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Factors facilitating access by women to economic and social life and higher qualifications
Provisional document for discussion
Page
0.Background2
1.The position of women in Mediterranean Partner Countries2
1.1Economic participation4
1.2Social and political participation7
1.3Conditions for the human development of women in the MPC9
1.4Promoting capabilities14
2.Framework factors16
2.1Patchy welfare provision17
2.2Social services and infrastructure18
2.3Women and migration19
3.Women in the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership and the ENP20
3.1Regional partnership programmes21
3.2Promoting the position of women through the ENP23
4.Setting capabilities agendas25
4.1An integrated agenda for rights, activities and structures25
4.2An integrated agenda for freeing up women's time25
4.3An integrated agenda for resources and economic activities26
4.4An integrated agenda for positive action and quotas26
5.Provisional conclusions27
6.Essential bibliography28
* * * * * *
Tables
Table 1 – Female/male activity and employment rate per sector5
Table 2 – Life expectancy and childbirth mortality9
Table 3 – Education and wage expectations11
Table 4 – Income, growth and inflation13
Table 5 – Projects funded under the Enhancing Opportunities of Women
in Economic Life programme (EOWEL)21
Table 6 - Political participation in the EU and the MPC24
0.Background
This document focuses mainly on the position of women in the Mediterranean Partner Countries (MPC) recognised as EU partners under the Barcelona Strategy and the recent development in external relations known as the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). The conceptual reference framework is the platform defined by the UN's Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995, and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a UN initiative set up to eradicate poverty and promote people-centred development. After Beijing, whose guiding methodology is to "look at the world through the eyes of women", words such as "mainstreaming" and "empowerment" entered the everyday language to describe, respectively, the need to integrate gender considerations into all policies, and the objective of meeting women's demands to participate fully in all types of development (economic, social, political, environmental etc.) and assume the formal responsibilities that this participation brings with it. Moreover, the third and fifth MDGs refer specifically to gender equality and the empowerment of women and the improvement of maternal health. These international initiatives, backed up by a wealth of statistics from UN agencies and programmes, have resulted in a set of cross-sectoral objectives that are equally applicable to developed and developing countries. Among these objectives, the integration of women in the labour market, economic life, political management and community life are priorities that no country can eschew.
Comparisons between the situations and experiences of women in Europe and MPC will only be made when it is logical to do so in order to assess, for example, the rate at which human, social and economic parameters are evolving in the two regions. In its report on "Competitiveness and social cohesion as factors in building an integrated Euro-Mediterranean area", to be presented at the Athens conference in October 2007, the Spanish ESC has made a valuable contribution towards collating information. Readers are invited to consult this invaluable document and its appended tables for all economic and social framework data.
The present study seeks to use available disaggregated data to the best possible effect, supplementing them, where necessary, with references to experiences that appear relevant.
1.The position of women in Mediterranean Partner Countries
Institutional interest in the position of women in MPC and the Arab world in general has grown significantly during the last decade. Social partner organisations and socio-occupational organisations have – since before the inception of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership in Barcelona in 1995 – taken part in field research and the implementation of network cooperation projects on understanding the overall position of women in the area and supporting its improvement. The reasons for this attention are diverse and, consequently, we will concentrate on the three reasons most frequently referred to in the relevant literature.
The first reason concerns the fact that, despite reasonable economic growth rates in MPC over the last five years, economic growth remains far below the region's real potential. This leads analysts and politicians to see women as a "reserve" of human capital that might well prove decisive in launching stronger and more stable economic growth in the area.
The second reason lies in an emerging female subjectivity in MPC whereby women, as individuals and organisations (groups, collectives and cooperatives), are carving out spaces and opportunities for themselves at home and at work, as well as in business and societal and political life. The efforts made by women in a variety of situations give rise to tension, conflict and violence and come up against new rigid religious ideologies and attitudes that impact on the human[1], social and economic development of women themselves, their rights, and ultimately (although maybe this should be our starting point) their aspirations.
The third reason concerns the direct experience common to the entire Euro-Mediterranean area of migration flows (which at first primarily involved men, but now increasingly involve women), which have altered – in objective terms – the position of women, irrespective of whether they remain in their countries, travel to rejoin their spouses, or emigrate alone to find work or to escape the hindrance or outright violation of their human rights.
The interconnections between these causes must be maintained if we are to establish an analytical base to support efforts to improve the overall position of women. However, at the same time, these interconnections almost invariably create further difficulties when it comes to implementing women's emancipation projects in the various spheres (family, school, work, business, politics, etc.).
