30 March Discussion Report Talking ASEAN. Women and the World of Work

Transcription

1 30 March 2017 Discussion Report Talking ASEAN Women and the World of Work

2 Introduction: JAKARTA On Thursday, 30 March 2017, The Habibie Center (THC) in collaboration with the Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, BINUS University International, Indonesia Services Dialogue, and the AEC Center of the Ministry of Trade of the Republic of Indonesia held its Talking ASEAN: The Business Series dialogue entitled Women and the World of Work: Achieving Gender Equality through the ASEAN Economic Community at Binus University International, Jakarta. This particular Talking ASEAN: The Business Series featured as speakers Ms. Nunki Juniarti (Representative Committee for International Relations Department, Indonesian National Council of Women s Organisation (KOWANI), Ms. Maria Kurniawati (Chief Administration Officer PT. Trakindo Utama), Ms. Sita Aripurnami (Executive Director of Women Research Institute (WRI) Indonesia), Ms. Khariroh Ali (Commissioner, National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) Indonesia), and. Meanwhile, Ms. Rahimah Abdulrahim (Executive Director, The Habibie Center) acted as moderator. The objectives of this dialogue were to: (a) explore the challenges and opportunities presented by the evolution of work for women empowerment in Southeast Asia; (b) review ASEAN s performance in realising gender equality through economic integration; (c) understand the impact of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) for women in the region; and (d) give recommendations for the improvement of women empowerment in AEC to achieve gender equality. This discussion report summarized the key points of each speaker as well as the question and answer session that followed. 1 Introduction - Discussion Report Talking ASEAN

3 Ms. Juniarti began her presentation with an overview of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), where she focused on the AEC s 2025 Blueprint for a people-oriented and people-centered ASEAN. She linked this feature of the AEC Blueprint with women s economic development, which is also related to the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Blueprint, the ASEAN Committee on Women, and the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children. Ms. Juniarti then outlined the ASEAN Committee on Women Work Plan , which were aimed at (1) increasing the proportion of women leadership at the national levels of ASEAN Member State (AMS), particularly among appointed and selected positions in the public and private sectors, (2) promoting gender-sensitivity and eliminating gender-stereotyping in schools at all levels, (3) raising understanding and awareness on gender equality, ($) strengthening the mechanism for effective gender mainstreaming in ASEAN, (5) establishing effective prevention and protection services for women supported by a legal framework and institutional mechanism, (6) increasing the access of women entrepreneurs, including young women, to credit, markets, training, technology, and social protection, and (7) enhancing regional as well as national initiatives to improve the protection and empowerment of women, especially those in vulnerable situations. She later elaborated upon point (6) regarding the economic empowerment of women. She explained in detail the various fora in which to promote this priority and the policies that might help to achieve it. These policy initiatives include: capacity building on gender-sensitive value chain analysis; sharing of policies and practices to increase the capacities of women entrepreneurs in accessing finance, production, and marketing; and focusing on the financial security of women in old age. Ms. Nunki Juniarti Representative Committee for International Relations Department, Indonesian National Council of Women s Organisation (KOWANI)

4 Ms. Kurniawati presented the journey of her career to give a sense of how she thought other women could start their own employment paths. She said that she started her career early and unknowingly always went to male fields of career. She never thought that just because she was a woman therefore she had to prove her worth more so than any other person, but rather that proving her worth was a responsibility for everyone. She admitted that she was lucky in that most of the places in which she worked were never explicitly hostile to women. As she rose up the corporate ladder, she found it awkward that women often did not support other women, and that she herself was always promoted by men. As she became an executive herself, she made a promise with other women executives that they would always try to promote other women. She mentioned the importance of a positive psychological mindset when women want to enter the world of work and that this sort of thinking must be implemented at the grassroots levels as soon as possible. She further mentioned that, whether in the big cities or small villages, coaching for women would be a significant improvement towards reaching the goals of women empowerment in employment. Ms. Maria Kurniawati Chief Administration Officer PT. Trakindo Utama

5 Ms. Aripurnami s presentation began with the observation that women s labor force participation is still lower than men in all ASEAN countries, and although the gap has shrunk in some countries, it has been widening in some others. She further cautioned that when discussing women in the workforce, we must distinguish between women who want to work (usually women who are better off) and women who have to work, which are usually women who are forced either by poverty or by coercion. She further explained that a plurality of relatively educated and skilled women entered elementary occupations such as nurses and teachers or into clerical occupations like secretaries. Ms. Aripurnami further elaborated that although now the Indonesian government is preparing for sustainable development goals that include gender-sensitive goals, one of the most pressing issue is the limitation of data. She opined that without careful research that requires large amounts of data, then policy analysis, particularly gender-sensitive policy analysis, would be irrelevant. As an example, she cited the case of education where bad or incomplete data had clouded policies. Up until higher secondary education, males and females tend to have the same participation rate. The difference is that girls tend not to finish schools, whereas boys do. She suggested that this may be because of the social construct that women are expected only to work in the household and thus do not need to have high educational attainment. Ms. Aripurnami concluded her presentation with various policy initiatives that she believes to be helpful to the condition of women in the AEC. Among them are deeper and more granular data collection; the mainstreaming of gender issues in policy-making, whether national or regional; targeted interventions so that the positive impacts of the AEC are distributed to women; and most importantly a more comprehensive government program to facilitate childcare systems. The last policy is because even when women work in the labor market, they are still expected to do most, if not all, household work. Childcare programs initiated by the government may reduce the amount household work that women and thus giving the opportunity for women to do more in the labor market. Ms. Sita Aripurnami Executive Director of Women s Research Institute (WRI) Indonesia

