• Understanding the measured and unmeasured labour of women

By Sumudu Chamara What defines “work/working” varies depending on societies, nations, and cultures, and therefore, evaluating labour force participation, especially female labour force participation, is a complex matter. In this context, to ensure equal opportunities and benefits for both men and women, first and foremost, there needs to be a clear understanding as to what work is. This was noted during a seminar held by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) on 16 December, which was attended by International Monetary Fund (IMF) for India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Bhutan Executive Director Dr. Surjith Bhalla and CBSL Deputy Governor Mahinda Siriwardena.  The event, titled “Understanding Women’s Work Today: Definition, Methods, and Policies”, also focused on how female labour force participation has evolved over the years and the relationships between education and gender parity in labour force participation. Female labour force participation in Sri Lanka  During the seminar, Siriwardena described how female labour force participation in Sri Lanka has evolved during the past few years, and pointed out Sri Lanka’s notable achievements in that regard. He stressed that Sri Lankan women were always somewhat ahead of their peers in the region and in the world as far as the standing of women and recognition of their contribution are concerned. He added: “Even though the US elected its first female Vice President in 2020, Sri Lanka elected the world’s first Prime Minister, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, in 1960, six decades ago, while in India, Indira Gandhi was elected Prime Minister in 1996. To date, despite cultural and societal norms, women in South Asia have been breaking the glass ceiling and making a difference across the globe.” Noting the achievements of some Sri Lankan women such as Shemara Wickramanayake, who is Australia’s highest paid Chief Executive Officer (CEO); Prof. Neelika Malawaige, who was recently appointed as a member of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO’s) Technical Advisory Committee on Covid-19; and Dr. Asha De Vos, who has gained fame as a leading marine biologist, Siriwardena expressed concern, noting that whether such progress is evident at the grassroots level, is questionable.  With regard to female labour force participation in Sri Lanka, he added: “Sri Lanka took almost four decades to double its female labour force participation from 18% in 1952 to 36% in 1990. Since then, the average was 32%, and has been on decline in recent years. Although Sri Lanka is ahead of the South Asian average of 24%, the country’s female labour force participation remains much lower than upper-middle-income countries’ average of 56%. One of the low-hanging solutions to the subdued growth episode that Sri Lanka is experiencing is addressing the issue of getting more women into work, through policy, agenda, and support for stronger diversity and inclusion in a gender-sensitive manner. In the long run, women’s lack of engagement in the labour force is a fiscal concern, as it raises concerns regarding the efficacy of expensive education and health investments that are being constantly made amidst limited fiscal space.” Defining, measuring labour force participation  Meanwhile, Dr. Bhalla explained how labour force participation, especially the female labour participation rate, has changed over the years, specifically in India and Sri Lanka. He also discussed the importance of properly defining and identifying different aspects of labour force participation, which he said has a direct impact on how female labour force participation is measured and recognised in the overall labour force. Speaking of labour force participation in the agriculture sector in India, Dr. Bhalla stated that this sector is recognised as one of the most basic forms of work in India, and that at present, around 40% of the entire labour force is engaged in the sector. With regard to statistics that claim that the labour force in the sector could be as high as 60-70%, Dr. Bhalla said that they are incorrect, and are a political conclusion. He noted that even though female labour force participation in the agriculture sector is considerably high, the contribution of female labourers is not recognised properly, owing to the criteria that are used to define what labour force participation is. These criteria, according to him, may include even simple factors such as whether a worker is paid or not, or whether he/she works for production or consumption. He added that a lot of labourers are unpaid due to a number of reasons, one of them being in some cases, agriculture is a part of people’s lives – not a mere occupation – and is intended to produce food for consumption. When looking at the issue of unpaid labourers, he noted, it is important to pay attention to whether they work for production or consumption, because whether their contribution is considered a job that needs to be paid depends on the final results of their activities, among other reasons. However, unpaid and unrecognised female labour force participation is not confined to the agriculture sector, and Dr. Bhalla identified that the same issues exist in household settings as well. “Household work is one of the biggest services that has emerged for societal reasons primarily in the domain of women in child and elderly care. There is no logical reason why that is the case; however, that is the case in most societies. According to researchers, in the 1960s and 1970s, child and elderly care was not an issue or in the definition of work.” Adding that a large part of child and elderly care in advanced societies gets priced through the market value it has been assigned, Dr. Bhalla expressed concerns as to what would happen if it does not happen based on such a (market) value, and does not get defined.  “We have to be very careful about what we define as work,” he emphasised. Dr. Bhalla added that India has been a pioneer in developing ideals of work as well as defining work for developing economies, and has five different definitions as to whether one is in the labour force or not. These are “principal status” – more than 180 days of work a year, “secondary status” – more than 30 days but less than 180 days of work a year, “usual status” – a combination of the first and second definitions, “weekly status” – whether a person worked at least an hour a day in the last week, “daily status” – whether a person worked at least half a day (four hours) each day of last week. “The definition that focuses on whether a person worked an hour a day in the last week is the most common definition in advanced countries. We will all be gravitating towards it; however, we are not there yet,” he noted. With regard to age group-related definitions, Dr. Bhalla said: “Most labour force studies focus on the age group ranging from 15 to 64 years. It used to be from 15 to 59. The age 15 is very questionable due to it being the age when children obtain education.  “The school has zero value in the labour force participation. If you go to school, you are unlikely to be working, and then you are defined as not in the labour force,” Dr. Bhalla said. He also pointed out a great deal of misunderstandings and misinterpretation of data when analysing the state of labour force participation. He also highlighted the role of policies and politics in assessing female labour force participation.  “What is defined as work is a lot more important than looking at the income,” he said. Speaking of India’s female labour force participation, Dr. Bhalla noted that studies have shown a 12% decline (from 43% in 2004 to 31% in 2011). He added: “After that (issuance of new statistics), a deluge of studies and conclusions said that something is wrong with the Indian economy. A World Bank (WB) study called this a ‘precipitous drop in female employment in India’. Some have pointed out that what we observed as a decline in (female) labour force participation was primarily or exclusively limited to rural areas. The (labour force) category with the highest decline was unpaid, family labour.” He also pointed out that false policy conclusions emerged (especially after the said findings), such as the Indian economy not providing enough jobs, especially for women. According to him, some experts have also claimed that India needs 10 million jobs a year, even though it was providing only four million.  He added: “One of the strong fundamental changes that has happened over the last 30-40 years is the spread of education and that has consequences for discussions, productivity, male-female relations, and also measurements (used in labour force participation). Speaking of inequalities in wages, Dr. Bhalla said: “There is no gender equality in wages, and that is something wrong in the marketplace. The Government has to institute special policies in order to ensure equal pay for equal work. Global data pertaining to average earnings for men and women show 25% difference. In the case of the US, which, in 2000, recorded 25% lower wages for women, has paid attention to adjusting three factors, namely, occupation, education, and experience. “One of the reasons (for the wage gap) was the fact that women bear kids. When you are carrying a baby, it is not that easy to work. Due to this reason, most women go out of the labour force, and when they come back, they are less experienced.” Gender parity in education and labour force “Sri Lanka’s education parity and educational achievements for women and men have been broadly equal for a long time. It is, however, not the situation in India. Across the board, i.e. primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of education, there are equal percentages of women and men in college(s). In fact, in college, there are more women than men. Advanced countries have taken a longer time to achieve what developing countries took to achieve in 30-40 years. That is really the force of radical change. But it is not understood or appreciated by either researchers or even policymakers, or people at large. We are in the midst of a mega revolution of change, and a very important part of that is the fact that education is now equally accessible.” Speaking of India’s situation with regard to wage gaps between different genders, Dr. Bhalla said that data has shown a substantial wage gap in India as well. “India is a developing and middle-income country. What one would observe when looking at the most recent data is that wages for women and men, in salaried jobs, are not equal. Raw data collected from India shows that women on average earn 25% less than men. If you take into account salaried jobs with a focus on females in the 15-34 age group, there is parity.” He explained that if the entire female labour force, including those above the age of 35, was taken into account, it would not be able to see the same parity. The reason, he said, was that those above the age of 35 years receive less education than men owing to societal biases and the fact that women are not encouraged to get education (at that age). Emphasising the importance of ensuring education parity between men and women to achieve gender parity in the labour force, he noted that studies have shown that on average, education has about a 10% return. He also pointed out the link between (gender) parity in wages and (gender) parity in education.  Speaking further, Dr. Bhalla said that India has the fourth highest number of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, and that around 42% of all graduates are women from STEM fields. In the US and Western Europe, he said, this rate is around 30-35%. With regard to gender equality in labour force participation, he said that a lot of organisations are busy trying to make sure that there is an equal number of women and men in every field in a bid to achieve gender equality in the labour force, and questioned whether it is the right approach to ensuring equality.  Unpaid family work is steadily declining over time as everything is becoming marketised, and the reason it is declining is education. If you have equality in education, then there is very little unpaid, and everything is priced according to the market.”  As it was noted during the seminar, achieving gender equality in labour force participation is not the same as having an equal number of men and women, and opportunities can and should go beyond that.  With regard to Sri Lanka’s context, the tendency among Sri Lankans to see education and employment as completely unrelated topics needs to be changed. It needs to be acknowledged that education is an investment, and the strong impact it can have on one’s future career prospects needs to be identified.