Integrating a gender perspective into Employment Statistics

1. Regional Training Workshop to Improve Use of Existing Data for Monitoring Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Africa. 26-28 September 2011, Kampala, Uganda Integrating a gender perspective into Employment Statistics For a better monitoring and use of SDGs 8 Tier I Indicators Opoku Manu Asare

2. Outline For each area of concern, we review the issues, data required and sources • Labour force participation • Employment conditions • Access to productive resources in agriculture • Reconciliation of work and family life • Child work • SDGs 8 Tier I Indicators • General issues and concerns with data for SDGs • Data improvements

4. SDGs 8 Tier I Indicators

5. Labour force participationGender issues -- Global • Women and men have different levels and trends of labour force participation (United Nations, 2010) • Men’s labour force participation declined in most parts of the world (United Nations, 2010). • BUT women’s participation remained steady at the global level, increased in some countries and declined in others.

6. Labour force participationGender issues (Cont.) • Gender-based differences in labour force participation tend to vary by age group • High rate of employment for men but low for women • Women’s participation tends to be lower during their childbearing ages and the first years of life of their children • Gender-based differences in childcare responsibilities crucial in explaining participation in the labour market • Economic hardship may add to the barriers faced by women • Possible bias in favour of men in recruitment, and workplace

7. Data required • Data on labour force participation refer to: • Labour force participation by sex and age • Employment by sex and age • Unemployment by sex and age • Time use by sex and age • Labour force participation rate for age 15 to 24 and age 15+ by sex • Employment to population ratio by sex • Unemployment rate for age 15 to 24 and age 15+ by sex

8. Employment conditionsGender issues • Women and men have different employment conditions and different opportunities for career advancement (United Nations, 2010) • Women overrepresented in the agricultural sector and low-paid occupations, and in low-paid jobs that underutilize their skills. • Women may also be found more often than men among the underemployed, working fewer hours than desired • Managerial positions and other positions of decision-making are less accessible to women

9. Employment conditionsGender issues • More men than women tend to be in informal employment • Women are less likely than men to have regular jobs with contracts providing security and stable conditions. • Among employed women a larger share tends to be concentrated in informal jobs -- unregulated and unprotected, with no written contracts, social protection or benefits. • In addition, women in informal employment may have an increased risk of being exposed to violence and harassment (United Nations, 2001a). • Women more likely than men to be in vulnerable employment as contributing family workers, with insecure employment, low earnings and low productivity. • Women may turn to informal employment for different reasons than men • Larger proportion of women than men are employed as unremunerated contributing family workers.

10. Employment conditionsGender issues • Gender differentials in status in employment and income, in particular • Women tend to earn less than men and on average receive lower wages than men. (United Nations, 2010). • The wage gap may reflect not only differences in occupation and sectoral segregation and number of hours worked • But also gender discrimination in payment for the same job • Women are employed less often than men and receive no direct pay for their work on household chores

11. Data required Data on employment conditions refer to: • Industry (branch of economic activity) by sex • Occupation by sex • Status in employment by sex • Informal employment by sex • Hours worked by sex • Underemployed population by sex • Wages or earnings by sex and detailed occupation.

12. Access to productive resources in agricultureGender issues • Women are more likely than men to be involved in agriculture in part-time, seasonal and low-paying jobs and to receive lower wages for the same type of work, even if they have similar experience and qualifications to men (FAO, 2011). • These inequalities not only limit women’s opportunities, but also implying high costs for the agricultural sector, food security and economic growth. • It is estimated that closing the gender gap in agriculture would generate increased yields on women’s farms, raise the total agricultural output, especially in developing countries, and reduce significantly the number of people suffering from hunger in the world (FAO, 2011, 2013).

13. Access to productive resources in agricultureGender issues • Women tend to have lower access to agricultural productive resources than men owing to gender-specific constraints (FAO, 2011). • Women tend to be disadvantaged in all dimensions of access to productive resources in agriculture (FAO, 2011): • Ownership of land, livestock or other agricultural resources • Management of agricultural resources • Access to education, knowledge and skills related to agriculture • Participation in agricultural labour activities

14. Data Required Data on employment in agriculture and farm labour, such as: • Labour force participation and employment by sex of the employed population and industry (branch of economic activity) • Labourers (paid in cash or in exchange) working on the holding by sex, age and time worked and by sex of the holder • Household members working on the holding by sex, age and time worked and by sex of the holder • When possible information on the type of contract (permanent, seasonal, occasional labour, labour support groups) and the type of payment (in cash, in kind or in exchange) should also be obtained. Information on household members working on other agricultural holdings or on non-agricultural activities on and off the holding should also be considered.

15. Data Required • Data on access to productive resources in agriculture cover such dimensions as ownership, management and farm labour and refer to such resources as land, livestock and use of inputs, information technology, agricultural machinery, irrigation and financial services. • Data on ownership of agricultural resources collected at the individual levelinclude: Ownership of land by type of land use (cropland, meadows or pastures, forest land, aquaculture) and sex of the owner • Distribution of land size by sex of the owner • Ownership of livestock by type of livestock and sex of the owner • Distribution of livestock size by type of livestock and sex of the owner

16. Data Required Holdings/sub-holdings by sex of the holder/sub-holder • Area of the holdings by type of land use (cropland, meadows or pastures, forest land, aquaculture) and sex of the holder • Land tenure type (legal ownership, non-legal ownership, rented, other) of the holding by sex of the holder/sub-holder • Livestock (including poultry) by type of livestock (species) and sex of the holder/sub-holder

