![]() ![]() ![]() The pandemic has also opened some new working-from-home opportunities with industries such as business process outsourcing and e-commerce. An important lesson from the COVID-19 lockdown was that more than a third of women (35%) who remained employed were able to work from home as compared to 19% of men. ![]() Men on the other hand represent only 4% in these occupations. Although many women work in private establishments or are self-employed, an important share (around 10%) of women are employed without pay in family-owned businesses and as domestic workers, occupations which tend to offer narrower avenues for skills development and career growth. Women in low skill positions work to avoid falling further into poverty, whereas women in high skill occupations tend to select into the labor force with high earnings potential. Women who work are mostly concentrated in low skill positions (due to economic necessity) or high skill occupations (because of high rates of education). What are the barriers to women’s labor force participation in the Philippines? We find four main answers: The report adds to our research across the EAP region offering evidence on the linkages between constraints to women’s labor force participation and access to childcare services in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Solomon Islands, and Vietnam. We document that childcare and social norms about gender roles in the household play a critical role in holding back women’s participation in the labor market in the Philippines. In our recent report, Overcoming the Barriers to Women’s Economic Empowerment in the Philippines, we set out to better understand what is holding women back from the labor market and what is hindering the Philippines’ gain from the growth potential associated with women’s economic empowerment. An increase of women’s labor supply by a mere 0.5 percentage points per year would increase gross domestic product (GDP) per capita by about 6% by 2040 and almost 10% by 2050. Women’s low labor force participation represents a missed opportunity for economic growth and increased prosperity in the Philippines. Progress towards closing the gap has been minimal and female labor force participation has remained roughly the same since 1990, with the gap shrinking by a mere 0.3 percentage points since 2015. In contrast, 76% of Filipino men were in the labor force, creating a massive gender gap. At just 49%, the Philippines’ female labor force participation in 2019 was one of the lowest in the EAP region (regional average rate is 59%). With the impressive performance in closing key gender gaps, it is therefore striking that women’s labor force participation remains persistently low. A key driver behind the progress has been the Philippine Magna Carta for Women, a landmark law signed nearly 13 years ago seeking to eliminate discrimination against women. This performance is the second best in the EAP region, after New Zealand. In the latest Global Gender Gap report, the Philippines occupies the 17th place, with 78.4% of its overall gender gap closed to date. On several fronts, the Philippines is a best performer when it comes to gender equality in the East Asia and Pacific (EAP) region and even globally. The current status of women in the Philippines is both a cause for optimism and a reason to accelerate efforts for promoting better access to jobs for all women. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |