Transcript Gender dimensions of the financial and economic crisis

Gender dimensions of
the global financial and
economic crisis
ITUC PERCRegional workshop: Women in the
economic crisis and informalisation of the economy
7 Mai 2009
Verena Schmidt, Senior Specialist on Conditions of
Work/ Gender Equality
Subregional Office Budapest
[email protected]
Structure
Context
Different
Impact of Crisis on Men and Women
Empirical
ILO’s
Evidence
work on the Crisis
Policy
recommendations
Setting the gender context of
the crisis
Even before the onset of the current financial and
economic crisis, globalization was not
economically or socially viable. While the world
economy had experienced consecutive years of
robust growth, the benefits were not shared by
all:
 Inequality between states
 Inequality within states
 Inequality between men and women
Why does the crisis affect
women and men differently?
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Gender based job segregation
Women as buffer workforce
Male-breadwinners, female care-givers
Women as cheaper substitute for men’s labour
Remittances
Unpaid care work and women‘s double burden:
impact on poor
Empirical Evidence…
Global unemployment rates
ILO has estimated that the financial and
economic crisis is expected to increase the
number of unemployed women by up to 22
million in 2009.
Gender inequality in sectoral
employment (2008 figures)
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Out of the 3.0 billion people that are employed around
the world, 1.2 billion are women (40.4 per cent)
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Industry:
18.3 per cent women as compared to 26.6 per cent men
Services:
46.3 per cent of women as compared to 41.2 per cent for
men
Agriculture:
48.4 per cent of women as compared to 40.1 per cent for
men are employed
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Gender Differences in working
conditions
The
share of vulnerable employment was
52.7 per cent for women as compared to 49.1
per cent for men
There
is still a big gender gap in wages with
women earning an average of 15 per cent less
than men for every hour worked
In the Ukraine, women earned on average
27% less than men on a monthly wage in 2006
and 2007
ILO’s work on the Crisis
March
08: GB: Call for Global Jobs Pact
January
Upon
request country responses (Ukraine)
March

09: Predictions on Unemployment figures
09: G20: ILO assessment for September G20
March 09: Global Employment Trends for Women
June
ILC:
ILC
09: ILC: DG’s Report on Crisis
CoW @ ILC 09 ->Global Jobs Pact (3-19.6)
Report/Discussion on Gender
Global Jobs Pact
1)
Financial support conditional on giving credits to
real economy
2)
Making DW the cornerstone of fiscal stimulus
packages by creating labour intensive infrastructure
projects
3)
Avoiding wage deflation by increasing wages in line
with productivity
4)
Promoting international coordination in policy
responses and avoiding protectionist solutions
Policy responses to the crisis
In developed economies, stimulus
packages
 In Central and Eastern Europe, fiscal
space is limited in most countries and
conditionalities are set by the IMF in
Latvia, Ukraine, Hungary, Belarus, Serbia,
Rumania
 In Latin America social transfer
programmes

Conclusions and
recommendations
Consider gender specific impact of responses
to the crisis
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Stimulus packages – in what areas?
Protect social spending
Social transfer payments
Social dialogue
Analysis of labour market and public employment
service
Labour inspection and occupational health and
safety