Transcript Integrating a gender perspective into work statistics Workshop on Integrating a Gender Perspective into National Statistics, Kampala, Uganda 4 - 7 December 2012 Ionica Berevoescu Consultant United.

Integrating a gender perspective
into work statistics
Workshop on Integrating a Gender Perspective into
National Statistics,
Kampala, Uganda 4 - 7 December 2012
Ionica Berevoescu
Consultant
United Nations Statistics Division
Focus of the presentation
Three strategies for improving gender statistics in work:
•
•
•
Improve the coverage of gender issues related to work, by
extending data collection from labour force participation,
employment, and unemployment, to employment conditions,
family-work balance, and child work
Improve the understanding of gender differences in work by
producing more disaggregated gender statistics
Improve the quality of gender statistics and statistics in general by
taking into account gender-related conceptual and measurement
issues:
–
Definitions and measurement methods should cover and
adequately describe all workers and work situations in
sufficient detail to allow relevant gender comparisons to be
made (ILO, International guidelines for mainstreaming gender
in labour statistics, 2003)
Four topics
I.
Labour force participation
II.
Employment conditions
III. Reconciliation of work and family life
IV. Child work
I. Labour force participation
Statistics on labour force participation, employment and unemployment provide
a basic picture of the labour force.
From a gender perspective, important to focus on comparative levels and trends
for women and men, from a life cycle perspective.
Main sources of data: labour force surveys (or labour force modules), population
censuses, establishment censuses or surveys, administrative records.
Gender-related conceptual and measurement issues
(labour force participation, employment and unemployment)
1.
Participation of women in work activities and their
contribution to the economy tends to be underestimated
because not all forms of work are covered by conventional
labour force statistics.
•
Conventional labour statistics currently limited to activities which
contribute to the production of goods and services as defined by the
SNA (system of national accounts)
•
Own account production of services, mostly carried out by women,
are not covered. Examples of such activities: cleaning; small repairs;
preparing and serving meals; caring for and instructing children;
caring for other persons in the household; some types of volunteer
services.
•
The necessary additional statistics should be produced based on time
use surveys or modules.
Gender-related conceptual and measurement issues
(labour force participation, employment and unemployment)
Women’s participation in labour force and employment may be
more often underreported.
2.
•
Due to incomplete measurement of all forms of work implied by the definition
of the labour force and SNA production boundary.
•
Production of goods by households for own final use (included in the SNA
general production boundary) difficult to separate from own account
production of services (non-SNA).
•
Gender-based stereotypes of women regarded as a housewife in charge
of domestic work may lead to underreporting
•
To prevent underreporting, include in the questionnaire follow-up
questions and list of activities likely to be underreported, and emphasize
the issue during training of interviewers
•
Coverage of women’s activities may depend on reference period, because
women more often found than men in seasonal and intermittent economic
activities
•
•
Repeat the measure of labour force and employment several times a year; or
base your data collection on a longer reference period (12 months).
Underreporting of women in employment when using establishment-based
surveys (tend to focus on regular employees; tend to exclude from the sample
small enterprises where women may be more often found).
Gender-related conceptual and measurement issues
(labour force participation, employment and unemployment)
Women’s unemployment may be more likely to be
underreported. (3 criteria in identifying unemployed: “without work”,
3.
“currently available for work”, “seeking work”)
•
Women may be perceived or they may define themselves as not
seeking work, because formal channels are used less in their search;
•
Women are more likely to be “discouraged workers” or “seasonal
workers” waiting for the busy season.
•
•
These categories would be considered “unemployed” only if a relaxed
criterion of “seeking work” is used in the definition of unemployment.
When using administrative sources to collect data on unemployment,
unemployed population is reduced to those receiving benefits or
registered in the office for job seeking, therefore women may be more
likely to be excluded.
II. Employment conditions
- Employment conditions are usually revealed by statistics on: occupation, status
in employment, industry, informal employment, number of hours worked and
underemployment, and wages or earnings.
- Gender issues: women and men do different types of work, have different
opportunities for career advancement, and different earnings.
- From a gender perspective, important to produce data that would help
understand issues such as gender segregation in occupation, or gender pay gap.
One strategy: production of data that are further disaggregated by age,
educational attainment, years of seniority in employment, and family
characteristics.
- Main sources of data: labour force survey, population censuses, surveys of
informal sector and informal employment (or modules on informal employment),
establishment censuses or surveys, and administrative records.
Gender-related conceptual and measurement issues
(employment conditions)
1.
Occupation and status in employment are often not recorded with
enough detail.
