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 Budapestschmidtv@ilo.org

Structure

ContextDifferent Impact of Crisis on Men and WomenEmpirical EvidenceILO’s work on the CrisisPolicy 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? 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) Out of the 3.0 billion people that are employed around

the world, 1.2 billion are women (40.4 per cent)

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

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 menThere 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 PactJanuary 09: Predictions on Unemployment figuresUpon request country responses (Ukraine)March 09: G20: ILO assessment for September G20 March 09: Global Employment Trends for WomenJune 09: ILC: DG’s Report on CrisisILC: CoW @ ILC 09 ->Global Jobs Pact (3-19.6)ILC 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 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