an Eldis Resource
Feminised recession: impact of the global financial crisis on women workers in the Philippines
The economic crisis and Filipino women's rights
Authors:
K. Gaerlan; M. Cabrera; P. Samia; L. Santoalla (ed)
Publisher:
Oxfam, 2010
In the Philippines, the financial crisis has been particularly hard on the low income classes to which many unskilled, mainly women workers in the semiconductor and electronics, and textile and garment industries belong. Their loss of primary income sources has translated to a heightening of poverty and hunger.The goal of this research is to find out the specific impact of the global economic crisis on Filipino women workers.
The main findings of the paper are:
- women are over-represented in sectors where the crisis has caused huge job cuts
- women tend to be employed in precarious jobs where they are more likely to be fired first or experience aggravated working conditions
- women tend to be responsible for family welfare and so will be adversely affected by the crisis
- help from the informal economy and from the extended family remains a reliable source of material support during times of crises; yet, it is not sufficient
- there is a need for policy changes to make existing poverty-mitigation programmes more effective
- there is also a need to address the issue of abuses of women’s economic and political rights that are being perpetrated in the name of business survival
The authors makes the following recommendations:
- develop and implement the proposed bailout plan that will put money into the hands of retrenched, laid-off, and otherwise jobless workers to allow them to address immediate family and economic needs
- conduct a policy to stipulate the maintenance of public budgets for social spending to ensure employment security
- protect the rights of migrant workers in the event of job losses, ensuring their safe return to, and reintegration in, their home country
- review government programs that train overseas female workers and members of their families in finance and business management skills
- institutionalise standards for the valuation of women’s labour in the informal economy
- ensure considering the provisions of protecting the political, economic, human, and gender rights of women, particularly those in the workplace