•
Differences in forms of work carried out by women and men and
specific employment conditions can be assessed properly only when
occupation and status in employment are measured in detail.
•
Data on occupation should be obtained not only for major groups, but also
for sub-major groups, minor and unit groups. Those details should not be
compacted into major occupations groups by coding or processing data.
•
Data on status in employment should be collected and disseminated
separately for employees and each of the four categories of selfemployment: employers, own account workers, contributing family
workers and members of producers’ cooperatives, as these
categories have different economic risks.
•
Other sub-categories of status in employment, recommended by ILO,
may be relevant for some countries and from a gender perspective:
•
•
“owner-managers” and “employees with stable contract”
“casual workers”, “seasonal workers”, “subsistence workers”
Gender-related conceptual and measurement issues
(employment conditions)
2.
Misclassification in status in employment categories.
•
Example: women who work in association and on an equal
footing with their husbands in a family enterprise, should be
classified in the same status in employment category as their
husbands, either “own account workers” or “employers”.
However, in practice, the woman may be classified as
“contributing family worker”.
•
Caution when deciding the status in employment for a person
with two or more jobs during the reference period which may
be more relevant for one of the sexes. Status in employment
can refer to only one job, either where she/he worked the
longest hours, or provided the highest income from
employment.
III. Reconciliation of work and family life
Gender issue: Women and men have
different family constraints in participating
on the labour market, as women are the
primary caretakers of their families
Data
-Time use by type of activity, sex, age and
employment status
-Total employment and employment in
flexible working arrangements.
-Availability of formal childcare services
and enrolment in pre-primary education
Contextual information
- Length and related benefits of maternity
and paternity leave
Reconciliation of work and family life
Also important from a gender perspective:
- Dissemination of data on labour force participation and employment crosstabulated
by various indicators of family constraints, such as presence of children, older persons,
or disabled.
- Presentation of some of the data obtained at couple/family level (see example below)
Sources of data
•
Time use surveys
•
•
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Provide data on time use allocation along with contextual information
necessary to distinguish between paid and various types of unpaid
activities, as well as background information on individual and household
characteristics
May be based on diaries or stylized analogue questionnaire focused on a
given list of activities.
Modules on time use
•
•
•
May be attached to labour force surveys, living conditions surveys or
other multi-purpose survey
Most often in the form of stylized analogue questionnaire
Labour force surveys or multi-purpose surveys
•
•
•
May contain a module focused on work-family balance, collecting, at the
same time, information related to the type of job and information related to
that person’s family and household.
In terms of job, in addition to employment and status in employment,
information collected may refer to hours worked, schedule of work and
place of work.
Individual and household-related characteristics of interest are: marital
status, employment status of the partner, presence in the household of
pre-school children or other dependants in need for care, availability of
child services
Gender-related conceptual and measurement issues
(reconciliation of work and family life)
•
Time use statistics should allow for measurement of unpaid
housework for women and men, and distinguish between:
–
–
–
•
•
Unpaid activities that are beyond the operational production boundary
of the SNA and not covered by conventional labour force statistics
Unremunerated work activities within the operational production
boundary of the SNA and normally covered by conventional labour
force statistics
Paid work activities within the boundary of SNA
The separation between these activities is possible only when
additional contextual information is collected in the time use survey
(whether the activities were paid/unpaid; and for whom the work was
performed).
Specific types of activities, often related to unpaid work and
performed by women, can be identified only when simultaneous
activities are all recorded.
IV. Child work
Gender issue: Similar to their
adult counterparts, girls and
boys are involved in different
types of work. Girls more
likely to do unpaid domestic
work, boys more likely to be in
paid employment and child
labour.
Child work (cont)
• Child work covers all forms of work, paid and unpaid, and include
both child labour (defined as worst forms of work, work below
minimum age, and work in hazardous conditions) and housework
activities
• Data: children in employment; children working in worst forms of
work; children engaged in housework; number of hours worked.
• Important from a gender perspective: understanding some causes
and consequences of child work
– disaggregate gender statistics in child work by poverty status or wealth
categories;
– disaggregate school attendance by labour force participation status or
number of hours worked.
• Sources of data: child labour surveys; DHS and MICS; labour force
surveys; some establishment surveys
Exercise:
• For the most recent data collection exercise conducted
in your country (e.g., specific census or survey) that
collected work statistics & had a final report:
• What work-related topics were covered in the
questionnaire?
• What methods for reducing underreporting of work
activities were used?
• What topics were covered from a gender perspective in
the report and how? Give 2-3 examples.