Women’s empowerment gains must be protected
18 Mar 2009
Bangkok (UN Information Services) – Though women have contributed significantly to the Asia-Pacific region’s economy, they have born a larger brunt of the economic downturn with unemployment and underemployment rising. As a result, it is crucial to protect the gains made in empowering women and to include a stronger focus on gender investment in any planned response to the economic crisis.
These were among the key messages heard at the UN celebration of International Women’s Day in
The event took place on 9 March at the United Nations Conference Center in
Globalization has lead to greater female employment in both formal settings as well as informal settings such as street vending and home garment production. “Women have in fact emerged as the flexible labour force par excellence for highly competitive labour intensive sectors of the global economy”, said Dr. Noeleen Heyzer, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of ESCAP. “They are now embedded in the global supply chain. Yet flexible labour is insecure labour: low-skilled, temporary and casual.”
Dr. Heyzer noted that among the hardest hit by the current economic crisis are the trade, manufacturing and services sectors, which are female dominated. Unskilled women migrant workers are particularly affected, with reports in the region indicating that women constitute the majority of migrants returning to their country of origin due to job loss.
Source:ESCAP