17. Data Required (Cont) Data on use of irrigation and agricultural inputs, such as: • Holdings/sub-holdings with irrigated land by method of irrigation and sex of the holder/sub-holder • Holdings using chemical inputs (fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, fungicides) by type of chemical and sex of the holder Data on access to agricultural information and technology, such as: • Holdings receiving agricultural extension services by sex of the holder • Holdings using selected machinery and equipment by ownership of machinery and sex of the holder

18. Data Required (Cont.) Data on access to financial services, such as: • Holdings receiving credit for agricultural purposes by sex of the holder. • When possible, information on the size of credit and individual-level information on the demographic characteristics of the actual applicant for credit should also be obtained

19. Reconciliation of work and family lifeGender issues • Women and men have different family constraints when it comes to participating in the labour market. • Balancing work and family is particularly challenging for employed parents with young children. • Women tend to temporarily withdraw from the labour force, seek shorter hours or other flexible working arrangements during childbearing and the first years of life of their children • Childcare services may be unavailable or expensive. • In some countries or cultures, women’s participation in the labour market is subject to approval from male family members

20. Reconciliation of work and family life (Cont.)Gender issues • In addition, the hiring of women in certain jobs is • sometimes denied on the basis of their pregnancy or maternity leave (ILO, 2011). Furthermore, • although many countries have policies on employment protection during pregnancy, childbirth and maternity leave, women working in atypical forms of work are not usually covered. • When family-friendly working arrangements such as flexible hours, part-time work, job-sharing and working from home are not available, one member of the couple, usually the woman, may be forced to stay out of employment.

21. Reconciliation of work and family lifeGender issues • Maternity leave, while widely granted across countries, is often inadequate in terms of length and pay. • The proportion of countries meeting ILO standards related to maternity benefits is much lower in the less developed regions than in the more developed regions. • Paternity leave has become more common only recently and only in some countries in the more developed regions.

22. Reconciliation of work and family lifeGender issues • Women are the primary caretakers of the family (United Nations, 2010). Caring for children and other dependent household members, preparing meals, cleaning and repairing are tasks disproportionately carried out by women. In many countries, more than half of women’s total work time is spent on unpaid domestic work. • When time used for paid employment and unpaid domestic work is added up, women work longer hours than men. • Women’s increased participation in paid employment has not been accompanied by an increase in men’s participation in unpaid domestic work. However, the sharing of domestic tasks between the sexes is becoming more equitable in some countries in the most developed regions (United Nations, 2010).

23. Data required Several types of data are needed to capture reconciliation of work and family life. They are: • Time use by type of activity within and outside the SNA production boundary by detailed activity, sex, age and employment status • Total employment and employment in flexible working arrangements, such as flexible hours, part-time work, job-sharing and working from home, by sex and age, further disaggregated by individual and household characteristics • Availability of formal childcare services • Enrolment in pre-primary education • Qualitative information on the length and related benefits of maternity and paternity leave.

24. Child workGender issues • Similar to their adult counterparts, girls and boys are involved in different types of work. Boys are more likely than girls to be employed and to work in hazardous conditions (United Nations, 2010). • However, girls are more likely than boys to do unpaid domestic work • Long hours of work affect children’s ability to participate fully in education and to develop the basic skills necessary to participating fully in society as adults. • When the time spent on household chores is very high, the school attendance of girls, especially older girls, is more affected than the school attendance of boys. • Living in poor rural areas or urban slums and household poverty are factors usually associated with child employment and overburden with household chores.

25. Data required Several types of data are needed. They are: • Children in employment by sex and age • Children engaged in worst forms of work, work below minimum age and work in hazardous conditions (child labour) by sex and age • Children engaged in household chores by sex and age • Hours worked by children in employment and unpaid housework by sex and age. • Additional breakdowns, including by rural and urban areas. • are needed in order to understand some of the causes and consequences of child work.

26. Sources of data • Labour force surveys • Child labour surveys • Household surveys, such as DHS and MICS • Living Standards Measurement Study – Integrated Survey on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) • Surveys on the informal sector and informal employment • Time-use surveys provide data on time-use allocation for all activities • Agricultural censuses and surveys • Population and Housing Census • Administrative records

27. Integrating gender issues into gender statistics • Gender mainstreaming • Solicit the interest, views, knowledge, skills, experiences etc of beneficiary people (women and men, communities) • Make conscious effort to design data development and management in terms of methodologies, procedure and dissemination • Communicate and share results • Gender responsive budget • Set aside certain percentage of GDP for statistics, focusing on gender • Enact and implement laws, regulations, policies, programmes, projects • Create national and community awareness

28. Conceptual and measurement issues • The concept of work ranges on • Not all forms of work are covered by conventional labour force statistics (United Nations systems of national accounts and balances) • Therefore, conventional labour statistics are currently limited to activities that contribute to the production of goods and services as defined by the System of National Accounts (SNA) • Lastly, employment of some groups of women or men may be underreported in employment statistics owing to the limitations of the sources of data used. By definition, employment includes persons at work, even if only for one hour during the reference period of one week or one day, and persons temporarily absent from work. • Time-use statistics should allow for the measurement of unpaid housework for women and for men.

29. SDGs 8 Tier I Indicators

30. Data disaggregation and complementary information • For SDGs, a limited number of indicators are required • Yet from the discussion more issues affect women and men, boys and girls that need further exploration • For example, low school attendance is one of the main consequences of work burden, it is important that data on school attendance are collected and disaggregated by sex, age, labour force participation status or hours worked in employment and unpaid housework • Also several other data are required to clarify the issues. For country level analyses effort should be made to get other data to complement what are recommended

31. Exercise • List two gender issues in employment in your community • List two gender issues in employment at your workplace • List two gender issues in employment at national level • How are you mainstreaming employment issues into your decision making at home

32. End!!! THANK YOU