Let us, for instance, take a look at the difficulties involved in integrating women in the labour market. Despite extremely strong growth in the female participation rate in MPC, which rose by 19% between 1990 and 2003 (compared to an overall increase of 3% in the rest of the world), MPC have the lowest (registered) female labour market participation rates in the world: women make up approximately 30% of the working population[2]. If we seek to tackle this problem by relying exclusively on "traditional" solutions such as increasing access to education and vocational training, we come up against the fact that MPC are already experiencing a substantial increase in female enrolment rates[3] and that this has not translated into a corresponding increase in the participation of women in the labour market. Needless to say, this average figure conceals a picture in which there are both areas of excellence and pockets of serious backwardness.
A further example: if the need to promote women's rights leads us to campaign for formal and unilateral legislation without also introducing the necessary implementation and monitoring tools to impact appropriately on a situation characterised by extremely diverse structures, environments, cultures, societies and development rates, we will end up by reducing these rights to the formal aspect of written law. This will help to give a country diplomatic legitimacy with other countries and international organisations, but will do nothing to satisfy the need to promote real gender equality.
For this reason, this study bases its working hypothesis on the need for different worlds to live side by side, and the possibility that they might come into conflict with each other, because it is only by asserting and accepting these sometimes anomalous contradictions and tendencies that we can identify the right priority actions, and thus the most effective ways of overcoming continuing resistance to the full realisation of women's abilities and potential. In practical terms, we will use available disaggregated data by gender, but will also interpret them flexibly in the light of experience-based qualitative and quantitative information.
In this complex framework, the attention of institutions, foundations, researchers, the social partners, socio-occupational organisations and political parties provides a body of experience, theories and trial actions that enable us to extrapolate evaluation criteria and, where appropriate, fine-tune what has already been carried out. This can be very useful for giving some order, however partial, to the ongoing debate. This study and the agenda it puts forward will adopt an approach that is as cross-sectoral as possible, in order to avoid reproducing stereotypes or formulating static or abstract objectives.
1.1Economic participation
A first distinction needs to be made: in MPC, living and working conditions, and the autonomy of women vary considerably between urban and rural areas. A second distinction must also always be borne in mind,between formal labour, informal labour and labour that is not even recognised. Whereas in urban areas, the issue of equality is becoming increasingly apparent (especially with regard to contractual conditions and pay), in rural areas the work of women is virtually invisible since it takes place in the informal labour market and the family. This has a variety of consequences because the infrastructural, cultural and social frameworks of the two contexts are quite different. Women's work in the urban economy is immediately identifiable as it generates income and, hence, social and national wealth. This gives women's activities intrinsic value even if their wages are then entirely absorbed into their family's economy. By contrast, rural labour (be it formal or informal, recognised or not) is carried out for the sole purpose of supporting the family. As such, it is more subject to social and cultural conditioning and its qualitative development is slower and does little to foster the autonomy of women. In the debate generated by the Beijing conference, one demand remains pending and has yet to be structured: unrecognised work and so-called "family care work", which often includes family farm work, are entirely excluded from data, and should be factored into GDP figures. This means devising instruments for identifying and quantifying this type of work. A minute analysis of the links between women and productive activity is set out in the 2006 Femise Report[4], which also broaches the issue of how to evaluate women's overall contribution to development by creating econometric instruments for considering the various types of activities. The difficulties involved in gathering statisticseven for formal labour, make the idea of creating instruments for analysing informal and unrecognised labour seem impossible. Nevertheless, it is a social and political priority we should all support.
