Addressing Gender Inequality: an International prospective

1
Addressing Gender Inequalityan International
prospective

• Pierella Paci
• Regional Gender Coordinator
• Europe and Central Asia Region
• The World Bank

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Outline

• What is gender?
• Why governments should be concerned with gender
  equality?
• Gender inequality exists everywhere
• And the transition countries of ECA are not an
  exception

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What is gender?

• Refers to the socially culturally defined roles
  of males and females what males and females are
  supposed to do
• Contrasted with sex, which refers to the
  biological differences between males and females
• Gender equality is the extent to which females
  and males have different rights, resources and
  power
• Male privilege and prerogatives dominate, but
  there are cases in which females are better off
  than males, also gender problems involving males
  that arise from gender roles (e.g., violence)

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Why should governments be concerned about gender?

• Gender inequality reduces economic growth,
  amperes poverty reduction important objectives
  of many governments and is associated with
  worse governance
• Gender inequality exists throughout the world,
  that is, it remains a problem
• This is despite many countries having made
  commitments to promote gender equality that
  remain unfulfilled
• And despite the evidence that good policies can
  make a difference

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1. Gender equality helps to

• increase economic growth
• lower poverty improve the quality of life
• improve governance (maybe)

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Links between gender equality and economic growth
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Links with productivity/efficient allocation of
resources in the current generation

• Unequal allocation of resources based on gender
  lowers productivity and efficiency
• Example gender equality in farm inputs could
  increase output by 4 to 20 percent
• Womens use of productive resources is as
  efficient or more efficient than mens
• Ex micro-credit to women has been shown to have
  twice the impact on household income as
  micro-credit to men
• More equal capacity leads to higher economic
  growth (see next slide)

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Links with the productivity of the next generation

• Women invest their incomes in their children, men
  in themselves
• Ex In Brazil, income in the hands of mothers
  has four times the positive impact on childrens
  nutrition (height-for-age) as income in the hands
  of fathers.
• Better educated mothers invest more heavily in
  their childrens learning
• Ex In India, children of literate mothers spend
  two more hours a day studying than children of
  illiterate mothers.

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(Additional) links with poverty

• Job discrimination and/or cultural or legal
  barriers to better paid forms of work put women
  at risk of poverty
• Within households, unequal access to resources
  may result in greater female than male poverty
• Violence against women is pervasive, dangerous
  and costly

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Countries with more equal participation and
rights are less corrupt
10
9
8
7
6
Corruption Index
5
4
3
2
1
0
4.0
4.5
5.0
5.5
6.0
6.5
7.0
Index of women's economic and social rights
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2. Inequality remains pervasive

• Gender disparities are found in all regions and
  countries
• Are especially large in
• Low income countries
• Low income households

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Gender gaps in education are often largest in
low-income countries
Male/Female Enrollment Ratios, 6-14 years old
3.0
Rich
Poor
Morocco
2.5
Pakistan
2.0
India
Egypt
1.5
Turkey
Kazakstan
Indonesia
1.0
Tanzania
Brazil
0.5
0.0
0
2
4
6
8
10
Selected Developing Countries
Source Filmer (1999)
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Time poverty Women work longer hours than men
Hours of Work per Day, by Gender, in Selected
African Countries
16
Women
14
12
Men
10
8
6
4
2
0
Tanzania
Botswana
CAR
Cote
Zambia
Kenya
Nigeria
Burkina
Uganda
d'Ivoire
Faso
Source Various, cited in Blackden and Bhanu
(1999)
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Inequality in legal, social and economic rights
exists in all regions
High Equality
Low Equality
15
Women are under-represented in parliaments
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Gender violence exists around the world( of
women who have experienced violence)

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• Women earn less than men even when they have
  similar education and work experience
• What women earn for
• every 1 men earn
• Developed countries 0.77
• Developing countries 0.73
• Adam Smith (1763) A woman shall be paid three
  quarters of a mans wage.

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3. Countries commitments

• Convention on the Elimination of all forms of
  Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), adopted by
  the UN General Assembly in 1979
• Fourth World Conference on Women Platform for
  Action, 1995 (Beijing)
• Millennium Development Goals, 2000
• Goal 3 Promote gender equality empower women

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4. Well designed public policies can make a
difference
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Gender equality in pension benefits
Pension income for Chilean workers with
incomplete primary education
(female/male ratio in parenthesis)

(0.89)
(0.60)
(0.43)
(0.35)
(0.29)
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Pesos (thousands)
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Ecuador Judicial Reform Project

• Established legal service centers for poor women
• Result Child support cases settled in 3-8 weeks
  rather than in 1-3 years

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• 5. Example of best practice interventions in the
  labor market

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EU LEGAL FRAMEWORK

• PRIMARY LEGISLATION
• Treaty of Rome, 1957
• Principle of Equal Pay
• Treaty of Amsterdam, 1997
• Eliminating Gender Inequality
• SECONDARY LEGISLATION
• establishing principle of equal treatment as
  regards
• access to employment
• vocational training and promotion
• working conditions and
• matters of social security.

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• Directive 76/207/EEC, 1976
• Equal Access to Employment, Vocational Training
  and Promotion, and Working Conditions
• abolishment of all discriminatory provisions
  in laws, regulations, administrative procedures,
  collective agreements, individual contracts etc.
• application of the principle of equal
  treatment with regards to vocational training,
  and working conditions
• elimination of discrimination on grounds of
  sex either directly or indirectly, in particular
  by reference to marital and family status.

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Employment rates - male and female2002
Source Eurostat, Jan 2004
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Share of Skilled Women and Men in Employment,
2002 (in)
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Vertical Segregation - Share of employees in
managerial occupation, by sex, 2002
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• Directive 92/85/EC, 1992
• Maternity Protection
• an assessment of specific safety risks at
  work
• prohibition of dismissal from the beginning of
  pregnancy until the end of maternity leave
• ensuring employment rights plus pay and
  respective allowances during maternity leave
• shifting the burden of proof.

