The objective of this paper is to provide empirical evidence on the role of gender relations and inequalities in shaping men’s and women’s labour market outcomes, and to identify issues that should be addressed by policy in order to enhance women’s wage employment opportunities and gender equality in employment outcomes, with particular attention to rural areas. These issues are addressed with reference to Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand which share some common features: their location in the most dynamic region of the global economy; their reliance on exports to drive their economic growth; and women’s wage employment expansion due to export growth. Yet, the bulk of their workforce is still in agriculture. At the same time, the three countries differ in a number of ways. Unlike Thailand and the Philippines, Vietnam is not a fully market economy; a big part of its economy is state and collectively-owned and the importance given to manufacturing exports is fairly recent. Drawing on national survey data, the paper focuses on wage employment outcomes, comparing rural and urban areas, and agriculture-based and non-agriculture-based regions in the three countries. It investigates the patterns of gender inequalities with regards to employment status, occupation and pay.
What conditions affect women’s access to wage employment and explain the pay gaps between men and women? The conventional and predominant labour market explanation is that inequalities reflect differences in human capital (education, skills, and work experience) and thus in productivity and the price of men’s and women’s labour. Under this framework, labour market outcomes are the result of the market’s efficient allocation of labour resources. However, the research literature on gender pay gaps, including the author’s recent study of occupational pay gaps in Thailand and the Philippines, show the impact of gender-based discrimination. The paper highlights the role of gender discrimination and
unpaid care work on access to wage work and on pay. It also explores the interconnections between gender inequalities in labour markets and territorial inequalities. The paper also looks at the role of women’s wage work in household welfare. The male breadwinnerfemale caregiver/homemaker model continues to dominate social and labour policy, yet low-income
families rely on women’s paid as well as unpaid work the poorer they are. Evidence is also provided on the interconnections between women’s wage work and earnings, household income and poverty. The paper suggests some policy directions that may be considered for rural employment, women’s employment and gender equality. Policy issues in the light of the current global crisis and lessons from the 1997 Asian crisis are highlighted.