Women’s Economic Empowerment in the Indian Ocean Rim: Progress and Challenges

Women’s overall participation in the labour force has not changed much since 2010 with some countries seeing an increase and others seeing a decrease. Of the 22 countries, India recorded the fourth highest gender gap in labour force participation (55.16 per cent) in 2019.  Yemen and Mozambique reported the highest (65.04 per cent) and lowest (two per cent) gender gaps, respectively.

In 10 out of 13 IORA states for which data was available, women were more likely than men to be employed in informal or part-time work, which is widely low-paid. The percentages of men and women engaged in informal work exceeded 70 per cent in nine of the 13 countries, including India.

As per the report, women are also more likely to be employed in vulnerable work in 18 out of 21 IORA states which have data on this. People in vulnerable employment are less likely to receive benefits, social security or union representation.

Almost one-third of all women across the world are engaged in agriculture, including hunting, forestry and fishing. As many as 60 and 55 per cent of all working women in South Asia and Africa respectively were employed in agricultural jobs that are low paid, are labour and time intensive and have limited social security.

IORA countries record some of the largest fish production in the world. Revealing data on wages in agriculture, forestry and fisheries, the International Labour Organization (ILO) reveals that women in Bangladesh, India and Indonesia are paid some of the lowest wages in the region. This is despite the countries being the largest fish producers in the region.

Women make up 60 to 90 per cent of the workforce in food and garment production with Bangladesh, India and Indonesia as key textile and garment producers. Citing a 2015 paper from the Journal of Development Economics, the report states that increased participation of women in this sector has led to a rise in the age of marriage and first pregnancy as well as reduction in fertility rates. However, it also notes that work in this sector is often dangerous and lacks economic security.

The global gender pay gap for similar work remains at nearly 20 per cent. Of the eight IORA countries with available data, in all except Bangladesh women received less pay than men for similar work.

In 10 IORA countries with data, women perform three hours more unpaid care and domestic work than men. And in almost all countries they did overall more hours of daily work. Unpaid care remains one of the largest barriers to women entering the labour force. In 2018, 606 million working-age women reported not being able to join the workforce because of the burden of unpaid care work, compared to 41 million men.

The gender gap in education remains most prominent in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields. A higher number of men graduate in these fields compared to women in all 17 IORA countries for which data is available.

Women comprise 56 per cent of all adult individuals around the world without access to formal banking services. The International Finance Corporation based in Washington D.C. further states that 70 per cent of small and medium business owned by women lack necessary access to financial services.

The gender gap in access to financial services increased with the inclusion of more technology. The percentage of women owning mobile phones remains consistently less with as high as a 33 per cent gender gap in Bangladesh. In India as of 2017, the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojna provided a bank account to 228 million people including 170 million women. However, the report states, 48 per cent of the accounts are dormant, especially those of women in rural India with lower incomes.

Women on average occupied 25.1 per cent of management positions in IORA states. The numbers differed between countries but none reached parity. As per 2019 ILO data, Indian women occupied just around 13 per cent of management positions in the country.

The 2014 World Values Survey revealed that more than 60 per cent of the respondents in India believed that having a job was the key to women’s independence. However, the same survey revealed that more than 50 per cent of respondents believed that when jobs are scarce men should have more rights to a job.

Unpaid work and gendered violence may become the unintended consequences of women’s empowerment, the report notes. It suggests the strategy of including men in female-led empowerment activities that recognise the complete agency of a woman.

Focus and Factoids by Saismit Naik.

PARI Library’s health archive project is part of an initiative supported by the Azim Premji University to develop a free-access repository of health-related reports relevant to rural India.