Mindset change needed to achieve gender equality in labour market: ILO

Female workers at a garment factory (Photo: VNA)

A new research brief shows that the COVID-19 pandemic has not only exacerbated existing inequalities but also created new gender gaps, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Vietnam has said, calling for a change in the mindset of not only every man but also every woman to influence their economic behaviour and achieve gender equality in the labour market.

Double burden

ILO Vietnam recently released a new research brief titled “Gender and the labour market in Vietnam: An analysis based on the Labour Force Survey”.

It pointed out that with remarkably high labour market participation rate, women in Vietnam face multiple and persistent labour market inequalities, and carry a disproportionate double burden of work and family responsibilities.

More than 70 percent of Vietnam’s working-age women are in the labour force, compared to the global level of 47.2 percent and the average of 43.9 percent in Asia and the Pacific.

While the gender gap in labour force participation is narrower in Vietnam than in the world, it has still stood at 9.5 percentage points (men’s rate higher than women’s) over the last decade.

Uneven distribution of family responsibilities in the Vietnamese society could be the reason behind, the brief said, noting that nearly half of the women who were not economically active in the 2018 Labour Force Survey had made this choice because of “personal or family-related reasons”, compared to only 18.9 percent of inactive men.

“Before the COVID-19 pandemic, both women and men had a relatively easy access to jobs, but the quality of such jobs was on average lower among women than among men," according to Valentina Barcucci, ILO Vietnam Labour Economist and lead author of the research.

Female workers were overrepresented in vulnerable employment, particularly in contributing family work. They earned less than men (by 13.7 percent on monthly wages in 2019), despite comparable working hours and the progressive elimination of gender gaps in educational attainment.

Women were also underrepresented in decision-making jobs. They accounted for nearly half of the labour force, but less than one-fourth of overall management roles.

“Again the gap women face in job quality and career development stems from the double burden they carry,” said Barcucci. “They spend twice as many hours on household work than men.”

The research also revealed that women spent an average of 20.2 hours per week cleaning the house, washing clothes, cooking and shopping for the family, family care and childcare, whereas men spent only 10.7 hours. Close to one-fifth of men did not spend any time on these activities at all.

New gender gaps

Women faced the most severe losses in working hours last year, according to the ILO (Illustrative photo: VNA)

The research showed that as a result of the pandemic, total working hours dropped significantly in the second quarter of 2020, and recovered through the second half of the year. Women faced the most severe losses.

The total weekly hours worked by women in the second quarter of 2020 were only 88.8 percent of the total for the fourth quarter of 2019, compared to 91.2 percent for men.

However, women’s working hours recovered faster. In the last three months of 2020, women worked 0.8 percent more hours than in the same period of 2019, whereas men worked 0.6 percent more.

“Those employed women who worked longer hours than usual in the second half of 2020 possibly wanted to make up for the income losses in the second quarter,” Barcucci said, adding that such additional hours made the double burden heavier to carry, as the time spent by women on household chores remained disproportionately high.

The impact of COVID-19 on Vietnam’s labour market has not only widened existing inequalities, but also created new ones. Before the pandemic, there was no difference between male and female unemployment rate, but a gap appeared from the third quarter of 2020.

“Gender inequality in the labour market is traced back to the traditional roles that women are expected to play, supported by the social norms,” said ILO Vietnam Director Chang-Hee Lee.

“While at the policy level, the 2019 Labour Code has opened opportunities to close such gender gaps, for example in retirement age or removing the ban on female employment in certain occupations, a much more difficult task still awaits Vietnam. That is changing the mindsets of the Vietnamese men and women themselves which will in turn influence their behaviours in the labour market,” he went on./.