Addressing Asia’s gender gap challenge

Addressing Asia’s gender gap challenge

Students line up to receive their degree certificates at the Kede College of Capital Normal University, Beijing. China has seen a turnaround in the status of women since the 1950s, with female literacy today at around 100 percent. (AFP) Throughout much of Asia, especially the developing nations, women can be seen laboring on building sites, working in fields, running small retail stands in markets or food stalls along busy streets.

They also raise children and run households. But for all their efforts, the rewards are negligible. Women in many Asian countries are still second-class citizens with few rights.

It is true women have become leaders of countries in the region: India, South Korea, Thailand and the Philippines are notable cases. But these were women from elite political families.

Women on the whole are poorly represented, whether it be on the boards of corporations or politically.

Susan Harris Rimmer, director of studies with the Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy at the Australian National University (ANU), says that while there have been some improvements for women in Asia “there is still a long way to go”.

“But the good thing is, people are talking about the gender equality in Asia,” she tells China Daily Asia Weekly.

“They are looking at the contribution women make to economic growth and women’s rights. In many Asian countries women have few rights. They cannot own land, or bank accounts, they are excluded from inheritance and cannot sign legal documents,” she says.

“I think, however, above all this is the horrendous physical abuse women endure in many of these countries with little or no redress.”

While the Asian Development Bank (ADB) says Asia has made impressive strides over the last decade narrowing gender gaps in education, health, employment and political participation “progress and achievements are not spread across the region”.

“Many women are still denied access to basic services and essential assets such as land, and are excluded from decision-making processes,” the ADB says.

“In some countries and among some groups, women still suffer from entrenched gender discrimination and exclusion that diminishes their life expectancy, education prospects, access to clean water, sanitation and employment, and exposes them to gender-based violence.”

Gender parity will be part of the agenda next week at the World Economic Forum (WEF) on East Asia in Manila.
The latest rankings confirm that, while starting to be more present in politics, East Asian women remain less healthy and less educated than men. They are also most vulnerable and marginalized in low-income employment.

Discussions in Manila will focus on new strategies to scale up leadership of women in business, government and civil society in order to tap the region’s talent more efficiently.

Most companies and countries around the globe have a dearth of women in leadership roles, says Saadia Zahidi, senior director of Gender Parity and Human Capital at WEF.

“Many people agree we should be at 50/50, but they don’t agree on how to get there,” she said in her blog on International Women’s Day earlier this year.

“For some, progress has to be from the ground up, based on governments providing structures that support work-life balance, companies adjusting practices to make it possible for parents to combine work and family, women leaning in, and women in power opening the doors for the next generation of women.

“They believe any other path to progress will be artificial,” she said. Education is seen as a key to improving the plight of women in Asia. And one country in the region shows how a turnaround in the status of women can be achieved.

Claudia Zeisberger, an affiliate professor at INSEAD business school, said recently that in China in the 1950s education of any kind for women was practically unheard of.

“At the end of the (1950s), fewer than 10 percent of Chinese women were literate,” she said in a blog.

“In today’s China, female literacy is around 100 percent, and there are more than three million female tertiary graduates annually (compared to four million male). If the trend continues, women will soon be China’s best-educated sex.”

To get an idea of gender inequality in Asia, one only has to look at WEF’s Global Gender Gap Index.

Last year, the Philippines was ranked 5th in the 136 nation index, up from 8th position in 2012.

The next Asian countries were Singapore at 58th, Laos 60th, Thailand 65th, Vietnam 73rd and Indonesia 95th.

The index ranks countries on their ability to close the gender gap in four key areas — economic equality, political participation, health and survival, and educational attainment.

Commenting on the index recently, Philippine Senator Grace Poe said: “In terms of our neighbors in Southeast Asia or even in the world, when it comes to women in leadership positions, the Philippines is doing very well.” Women make up a quarter of Philippine elected officials in both the Senate and House of Representatives.

According to WEF, the Philippines is the only country in the region that has closed the educational attainment and health and survival gender gaps.

The Philippines also performs in the top 10 globally in terms of the number of female legislators, senior officials and managers, as well as in its female literacy rate and enrolment in secondary education.

The country also had one of the region’s longest-serving female heads of state in Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who served as president from 2001 to 2010; and in 1986, its first president after the end of the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos was also a woman, Corazon Aquino.

Many countries have made formal commitments to gender equality, but implementation is undercut by a variety of factors, from limited resources to inconsistencies in upholding laws to upheaval from natural disasters, according to UN Women, the United Nations’ organization dedicated to gender equality.

Integral to Asia’s economic boom, women make up nearly half of all business owners. Outside of East Asia, however, they have a higher unemployment rate than men, almost twice the global average.

In the majority of countries, migration remains a primary means for securing a livelihood, with female migrant workers often equalling or exceeding the number of men on the move.

As is true for employment in general, however, many end up in poorly paid jobs with no protections, especially in care and domestic work, according to UN Women.

The International Labour Organization says that although Asia is leading the global economy “the vast productive potential of Asian women remains untapped”.

Before the global financial crisis it was estimated Asia was losing $42-$47 billion a year “because of limits on women’s access to employment opportunities” and another $16-$30 billion a year as a result of gender gaps in education, according to estimates by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. The Asia Society has estimated 2 billion women in Asia are paid less than men for similar work and are extremely underrepresented in top leadership positions.

The society’s survey on women’s status in health, education, economic activity and political leadership said that while the status of women varies widely from country to country, if it continues in this direction “it will put in peril Asia’s many achievements” over the last 30 years. Harris Rimmer from ANU says that while improvements in the status of women can be seen, the fact remains that many Asian women work for little or no reward.

“Yes, Asia has produced female leaders but they represent a political elite. You don’t find too many women from poor backgrounds in politics … at least not on the national level,” she says. “India and China are making moves towards greater representation of women in politics … At least by having more women in the decision-making process you will get greater diversity of thought and opinions and that can’t be a bad thing,” Harris Rimmer concludes.
karlwilson@chinadailyapac.com