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2002-11-20 18:59:27, 조회 : 370 |
CHANGING PATTERNS OF WOMEN’S WORK IN SOUTH EAST ASIA
Irene Xavier
Scope of this paper
This paper will deal with the above topic in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines. The Mekong regions of Indochina have been left out because I have not been able to get much information about them. In addition the paper should be viewed as an activist’s perspective and as such may lack the subtleties of an economic analysis. For all of this I apologize. Much of the analysis comes from an unedited paper by Jayati Ghosh entitled Impact of Globalization on Women: Women and Economic Liberalization in the Asian and Pacific Region.
Period prior to the recent Asian economic crisis
In the past decade the NICs of South-East Asia especially Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand and to a lesser extent Philippines experienced an export-oriented industrial proliferation. These countries saw an increase in the relocation of capital especially from Japan coming in as FDI. This resulted in very high growth rates in the regions. Capital relocated to this region in its search for lower costs of production. However as the recent crisis has shown such capital shifts are ephemeral in nature. Though capital may relocate to a country at one point in time there is no guarantee that it will stay there for long. This is because there is an abundance of cheap production sites opening up in various parts of the world. The economic regimes in this region have not been uniform. Malaysia and Thailand were characterized by open economic regimes within which FDI played a crucial role in delivering export and output growth. Oil revenues and a strong State played a crucial role in Indonesia’s developmental path. The Philippines however never reached the dubious status of a ‘tiger” except in terms of export growth though there was a shift towards a more diversified manufacturing sector.
One of the most significant changes that came with this export-led growth was change in domestic production in the region. In Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia primary products accounted for about 90% of exports in the 1970s. By mid-1990s these were reduced to about 30% of exports. The share of exports brought about by FDI that practically flew into the region resulted in manufacturing accounting for export-led growth. This diversification took less than two decades to achieve in this region while it took most of the developed almost a century. It is now increasingly accepted that such diversification was brought about by industrial policy in all these countries which, directed both public and private investment into manufacturing activity
In the early 1990s financial capital from many parts of the world have been looking for new areas of employment. This capital flowed into the region as countries liberalized their financial accounts. Countries in the region saw a growing exposure to international finance. This provided in South East Asia external financing of current account deficits which played a role in maintaining high levels of investment even when FDI inflows reduced after 1992. In the last couple of years the region has seen a deceleration of international trade growth in industries like the semiconductor, office automation and consumer electronics. When this was coupled with projectionist measures from principal developed countries an end to the property boom resulted leading to adverse effects on banks that financed the property boom. This of course led finally to capital flight from the region and the resultant economic crisis, which began in Thailand and soon spread to its neighbours.
Changing patterns as a result of Globalisation on women’s work
In any discussion on women’s work we know the problems associated with the invisibility of much of women’s work. We recognise that in much of women’s work there are areas that remain largely unchanged because social, political and economic forces condition the ability of women to enter the labour market with any reasonable amount of independence, equality and security. With the data that is available on women’s work (which is usually inaccurate), we can make some observations on the changing patterns on women’s work in this region.
1. The feminization of employment
More women work in both the formal and informal labour force. Despite the recent recession, Malaysian women for example still continued to work. The initial numbers who were retrenched have found some other kind of alternative emplyment though this may only be temporary work. Initially this region became home to capital that fled from Japan, Taiwan and Korea. This created many jobs for women in this region. However these incomes and jobs do not clearly translate into better living and working conditions. Women become more independent and have more control over how these incomes are spent. Yet in Malaysia for example women workers are not the ones who buy houses with their incomes because they cannot afford to buy houses with their incomes and they are not allowed to buy low-cost housing as they are not regarded as heads of household by public housing agencies. Despite the increase in jobs women still earned much lower salaries than men in the region.
2. The feminization of unemployment
While women in the region entered the formal work force there has been an almost relentless pattern of cyclical retrenchments. From the start of the export-oriented industrialization till the present time this region has seen the ebb and fall of workers getting employed and then being retrenched after a couple of years. In all of this the clear shift has been towards down sizing of the work force. There are hardly any examples of factories that have gradually increased the labour force over the period of the last 10 years.