6 Ms. Ali began her presentation with a short history of the founding of Komnas Perempuan, its mandate, and the work the organization is currently doing. She continued to explain the current gender gap found in ASEAN economies. Ms. Ali explained that there are still some significant labor force participation gaps between men and women in Southeast Asia and that women s unemployment rates are also higher than men s. She suggested that this could be partly explained by the lower levels of education that women receive in ASEAN and that there still is gender segregation in some areas of work, whether formally enacted or otherwise. She went on to add the women s labor force participation also depends on a society s expectation of women s role in the household and in the workplace, feeding into the cycle that results in women receiving lower levels of education and different, usually more elementary and lower-paid employment. Other than the problem of low-education and low-wage work, Ms. Ali also elaborated on other problems that most women face in ASEAN economies such as: informality of work; unequal access to social insurance, credit, and other resources; and being forced to bear the dual responsibilities of employment as well as domestic care work. She explained that the barriers to these are both legal and cultural. Legal barriers include the unequal status of women in the household (men are explicitly stated to be the head of the household), but the more insidious barriers are more informal, such as prevalence of violence against women, discrimination in the workforce, the vulnerability of women to harassment, etc. She explained that the ASEAN Economic Community, if not implemented with gender-sensitive policy might end up hurting women, or at least some women, even though the policies might be nominally gender-neutral as the existing inequalities between men and women might be exacerbated. Ms. Ali concluded her presentation with policy recommendation such as (1) AEC policies must include gender indicators, (2) gender related issues must be mainstreamed across AEC pillars and sectoral bodies, (3) improve access to finance for women entrepreneurs through subsidized loans and other financial incentives, (4) equalize education and skill achievements between boys and girls, (5) remove gender biases in family benefit policies, or all policies in general, (6) enforce workplace harassment laws, (7) address discrimination based on policies relating to occupation choice and asset ownership. Ms. Khairirah Ali Commissioner, National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan)

7 Questions and answers

8 Question and Answer Q: We can t say we have unemployment in villages, because most people work in the farms (thus they are not employed in the traditional sense). Women don t own land, land is owned by their husbands, even though they are the workers. They must rely on the male workforce to get credit, or to market the goods. Women are working at smallholder farms. How do we manage such a situation? We want women to be independent. But how to empower them when we don t have resources? A: There is indeed a problem regarding women s property rights. The Indonesian experience is through micro-entrepreneurs: we make a group of women together at the micro level. Help them get access to microfinance institutions so that they can develop their institutions. Private institutions help develop their businesses; this is not banking per se. This group guarantees the credit these women receive, rather than their husbands or families. Capacity building can also help through training and schooling. Q: Women usually have little choice when they rear children. How do we empower them? A: Childcare programs may be a way to empower women. Childcare programs don t need to be where the government actually subsidizes day-care centers, but can also be in the form of subsidizing maternity and paternity leave, or through child-care tax deductions. Q: What will be the effects of the AEC on women? A: The AEC will affect women differently. Rural-urban, indigenousmajority, poor-rich. There are still so many problems for women, particularly the poor ones in the lower parts of the labor force. What it effects will be on women on net will be difficult to analyze. Rahimah Abdulrahim Executive Director, The Habibie Center

9

10 ABOUT ASEAN STUDIES PROGRAM The ASEAN Studies Program was established on February 24, 2010, to become a center of excellence on ASEAN related issues, which can assist in the development of the ASEAN Community by The Habibie Center through its ASEAN Studies Program, alongside other institutions working towards the same goal, hopes to contribute to the realization of a more people-oriented ASEAN that puts a high value on democracy and human rights. The objective of the ASEAN Studies Program is not merely only to conduct research and discussion within academic and government circles, but also to strengthen public awareness by forming a strong network of civil society in the region that will be able to help spread the ASEAN message. With the establishment of ASEAN Studies Program, The Habibie Center aims to play its part within our capabilities to the ASEAN regional development. ABOUT TALKING ASEAN Talking ASEAN is a monthly public dialogue held at The Habibie Center in Jakarta. Covering a wide array of issues related to ASEAN, Talking ASEAN addresses topics of: Economic Integration, Socio-cultural, & Democracy, human rights and regional peace, among others. Featuring local and visiting experts, Talking ASEAN is one of a series of twelve dialogues regularly held each month and open to a target audience consisting of ASEAN officials, foreign ambassadors & diplomats, academics, university students, businesses, and the media. PROJECT SUPERVISOR: Rahimah Abdulrahim (Executive Director) & Hadi Kuntjara (Deputy Director for Operations) HEAD OF ASEAN STUDIES PROGRAM: A. Ibrahim Almuttaqi RESEARCHERS: Fina Astriana, Muhamad Arif, Askabea Fadhilla, Agustha Lumban Tobing, Hana Hanifah, Vierna Tasya Wensatama FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION: Mila Oktaviani LAYOUT & DESIGN: Rahma Simamora, Tongki Ari Wibowo ASEAN Studies Program - The Habibie Center The Habibie Center Building - Jl. Kemang Selatan No.98, Jakarta Tel: Fax: thc@habibiecenter.or.id facebook.com/habibiecenter