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• Directive 96/34/EC, 1996
• Framework Agreement on Parental Leave
• granting male and female workers an
  individual right to parental leave
• enabling parents to take care of their child
  for at least 3 months until a given age up to
  eight years
• granting the leave on a non-transferable
  basis
• protecting workers against dismissal on the
  grounds of taking a parental leave
• ensuring the right to return to the same job
  under the same conditions.

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Share of employees with children aged 0-5 (2002,
in )
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Maternity/Parental Leave Arrangements Traps for
Women's Employment?

• Extended leaves
• Wage effect
• Career
• Institutional structure.
• Protective measures raise the cost of hiring
  women.
• Ignoring the negative effect of protective
  standards may prove harmful for women,
  particularly in countries experiencing structural
  reforms/transformation.

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• Directive 97/81/EC, 1997
• Non-discrimination against part-time workers
• clear definition
• non-discrimination of part-time workers with
  respect to employment conditions
• facilitation of access to part-time work at
  all levels of the enterprise, including skilled
  and managerial positions...

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Share of part-time employees, 2002 (in)
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Re-organization of working time Flexibility - A
new form of precariousness?

• Implications of flexible working
  arrangements?
• Experiences of such working arrangements in
  other countries?
• In what circumstances could flexibility and
  equal opportunities serve/reinforce each other?
• All possible effects should be borne in mind.

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• Directive 97/80/EC, 1997
• Burden of Proof in cases of Discrimination based
  on sex
• clear definition(s) of direct/indirect
  discrimination
• application to all civil and administrative
  procedures
• introducing rule of evidence, burden of proof
• New standard - major shift in legal theory and
  practice! Very difficult adoption and
  implementation - classic rule of evidence...

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Key Elements of Policy Relevance

• Importance of differences in m/f labor market
  participation and career structures
• Differences in m/f wage structures and
  gender(ed) effects of pay and promotion policies
• horizontal segregation in general and
  concentration of women in low paying sectors and
  occupations..

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CHALLENGES OF EU ACCESSION

• Overlapping of two significant, continuing
  processes - transition and accession
• level of economic, social and political
  reforms prior to entry into EU
• different phases of accession to EU
• creation of many losers in domestic politics
• paid employment as primary axis of social
  change...

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LABOUR MRKT. OPPORTUNITIES

• LABOUR MRKT.
• OPPORTUNITIES

WELFARE SYSTEM
LABOUR MARKET STRUCTURE
INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT
POLITICAL and ECONOMIC CONTEXT
TRADITION, SOCIAL/SOCIETAL CONTEXT
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CHALLENGES OF THE EU ACCESSION

• No explicit legal provisions prior to the
  process of accession
• No mechanisms on equal treatment (quasi
  quotas)
• Low legal culture and weak institutional
  infrastructure
• Focusing on legal harmonization
• Lack on information and case laws
• Implementation deficit - weakness.

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CHALLENGES OF EU ACCESSIONPolicy Performance -
Slovenian case

• Act on Parental Care and Family Incomes (2001)
  - not translated - introducing non-transferable
  PATERNAL LEAVE
• Labor Relations Act (2002)
• Equal Opportunities for Women and Men (2002)

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Labor Relations Act

• Prohibition on discrimination - Art. 6
• Job advertisements, Art. 25
• Sexual harassment, Art. 45
• Extraordinary cancellation by an employee,
  Art. 112
• Principle of equal pay, Art. 133

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Labour Relations Act - Process/Actors

• Preparation of materials - law experts
• Exchange of legal practices - Phare Programme
  Harmonizing Regulations, Employment and Social
  Reforms
• Foreign Experts (UK and France) - 1996
• ESS - April 1997/proceeding in July
• Ministerial proceedings
• 1997 - 1st Proposal in the Parliament
• 1999 - 1st proceeding in the Parliament

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Labor Relations Act - Process/Actors

• 3 rounds of harmonization between social
  partners
• change of ministers
• Sept 2000 - certain unadjusted solutions
• 2001 - 3rd round of harmonization
• 7 Nov 2001 - Statement on harmonization by ESS

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Labor Relations Act - Process/Actors

• NO CONTENDING TO THE EQUAL OPP. PROVISIONS, BASED
  ON EU OR OTHER INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITYS
  DIRECTIVE/S

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Policy Performance

• Number of active measures needed
• clear governmental commitments
• modification of EU structural indicators and
  benchmarks to reflect the specific
  characteristics of CEE labor markets
• shifting attention to the implementation/enforcem
  ent of legislation
• equality plans creation - inclusion into
  collective bargaining
• encouraging employers to facilitate
  reconciliation

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Policy Performance

• Government should support NGOs and develop
  measures for preventing, detecting and
  eliminating discrimination
• TUs should monitor the working environment and
  raise awareness of discriminated-against
• creating measures for inclusion on
  non-discriminatory basis clear HR policies
• continuing monitoring (system creation)
• Companies most friendly to women

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Policy Performance

• Long-lasting and complex nature of shift from
  the principle of equal rights to the principle of
  eq. opportunities/treatment
• active and intense resolution by all actors in
  society
• EU as an important international reference
  frame and impulse
• proper legislation - incl. wider policy
  environment, state of labor markets, national
  trends and case laws into consideration

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Policy Performance

• Careful and well-prepared analytical approach
  to legislation procedure
• inclusion of all actors - TUs, experts, NGOs,
  employers, government, case laws, exchange of
  best-practice
• careful adoption of other countries
  solutions!
• Proper training and media coverage

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