In addition factories have quite successfully kept the workforce of women young. Older women who lose jobs keeping sliding down the job-ladder to taking lower paying jobs if they get jobs at all. Women with little or no education and market-demanded skills are of course the most vulnerable. For example in Malaysia retrenched workers take on contracted work for temporary periods. This is also the case of women workers in Thailand. Unemployed women also turn to self-employed jobs like food vending, sewing and selling. In Thailand some women also turned to homework to produce garments or artificial garments. Others returned to their rural homes and to agriculture temporarily. There are of course women who continue to remain unemployed and dependent upon relatives. There is very poor social security for retrenched workers or unemployed workers in the region.
In Malaysia the argument is that women in export-oriented industries were not the first to be laid-off during the crisis. However one needs to see that Malaysia had been a large importer of migrant labour – mainly male – to work in the construction industry. When the construction industry came to a near standstill the migrant workers were the first to be retrenched. However this was then followed by women in small factories which, were mainly like sweatshops that took on subcontracts for large TNC-owned plants. When the WTO agreements come into effect in 2004 more local factories will close. Also within the period of the last 5 years most garment and textile factories have closed. The shoe industry has also laid-off many workers. Yet in statistics these are not reflected clearly because there are no proper records of unemployed women. At the same time if men are laid-off, women are still affected because the pressures on declining household incomes also increase.
The last recession has shown that women workers in the region do not have secure employment.
3. Gender disparities in jobs and wages
Sex-based segregation of jobs is common in this region. Women still remain in the lower rungs of the production process that paid the lowest and is the most insecure work. When contract work became more widespread it was given also to women. Wage differentials between men and women also show that women earn much less than men.
4. Economic migration patterns of S.E.Asian women
Within the region Philippines and Indonesia have been exporters of migrant labour to many parts of the world. This has not changed much. Migrant women, particularly those that are illegal are very vulnerable to exploitation. There are very few countries that provide adequate protection to migrant women.
When we put these economic changes in the political context in the region we see that economic changes occurred in situation of military, corrupt, dictatorial regimes in all the countries in this region. In fact governments argued that beneficial economic change is only possible when there are weak trade unions, poor labour laws, poor social security and so on. In the case of women this is particularly significant because they had few institutions to protect their interests. When greater democracy was achieved for example in Indonesia there appears to be more space for women workers to organise for change.
Conclusion
It is clear that the greatest benefits for women working in this region has been the new jobs that were created for women through globalization. Yet these jobs have not been permanent. In addition the jobs have varied and transformed in nature giving women less and less protection and incomes. The little protection that women had in Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines in the form of minimum wages have been grossly insufficient.
There is increasing unemployment among women workers. In Thailand, statistics released by the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare showed that there were 1.2 million people unemployed nationwide at the end of 1997 and it would go up to 2 million at the end of 1998. Statistics in the same year indicated that 156 companies were likely to go under, costing 13,656 jobs and another 1,039 companies that are in serious trouble might cost the jobs of about another 228,732 employees.
In Indonesia, according to the official figures from the Department of Manpower, up to July 1998 at least 15.4 million workers were laid off. However, unofficial sources said that there were 20 million workers laid off at the end of 1998 and 25 million were under-employed.
Currently the major problems affecting women workers in Southeast Asia are:
· Increase in the number of informal sector workers
· Increasing job insecurity, unemployment and under employment
· Feminisation of the Informal Sector
· Weak Labor Laws
· Trade Unions are becoming weaker
· Worsening occupational health and safety situations
· Migration of workers
· Degradation and Destruction of the Environment
· Local economy/real economy being destroyed
· Government committed to neoliberal policies
· Increasing poverty
· Lack of participation of women workers in the decision making bodies of labor organisations and the government policy
Presented by Irene Xavier
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