Working women could be answer to economic woes in Asia

Working women could be answer to economic woes in Asia

Jennifer Chen, Reuters, Singapore

Singapore's economic planners should be happy to know that Prapaporn Rojanarowan is contemplating returning to the city- state's workforce after spending nearly 2 + years at home taking care of her children.

"I chose to take the time off to take care of my kids. But when my son is older, I'll be ready to go back to work," said the mother of two one afternoon, while her three-year-old daughter angled for her attention.

And if more women follow Prapaporn, a Thai native with a degree in electrical engineering, Asian countries looking to boost domestic consumption in order to wean themselves off export-dependent growth could start seeing results, analysts say.

That's because getting more women to work gives consumption a kick-start. It also boosts potential economic growth because unpaid work at home isn't counted in a country's gross domestic product, and leads to other flow-on economic benefits.

A housewife who trades in her apron for a briefcase, hires a cleaner and orders take-out for dinner, contributes to the economy not only through her work and income, but also through the money she spends on the cleaner and the take-out food.

"If you follow the cliche that women make up 50 percent of the population here, then of course your economy will grow as more women join the formal and informal economies... And what does the region have but population?" said Shireen Lateef, a strategist at the Asian Development Bank in Manila who specializes in gender issues.

Besides fueling consumption, there are many other positives from women working, said Ian Chambers, the director for East Asian branch of the International Labor Organization in Bangkok.

Among the biggest were that more working women meant more entrepreneurs -- and Chambers said studies showed female entrepreneurs tend to be more tenacious and successful.

But in a region where some countries grapple with high mortality rates for infant girls and sex discrimination in the workplace is the norm, it's pretty unlikely that women in Asia will soon be joining the workforce in droves.

A report by U.S. consultancy group McKinsey & Co. in January showed South Korea, one of Asia's most developed countries, had the lowest percentage of college-educated women in the workforce among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, based on a 1998 survey.

Only 54 percent of college-educated women in South Korea between the ages of 24 and 64 work, compared with 92 percent in Sweden, 82 percent in the U.S., and 76 percent in Turkey.

"That's not surprising given that in Korea, women are expected to marry, have children, and then stay at home to raise their children," said Clifford Tan, an economist at Salomon Smith Barney in Singapore and author of a recent report about the ways that Asia could increase its domestic consumption.

And South Korea isn't alone. According to the McKinsey report, 98 percent of college-educated men in Japan work compared with 68 percent of women. In the Philippines, it's 83 percent of college- educated men and 47 percent of women.

It can also be difficult to gather information on just how many women are working, especially in less developed countries.

"It's hard to get accurate statistics because in somewhere like Indonesia you might have a farmer with a wife who works at home and later goes out into the field to work with him," said Lorraine Corner, the economic adviser in Asia for the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in Bangkok.

"And it's also contingent on cultural factors, whether it's acceptable for women to work. In these surveys, it's usually the head of the household who is asked, and that's usually a man who may or may not want to say his wife or other females in his household are working."

Experts also say women bore the brunt of the layoffs during the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, and probably again during the economic slowdown which started last year.

"There's the sense among many employers and even many government policymakers that the man is the breadwinner for the family rather than the woman," said the ILO's Chambers.

"So given these traditional ideas of the roles men and women play, the sense is, too, that the woman has a context to go back to, outside of the formal economy. And therefore, it's less socially disruptive to lay her off than the man."

Finally, experts say by far the biggest stumbling block is the lack of investment in education for girls, from the primary school level all the way up to university.

Figures from the World Bank show that while literacy rates are improving among women in East Asia, they still lag behind men. As of 2000, the illiteracy rate for adult females above 15 was at 20.8 percent while for men it stood at 8.0 percent.

Experts call the lack of investment in girl's education and training short-sighted given the benefits of educated women in the workforce. The ADB's Lateef says women with more education also tend to have less children.

For example, ADB and World Bank data show that Indonesia, which spent only 1.30 percent of it gross domestic product on education in 1999, has a relatively high net birth rate of 2.6 births per woman. On the other hand, Thailand spent 4.74 percent of its GDP on education in 1999, and has a birth rate of 1.9.

Despite all these obstacles, the outlook for women seeking employment is brightening.

"I guess the single descriptive word would be growing. The participation rates in all the Asian countries has been rising," said Chambers.

While trying to change Asian attitudes towards women is a long process, experts say it is happening, helped by cheap loans that compel investment in education and training for women.

There is also a growing recognition among families in countries such as Thailand and the Philippines that women, especially those who work overseas, are more likely to send money home -- and therefore investing in their education could pay off.

Indeed, Prapaporn notes that she's quite unusual among her friends back in Thailand.

"I'm probably the first or second to have started a family. Most of my friends are still working because they think this is their time to have fun and be independent."