Table 1 – Female/male activity and employment rate per sector
Activity rate / AgricultureEmployed / Industry
Employed / Tertiary sector
Employed
Women / Women as a %of men / Women
% / Men
% / Women
% / Men
% / Women
% / Men
%
(2004) / 1995-2003average / 1995-2003average / 1995-2003average
Algeria / 34.8 / 44.0 / … / … / …
Egypt / 20.1 / 28.0 / 39 / 27 / 7 / 25 / 54 / 48
Jordan / 27.0 / 35.0 / … / … / …
Lebanon / 31.7 / 40.0 / … / … / …
Libya / 30.8 / 39.0 / … / … / …
Morocco / 26.7 / 33.0 / 6 / 6 / 40 / 32 / 54 / 63
Syria / 38.0 / 44.0 / … / … / …
Palestinian Territories / 10.3 / 15.0 / 26 / 9 / 11 / 32 / 62 / 58
Tunisia / 27.9 / 37.0 / … / … / …
Austria / 49.3 / 75.0 / 6.0 / 5.0 / 14.0 / 43.0 / 80.0 / 52.0
Belgium / 43.4 / 72.0 / 1.0 / 3.0 / 10.0 / 36.0 / 82.0 / 58.0
Bulgaria / 41.9 / 79.0 / -- / -- / -- / -- / -- / --
Cyprus / 53.0 / 74.0 / 4.0 / 5.0 / 13.31 / 31.0 / 83.0 / 58.0
Czech (Rep) / 51.7 / 76.0 / 3.0 / 6.0 / 28.0 / 50.0 / 68.0 / 44.0
Denmark / 59.4 / 84.0 / 2.0 / 5.0 / 14.0 / 36.0 / 86.0 / 14.0
Estonia / 52.2 / 80.0 / 4.0 / 10.0 / 23.0 / 42.0 / 73.0 / 48.0
Finland / 56.9 / 86.0 / 4.0 / 7.0 / 14.0 / 40.0 / 82.0 / 53.0
France / 48.2 / 79.0 / 1.0 / 2.0 / 13.0 / 34.0 / 86.0 / 64.0
Germany / 50.4 / 76.0 / 2.0 / 3.0 / 18.0 / 44.0 / 80.0 / 52.0
Greece / 42.7 / 66.0 / 18.0 / 15.0 / 12.0 / 30.0 / 70.0 / 56.0
Ireland / 51.9 / 72.0 / 2.0 / 11.0 / 14.0 / 39.0 / 83.0 / 50.0
Italy / 37.0 / 61.0 / 5.0 / 6.0 / 20.0 / 39.0 / 75.0 / 55.0
Luxembourg / 44.1 / 68.0 / -- / -- / -- / -- / -- / --
Latvia / 49.1 / 77.0 / 12.0 / 18.0 / 16.0 / 35.0 / 72.0 / 47.0
Lithuania / 51.8 / 81.0 / 12.0 / 20.0 / 21.0 / 34.0 / 67.0 / 45.0
Malta / 32.5 / 47.0 / 1.0 / 3.0 / 21.0 / 36.0 / 78.0 / 61.0
Netherlands / 55.8 / 76.0 / 2.0 / 4.0 / 9.0 / 31.0 / 86.0 / 64.0
Poland / 47.9 / 78.0 / 19.0 / 19.0 / 18.0 / 40.0 / 63.0 / 40.0
Portugal / 55.2 / 79.0 / 14.0 / 12.0 / 23.0 / 44.0 / 63.0 / 44.0
United Kingdom / 55.0 / 79.0 / 1.0 / 2.0 / 11.0 / 36.0 / 88.0 / 62.0
Romania / 50.7 / 80.0 / 45.0 / 40.0 / 22.0 / 30.0 / 33.0 / 30.0
Slovenia / 53.4 / 80.0 / 10.0 / 10.0 / 29.0 / 46.0 / 61.0 / 43.0
Slovakia / 51.9 / 76.0 / 4.0 / 8.0 / 26.0 / 48.0 / 71.0 / 44.0
Spain / 44.2 / 65.0 / 5.0 / 8.0 / 15.0 / 42.0 / 81.0 / 51.0
Sweden / 58.8 / 87.0 / 1.0 / 3.0 / 11.0 / 36.0 / 88.0 / 61.0
Hungary / 42.1 / 73.0 / 4.0 / 9.0 / 26.0 / 42.0 / 71.0 / 49.0
Source: HDR 2006
The relatively high percentage of women in comparison to men working in the tertiary sector is noteworthy. In this sector, the difference shrinks from an average (for all sectors) of 30 to 44%, to percentages that fluctuate between 48 and 63% (at least according to available data). This is due both to the tertiarisation of MPC economies, where jobs are being created mainly in the services sector, and to the fact that women have high levels of education that predispose them to taking on this type of work.
The UNDP Arab Human Development Report 2005 (AHDR)[5] - aptly entitled "Towards the Rise of Women in the Arab World" - follows a set template that uses the Human Development Index (HDI) ranking as its reference base. The basic indicators of the HDI are life expectancy, school enrolment rates and income. Whereas the Beijing Platform and the Millennium Development Goals stress the central importance of female participation in the economy, the AHDR gives relatively little attention to this issue because it focuses more on developing capabilities as an indispensable prerequisite – but one which, to a large extent, has still to be realised - for female participation and overall development (see point 1.4).
