Inequality intensifies as women become recession's main victims

By Thin Lei Win  |   2009-8-10  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

WHEN a major swimwear factory in Bangkok found its sales plummeting in the financial downturn, it laid off some 1,900 workers, almost all of them women.

That didn't surprise labor activists who say women are the most vulnerable workers in a recession, especially in low-wage industries in developing countries where gender equality lags behind the rest of the world.

"Even before the crisis, there were differences in the labor market situation between women and men," said Gyorgy Sziraczki, a senior economist at the International Labor Organization's Asia-Pacific headquarters.

"Fewer women are working than men, and women also have a much larger share of vulnerable employment. The crisis, to a certain extent, has widened the gap," said Sziraczki.

Garment worker Chalad Chaisaeng is a case in point. After working for 15 years at the Bangkok swimwear factory, she is struggling to support her two children, ill husband and parents with her severance pay of around 110,000 baht (US$3,300).

"I did not expect the company to do this. I am a good worker," said Chaisaeng.

Millions of female workers across the region will face Chaisaeng's plight, according to economists and activists who say women, especially those in low-skilled contract and temporary employment, are particularly susceptible to the downturn.

The latest figures for Asia by the International Labor Organization project a 5.7 percent rise in unemployed women in 2009, compared with 4.9 percent for men.

Lucia Victor Jayaseelan of the Committee for Asian Women, a Bangkok-based network of more than 40 women's groups in 14 Asian countries, said women will form the majority of the up to 27 million expected to lose their jobs in the Asia-Pacific region this year.

"Because the sectors that are affected are the manufacturing sector, tourist sector and migrant workers, it will be at least 80 to 90 percent women," she said. "We have a growing informal sector and migrant population (predominantly women), completely unprotected by legislation or any form of social security."

Exact country-specific unemployment figures are hard to come by as many developing countries do not carry out labor force surveys. In addition, in absolute terms, men still outnumber women in global unemployment.

However, in Asia, the concentration of women in export-driven industries such as garments, textiles and electronics, which have been hit hardest by the crisis, is much higher than men.

Wage gaps between men and women, a bias toward males as perceived breadwinners and the multiple roles women play today have also made female workers more vulnerable, experts say.

Even for those who have found jobs after being retrenched, the work is usually more menial and even more poorly paid.

Former Thai textile worker Nongnuch Thansoongnern, 39, left her home in Lopburi Province 11 years ago to work at the Wa Thai textile company where her 5,700 baht monthly salary was more than twice she could earn as a farmer.

Now, two months after she was laid off due to declining orders, the former quality control officer makes ends meet by selling fruits and vegetables near her old factory.

She wakes up at dawn each day to buy produce at the market and then travels by bus to sell her wares at a spot in front of a local convenience store where she stays until nine at night.

"There are too many sellers and not enough buyers," says Thansoongnern. "But at least I can still eat something. It's better than eating nothing."

Female migrant workers such as Thansoongnern and Chaisaeng are stuck between a hard life in the city they now call home and the few job opportunities in rural areas where they come from.

Many are the main breadwinners in their families, single daughters or divorced mothers and wives with unemployed husbands.

The same is true of the millions of female overseas migrant workers in the region.