Restructuring of labor markets in the Philippines and Zambia: The gender dimension

Journal of Developing Areas

Volumn 33, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 73-98

  Floro, Maria Sagrario ^a   Schaefer, Kendall ^a  

^a AMERICAN UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

GENDER RELATIONS; INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON; LABOR PARTICIPATION; WOMENS STATUS;

AFRICA; AFRICA SOUTH OF THE SAHARA; ARTICLE; ASIA; CRITIQUE; DEVELOPING COUNTRY; EASTERN AFRICA; ECONOMIC CONDITIONS; ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT; ECONOMIC FACTORS; ECONOMIC RECESSION; ECONOMICS; EMPLOYMENT; ENGLISH SPEAKING AFRICA; EVALUATION; FEMALE; GENDER ISSUES; HEALTH CARE MANPOWER; HUMAN RELATION; HUMAN RESOURCES; LABOR FORCE; MACROECONOMIC FACTORS; PHILIPPINES; SOUTHEAST ASIA; SOUTHEASTERN ASIA; WOMEN IN DEVELOPMENT; ZAMBIA;

AFRICA; AFRICA SOUTH OF THE SAHARA; ASIA; CRITIQUE; DEVELOPING COUNTRIES; EASTERN AFRICA; ECONOMIC CONDITIONS; ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT; ECONOMIC FACTORS; ECONOMIC RECESSION; ENGLISH SPEAKING AFRICA; GENDER ISSUES; HUMAN RESOURCES; LABOR FORCE; MACROECONOMIC FACTORS; PHILIPPINES; SOUTHEASTERN ASIA; WOMEN IN DEVELOPMENT; ZAMBIA;

AFRICA; AFRICA SOUTH OF THE SAHARA; AFRICA, EASTERN; ASIA; ASIA, SOUTHEASTERN; DEVELOPING COUNTRIES; ECONOMICS; EMPLOYMENT; EVALUATION STUDIES; HEALTH MANPOWER; INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS; PHILIPPINES; WOMEN; ZAMBIA;

PHILIPPINES; ZAMBIA;

EID: 0342676261     PISSN: 0022037X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (104)

