Editorial: Changing facets of women at work

THE city's women gathered Monday to commemorate the 100th International Women's Day in Davao City.

The morning march clogged traffic, rendering the downtown area into a virtual standstill as hundreds of women in colorful shirts and umbrellas walked the main streets from Freedom Park to Rizal Park.

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The sheer number, considering that it was not even half of the working women of the city, drums up the fact that yes, women are now a necessary component of the economy. We know that too well with the growing number of house-husbands left with the children while the woman of the house goes abroad. The global labor market has long opened the floodgates of women workers leaving home and family to earn a living for their children's future. But it is this desire to provide a better future for their children that has shackled our women to a different kind of travail -- to be better than men in every way just to keep a darn job or be employable, starting with education.

In the publication "Women in labour markets: Measuring progress and identifying challenges" released by the International Labour Office just Monday, in time for the Women's Day celebration, it noted that "despite signs of progress in gender equality over the past 15 years, there is still a significant gap between women and men in terms of job opportunities and quality of employment."

It also points to a "new" gender gap that is growing in the labor market. It's a gender gap where, while the gap between the so-called economically active men and women is slowly decreasing, it is more difficult for women to enter the labor market than men in terms of the level of education, skills, and trainings required of the women as compared to men.

"The women who choose to enter the labour market are generally highly educated but still face a difficult time in finding work. For those who do attain work, they are generally segregated in poorly-paid, insecure, home-based or informal employment, partly as a result of lingering discrimination among employers and partly in response to the female need to combine family responsibilities with paid employment," the report said.

This is confirmed by the big number of domestic helpers we continue to ship out who have college degrees or have reached tertiary education and the lack of livelihood opportunities for girls who have just reached high school as compared to boys who had the same educational background.

This is because even as more and more women now are becoming the breadwinners, there is still the socio-cultural bias against real women empowerment.

"We still find many more women than men taking up low-pay and precarious work, either because this is the only type of job made available to them or because they need to find something that allows them to balance work and family responsibilities. Men do not face these same constraints," said Sara Elder of the ILO's Employment Trends unit and main author of the report.

The situation of women is nothing new. Every working mother knows it is a nerve-wracking challenge to balance work with home, but work they must.

Thus, there is a need for the government to craft more innovative policies that address the constraints unique to working women and not just cruise along the labor market programs that seeks to be fair to all, gender not included.

There have been numerous studies that have shown that economic empowerment of women has the greater tendency to improve the financial conditions of families. It is but appropriate for government to invest more in terms of livelihood opportunities, skills trainings, and policies that will enhance women participation in the economy. After all, there is the whole family who stands to benefit from this.