Explaining low labour-market participation and economic-activity rates by using indicators such as insufficient training, low employability, and the burden of managing a family constitutes the mechanical transposal of criteria used to analyse experiences in Europe or advanced capitalist countries and produces contrasting, and not always useful, results. As can be seen (footnote 3 and Table 3 hereunder), school enrolment rates in MPC are high and should therefore provide a strong foundation for any vocational training initiative. In the Central and Eastern European countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 2007, for example, high standards of school education brought returns in terms of social competitiveness, boosting employability and aiding the reintegration of women who had been excluded from the labour market (more so than men) during the transition to a market economy.
Another not very constructive approach consists in assuming that lowering the fertility rate and raising the marriage age among young people in MPC will result in an increase in economic participation rates[6]. This theory, too, is contradicted by medium-term data. In the last twenty years, the fertility rate in MPC has generally dropped by four children per woman[7], and although still higher than the European average, it now stands at three children per woman. Although the most logical conclusion may appear to be that a lower fertility rate may contribute to an increase in labour market participation, experience shows - as is also pointed out in the AHDR – that women of childbearing age nevertheless continue to meet with strong resistance when trying to find stable remunerated employment, partly because, in some countries, their specific rights and measures safeguarding pregnancy and maternity rights are not very developed.
The reasons for low female economic activity and labour market participation rates in MPC are thus not due to low supply and quality of female labour, but rather to legal, cultural and social factors that still impact strongly on the development of female entrepreneurialism as well as the matching of supply and demand for female labour. With regard to the entrepreneurialism of women and the challenges to its development, the reader is referred to the EESC contribution (rapporteur: Ms Attard), the abovementioned Femise Report, and theEuroMeSCo Report drawn up for the Commission (2006 Rabat conference, in preparation for the ministerial conference held in Istanbul[8]). The Commission report on the implementation of the Euro-Mediterranean Charter for Enterprise (2006) also stresses the need to promote the role of women and women's entrepreneurial networks through appropriate positive action.
The AHDR also appears to draw the same conclusion when it includes among the factors restricting participation in economic life, the prevalently male-oriented culture, pronounced wage discrimination, lack of services, and laws to "protect" women which actually prevent their emancipation.
1.2Social and political participation
Women are the virtually invisible pillars upholding the family, which remains the core nucleus of MPC society. Their autonomy rarely extends beyond the walls of the family home because in the dominant culture the man is still the main earner, decision-maker and authority figure. Nevertheless, women put this "monitored independence" to creative and inventive use, especially in rural areas, and it is of significant social value. Family relations among women in the extended family, neighbourhood, farm or craft work, and trade in goods not consumed directly by the family lead women to establish contacts, and almost unfailingly, cooperation with each other. However, this all happens informally, without recognition, protection, rights or support structures.
A first course of action should be to involve more women in civil society organisations and those of the social partners in particular, and to encourage (not hindering might actually be enough ...) them to take on responsibilities in trade unions, non-governmental organisations, and citizen councils. In situations where this is taking place[9], results have been remarkable:women use a new type of language,and look for practical ways of solving problems rather than just theorising. They are oblivious to the rhetoric and ideology of their male colleagues and thus fall outside all categories – even European – of formal representation, invariably proposing extremely wise objectives. However, there is some resistance to accepting women even among social partner organisations (this also happens in Europe, although to a lesser degree and for different reasons), probably because the role and activities of employee and employer organisations bring them into constant contact with political circles and institutions, where men grossly outnumber women.
Some studies attribute difficulties relating to the formal social participation of women to the democratic deficit in certain countries. But here too there is a hidden paradox. The AHDR stresses that, in some cases, it is actually autocratic regimes that promote the inclusion of women in the leadership structures of civil society organisations. However, their intention is not to promote women and their "rise", but rather to win wider acceptance for their policies in society and from their foreign partners. Indeed, the ideology and behaviour of these women are kept under relentless scrutiny. The paradox of promoting women – who are often restricted to dealing with other women – precisely because they are unable to play an independent role, leads to the conclusion that in some situations formal democratic participation may actually lead to a substantial deterioration in democracy itself, as well as thwarting the human, social and economic potential of women.
This reasoning about women's formal social role - mutatis mutandis – also applies to their political participation[10], an objective that involves adopting support measures for women's civil and political rights but is not an end in itself. The democratic growth of all societies relies on women's capabilities also being brought into play in the political arena so that the promotion of female participation in economic life can be more effective and improve.