Women in Emerging Asia: Welfare, Employment, and Human Development

Women in Asia now find themselves at a crossroad. While most of the long-term trends in demography, education, and employment opportunities, if sustained by supportive policies and gender-sensitive crisis management, are likely to reduce gender inequities, the outlook in the short to medium term is not very bright. Gender-bias in mortality persists in parts of Asia. Literacy and schooling gaps are still large in South Asia. The interaction of gender-based indicators of welfare, capability, work participation, and earnings reflects the centrality of female education for economic growth, mortality and fertility reduction, and equity. Educational inequality will be a weightier source of income inequality in the next decade. Lastly, during stagflation, recession, restructuring, and transition, women relatively suffer earnings loss, workload increase, and educational setback. Economic growth is not a sufficient condition for gender equity, and public policies must consistently pursue it in the distribution of opportunities and adjustment costs. Improving women’s employment opportunities (in quantity and quality) involves addressing labor-market rigidities, credit-market barriers, and the lack of infrastructure and utilities that aggravates their workloads.