omission makes invisible a significant potential contribution to the economy. Informal markets also increase in size as women are forced out of formal employment and jobs but the sector also does not quantify women’s work despite their dominance in informal markets.

FOUNDATIONS FOR EQUAL PARTICIPATION

One positive aspect that has emerged from this crisis is that countries, especially emerging markets such as South Africa, Brazil, India and China will be forced to focus on their domestic economies. There is a significant difference between protectionist and inward-looking policies as the latter will look at strategies to strengthen local sectors and economies to better engage with global markets. Venezuela has chosen its own path, but many developing countries do not have that luxury; therefore we need to find ways that allow us to engage equitably. In the light of this argument, there are a number of opportunities the South African government can exploit in the coming months that will establish a good foundation for women’s equal participation in the country’s economy.

Gender-aware job creation, of paramount importance in the next period, should provide employment solutions that support women and men in different ways depending on their geographic and economic contexts. Extended public works programmes begin make women’s care work visible, but they do not equip women with the necessary skills to enter the job market when the economy finally stabilises. We have to ensure that women’s employment is created in male-dominated sectors, for example, construction and infrastructure development; the motor industry; and mining. More especially, we have to determine what the gendered impact of big projects are: Are women contractors involved, were women community members engaged in the decision-making stages; and what benefits accrue to women in the long run due to the new stadium, bridge, road, border post and water stand?

FORMALISING WOMEN’S WORK

Women are the majority care-givers in most societies, therefore the public sector employment should look at formalising women’s work both in terms of contributions to the formal economy and to household income. Each day, African and Indian rural women spend eight to six hours fetching water; that amounts to 40 billion hours of unpaid work for African women and a loss of 150 million work days and 10 billion rupees a year in India. The extended public works programmes could contribute greatly to employment generation for women by quantifying and rewarding the work that women do in their own and in other’s homes.

ACCESS TO CREDIT

Women should be provided with access to credit to own and build their own businesses. Small, micro and medium enterprises create employment and drive economies Land ownership should also be extended to women. We should move from purely extractive industries to beneficiation and value-add industries. African countries should begin to export finished goods and services, and not be a mere resource provider to the developed world.

PEOPLE-CENTRED POLICY

We should create policies that expand broadly shared capabilities and the well-being of all citizens. People-centred development programmes should be the core of every government’s economic growth plan. This means that broad participation in policy identification and formulation is important and that policy processes are transparent. In this downturn, it becomes vitally important that financial capabilities are transferred to the low and middle-income households whose consumption patterns, because of numbers, are most likely to generate demand for increased production and will subsequently lead to economic growth.

Finally, the social sector and social services are essential in this period to provide safety nets to people who have lost their jobs or no longer have a breadwinner in the family. For these reasons, services should extend to those who do care work, to the informal sector and elsewhere where women are in the majority. Social grants only provide security in the short term; government needs to find ways to transfer skills to women, create employment that targets women and also open sectors that historically have been male-dominated. If this economic downturn becomes more protracted, the social sector, one of the largest employers of women, will begin to lose jobs and funds, thereby further affecting women’s access to health care, education and other social services.

As I said in the beginning, this is an opportunity to restructure the global economy and our national economies. While doing this, we need to consider the poorest of the poor – women – and design systems and institutions that work for them. This includes gender mainstreaming, gender budgeting and including women in decision-making processes.

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* Michele Ruiters is senior researcher at the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA).
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at Pambazuka News.