1. See World Bank, Labor and the Growth Crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa (Washington, DC: World Bank, 1995).
2. See World Bank, Gender Issues in World Bank Lending (Washington, DC: World Bank, 1995).
3. In Zambia and the Philippines, the World Bank undertook in the early 1990s a Women in Development (WID) assessment, community surveys, and research in intrahousehold decision making in the urban areas (Caroline Moser, "Poverty and Vulnerability in Chawama, Lusaka, Zambia," Final Draft [Urban Development Division, World Bank, Washington, DC, 1994];
4. Caroline Moser, idem, Household Responses to Poverty and Vulnerability, vol. 3: Confronting Crisis in Commonwealth, Metro Manila, Philippines [Washington, DC: World Bank, 1997]).
5. See World Bank, "Towards Gender Equality: The Role of Public Policy" (Education and Social Policy Department, World Bank, Washington, DC, 1995).
6. Those that involved formal wage labor market-related programs were primarily done for the regions of Europe and Central Asia (ECA) and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).
7. See World Bank, World Tables (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press for the World Bank, 1995);
8. idem. Gender Issues in World Bank Lending.
9. In recent years, under the leadership of President James Wolfensohn, the World Bank has broadened its set of gender-based initiatives, including the introduction of Gender Action Plans for each region and the creation of a Gender Sector Board.
10. See World Bank, "Advancing Gender Equality: From Concepts to Action" (Gender Analysis and Policy Division, Poverty and Social Policy Department, World Bank, Washington, DC, 1995).
11. Both the Philippines and Zambia have recently experienced very rapid urban growth in the last three decades. Nonetheless, agriculture remains the primary source of livelihood for about three-fourths of the Zambian population and more than a third of the population in the Philippines. See Beatrice Kalinda and Maria Floro, "Zambia in the 1980's: A Review of National and Urban Level Economic Reforms," Working Paper (Urban Development Division, World Bank, Washington, DC, 1992);
12. and Orville Solon and Maria Floro, "The Philippines in the 1980's: A Review of National and Urban Level Economic Reforms," Working Paper (Urban Development Division, World Bank, Washington, DC, 1993), for a more thorough discussion of the economic structures of the two countries and their pattern of sectoral growth over the last two decades.
13. For a discussion of the economic reforms implemented under the Structural Adjustment Programs, see Solon and Floro, "Philippines in the 1980's ";
14. and Kalinda and Floro, "Zambia in the 1980's."
15. The early 1980s in Zambia were characterized by no real growth in gross domestic product (GDP), declining consumption per capita, and a sixfold rise in inflation. By 1987, maize prices had risen so substantially that riots broke out and the government was forced to restore subsidization. At that time, liberalization policies were abandoned, and the government initiated its own reform program that included lowering interest rates and establishing a debt payment cap. These reforms failed, however, largely as a result of the suspension of foreign credit, and the government resumed negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 1988 (Kalinda and Floro, "Zambia in the 1980's").
16. See World Bank, World Tables 1995.
17. See Caleb Fundaga, "Interest Rate Policy in Zambia," Southern Africa Political and Economic Monthly (Harare), July 1988, p. 10.
18. A study by William J. House, "Priorities for Urban Labor Market Research in Anglophone Africa," Journal of Developing Areas 27 (October 1992): 49-68, discusses the rapid growth of informal-sector activity across Anglophone Africa. The author states that the growth of urban wage employment in this region has fallen and has forced increased reliance on informal-sector activity.
19. See Robin Broad, Unequal Alliance: The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the Philippines (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988).
20. James Boyce, "The Political Economy of External Indebtedness: A Case Study of the Philippines," Monograph Series No. 12 (Philippine Institute for Development Studies, Metro Manila, Philippines, 1990).
21. See Joseph Lim, Philippine Macroeconomic Developments 1970-1993 (Quezon City, Philippines: Philippine Center for Policy Studies, University of the Philippines, 1995).
22. See Joseph Lim, "Structural Shifts in Key Macro Parameters: Implications on the Sustainability of Growth," in Towards Sustained Growth, ed. Raul Fabella and Hideyoshi Sakai (Tokyo: Institute of Developing Economies, 1995), pp. 1-32;
23. and Lim, Philippine Macroeconomic Developments 1970-1993.
24. The economic recovery of the Philippines has been attributed to several factors including expansion of domestic consumption fueled by an increase in real wages and low inflation as well as by steady government spending. See Solon and Floro, "Philippines in the 1980's";
25. Lim, Philippine Macroeconomic Developments 1970-1993;
26. and Emmanuel Esguerra, "Employment, Competitiveness, and Growth: 1980-94," in Towards Sustained Growth, ed. Fabella and Sakai, pp. 193-222.
27. See Joseph Lim, "Employment Effect of Globalization and the East Asian Crisis on Women: The Philippine Case," Working Paper (School of Economics, University of the Philippines, Quezon City, Philippines, 1998);
28. and Esguerra, "Employment, Competitiveness, and Growth: 1980-94."
29. See Lim, "Employment Effect of Globalization."
30. See Esguerra, "Employment, Competitiveness, and Growth: 1980-94."
31. The deterioration in real purchasing power is revealed through the increase in the consumer price index (CPI) by 153 percent from 1980 to 1985 and by 1,522 percent from 1985 to 1990. Though nominal salaries also rose, their increase was well below that of the CPI, indicating a significant erosion of real income. Several government subsidization programs were attempted in order to restrain the rise in living costs, but these have all since been abandoned. Such programs included the 1987-88 urban consumer subsidy, the 1989-91 maize meal subsidy coupon scheme, and the 85 percent basic wage and salary adjustment of 1990 (Kalinda and Floro, "Zambia in the 1980's," p. 29).
32. See Kalinda and Floro, "Zambia in the 1980's," p. 29). ibid.
33. Over 60 percent of those in extreme poverty reported engaging in piecework as a central survival strategy (Central Statistical Office [hereafter, CSO], "The Evolution of Poverty in Zambia 1991-1996" [Lusaka, Zambia: CSO, 1997]).
34. See CSO, "Employment Trends 1985 to 1993" (Lusaka, Zambia: CSO, 1994).
35. See Solon and Floro, "Philippines in the 1980's. "
36. See National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women and the Asian Development Bank (NCRFW and ADB), Filipino Women: Issues and Trends (Manila: NCRFW and ADB, 1995).
37. See Esguerra, "Employment, Competitiveness, and Growth: 1980-94."
38. See Lim, Philippine Macroeconomic Developments 1970-1993;
39. and Esguerra, "Employment, Competitiveness, and Growth: 1980-94."
40. See Esguerra, Employment, Competitiveness, and Growth: 1980-94."
41. See World Bank, Zambia: Prospects for Sustainable Growth 1995-2005 (Washington, DC: World Bank, 1996).
42. Note that much of the fertilizer used in maize production has high import content so that its price was heavily affected by the currency's devaluation. See Gisela Geisler and Karen Tranberg Hanson, "Structural Adjustment, the Rural-Urban Interface, and Gender Relations in Zambia," in Women in the Age of Economic Transformation: Gender Impact of Reforms in Post-Socialist and Developing Countries, ed. Nahid Aslanbeigui, Steven Pressman, and Gale Summerfield (London and New York: Routledge, 1994), pp. 95-112.
43. Maize production was discouraged in several outlying provinces in the 1990s once the fertilizer subsidy was removed and farmers could not cover fertilizer costs (p. 166). This displacement of production had both equity and efficiency repercussions since outlying areas are less prone to drought. Nonetheless, the World Bank viewed price liberalization as necessary for competition (Kalinda and Floro, "Zambia in the 1980's," p. 17).
44. See World Bank, Zambia: Prospects for Sustainable and Equitable Growth (Washington, DC: World Bank, 1993).
45. Kathryn H. Larson and Joyce Kanyangwa, "Women in Market-Oriented Agriculture," in The Dynamics of Agricultural Policy and Reform in Zambia, ed. Adrian P. Wood, Stuart A. Kean, John T. Milimo, and Dennis Michael Warren (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1990), pp. 473-94.
46. See World Bank, Zambia; Prospects for Sustainable and Equitable Growth.
47. See CSO, "Employment Trends 1985 to 1993."
48. See Employment Trends 1985 to 1993." ibid.
49. See Geisler and Hanson, "Structural Adjustment, the Rural-Urban Interface."
50. Sisisra Jayasuriya and R. T. Shand, "Technical Change in Labor Absorption in Asian Agriculture: Some Emerging Trends," World Development 14, no. 3 (1986): 415-28;
51. and Violeta Cordova, Keiko Otsuka, and Fe Gascon, "Technological Change and Labor Use in Rice Farming" (paper presented at the Fourth Meeting of the Federation of Crop Social Society of the Philippines, Davao City, 26-30 April 1988).
52. For example, Randolph Barker, Robert Herdt, and Beth Rose, The Rice Economy of Asia (Washington, DC: Resources for the Future, 1985), reviewed about 20 village studies of labor use both before and after the adoption of modern rice varieties and showed gains in labor productivity as well as labor use. Most of these studies were done in the1970s.
53. See for example, Jayasuriya and Shand, "Technical Change in Labor Absorption."
54. See Cordova, Otsuka, and Gascon, "Technological Change and Labor Use in Rice Farming."
55. See F. Juarez et al., "The Development and Impact of Mechanical Reapers in the Philippines," Agricultural Economics Paper No. 88-23 (International Rice Research Institute [IRRI], Los Banos, Philippines, 1988);
56. and Thelma Paris, "Technology and Policy Needs of Poor Women in Asian Rice Farming," Gender, Technology, and Development 2, no. 2 (1998): 188-217.
57. See Paris, "Technology and Policy Needs of Poor Women."
58. Maria Sagrario Floro, "Women, Work, and Agricultural Commercialization in the Philippines," in Women's Work in the World Economy, ed. Nancy Folbre et al. (New York: New York University Press, 1991), pp. 3-40.
59. See Lim, "Structural Shifts in Key Macro Parameters";
60. Lim, " idem, "Employment Effect of Globalization and the East Asian Crisis";
61. and Esguerra, "Employment, Competitiveness, and Growth: 1980-94." The share of women workers in total manufacturing employment (including electronics and garments) was roughly 11.74 percent for the 1987-96 period.
62. See CSO, "Living Conditions Monitoring Survey Report" (CSO, Lusaka, 1997).
63. See Moser, "Poverty and Vulnerability in Chawama, Lusaka, Zambia."
64. See CSO, "Labor Force Survey 1986" (CSO, Lusaka, 1989).
65. See Kalinda and Floro, "Zambia in the 1980's."
66. See CSO, "Living Conditions Monitoring Survey Report."
67. See CSO, "Living Conditions Monitoring Survey Report."
68. Kate Meagher, in "Crisis, Informalization, and the Urban Informal Sector in Sub-Saharan Africa," Development and Change 26 (1995): 259-84, discusses the trend of feminization in the informal sector for Africa.
69. See Kalinda and Floro, "Zambia in the 1980's."
70. See Venkatish Seshamani, "The Economic Policies of Zambia in the 1980's: Towards Structural Transformation with a Human Focus," in Africa's Recovery in the 1990's: From Stagnation and Adjustment to Human Development, ed. Giovanni Andrea Cornia, Rolph Vander Hoeven, and P. Thandika Mkandawire (New York: St. Martin's, 1992), pp. 116-34.
71. See Lim, "Employment Effect of Globalization and the East Asian Crisis";
72. and NCRFW and ADB, Filipino Women: Issues and Trends;
73. and idem, Trends in Women's Employment in the Regions 1991-94 (Manila: NCRFW and ADB, 1995).
74. See Lim, "Employment Effect of Globalization and the East Asian Crisis."
75. See Esguerra, "Employment, Competitiveness, and Growth: 1980-94."
76. See Sylvia Chant and Cathy Mcllwaine, Women of a Lesser Cost: Female Labour, Foreign Exchange, and Philippine Development (Quezon City, Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1995);
77. NCRFW and ADB, Filipino Women: Issues and Trends;
78. idem. Trends in Women's Employment in the Regions 1991-94;
79. and Moser, Confronting Crisis in Commonwealth, Metro Manila, Philippines.
80. See Marina Fe Durano, "Hazards in Women's Workplace," Working Paper (Philippine Center for Policy Studies, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City, 1996);
81. and NCRFW and ADB, Filipino Women: Issues and Trends.
82. See Guy Standing, "Identifying the Human Resource Enterprise: A South-east Asian Example," International Labor Review 131, no. 3 (1992): 281-93.
83. One of the questions in the Philippine Labor Flexibility Survey (PLFS) examines the extent to which firms have a non-sex-discriminatory hiring policy. There are well-known problems with such indicators as discussed in the study. Given such drawbacks, the preceding results were based on the response of the establishments to the question on whether in recruiting production workers, they had a preference for men or women (p. 287).
84. The exceptions are the construction, wood products, and food-processing industries. Nonregular labor contracts involve the use of casual or temporary labor, contract labor, unpaid labor, and subcontracting.
85. See Chant and McIlwaine, Women of a Lesser Cost.
86. See Esguerra, "Employment, Competitiveness, and Growth: 1980-94."
87. In Hong Kong and Singapore, 98-99 percent of Filipino workers are household helpers.
88. See Carolyn Medel Anonuevo, "Confronting Feminization of Migration" (University of the Philippines, School of Economics, Quezon City, 1996).
89. See Carolyn Medel Anonuevo, "Confronting Feminization of Migration" ( 1996). ibid.
90. See Bina Agarwal, A Field of One's Own: Gender and Land Rights in South Asia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994);
91. and Gillian Hart, "Gender and Household Dynamics: Recent Theories and Their Implications," in Critical Issues in Asian Development: Theories, Experiences, and Policies, ed. M. G. Quibria (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press for the Asian Development Bank, 1995).
92. A detailed study on women's time use was conducted for Bangladesh by Habiba Zaman, "Patterns of Activity and Use of Time in Rural Bangladesh: Class, Gender, and Seasonal Variation," Journal of Developing Areas 29 (April 1995): 371-88. This study is an illuminating example of the methodology here recommended. Using time-use surveys, the author discusses how a deterioration in socioeconomic conditions affects women's time allocation decisions within the framework of gender and class structures.
93. See Moser, "Poverty and Vulnerability in Chawama, Lusaka, Zambia."
94. According to CSO, "The Evolution of Poverty in Zambia 1991-1996" (CSO, Lusaka, 1997), the incidence of extreme poverty increases exponentially with household size in Zambia. Between 1991 and 1996, the largest increase in poverty was accounted for by households with more than nine members.
95. See Judy Sevilla, "The Filipino Woman and the Family," in The Filipino Woman in Focus: A Book of Readings, ed. Amaryllis Torres (Quezon City, Philippines: University of the Philippines Press, 1989).
96. See Moser, Confronting Crisis in Commonwealth, Metro Manila, Philippines.
97. See Nancy Folbre, "Household Production in the Philippines: A Non-neoclassical Approach,"Economic Development and Cultural Change 32 (January 1984): 303-33;
98. Shubh Kumar, Adoption of Hybrid Maize in Zambia: Effects on Gender Roles, Food Consumption, and Nutrition, Research Paper 100 (Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute, 1994);
99. and Sevilla, "Filipino Woman and the Family."
100. This does not mean that women's employment is frowned upon or disapproved in society, however.
101. See Geister and Hanson, "Structural Adjustment, the Rural-Urban Interface";
102. and Jane Guyer, "Intra-household Processes and Farming Systems Research: Perspectives from Anthropology," in Understanding Africa's Rural Households and Farming Systems, ed. Joyce Moock (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1986), pp. 92-104.
103. See Diane Elson, "Gender Awareness in Modeling Structural Adjustment," World Development 23 (November 1995): 1862.
104. See Anonuevo, "Confronting Feminization of Migration."