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MASTERCARD INDEX OF WOMENS ADVANCEMENT 2016 ASIA PACIFIC 1. INTRODUCTION Over the last few decades, we have witnessed a rising awareness and recognition for greater empowerment among women economically, socially and politically. At the same time, the tracking of womens progress towards gender parity has also garnered substantial attention and interest globally due to the growing belief that womens capacity and potential to contribute fully towards the betterment of their economies remain severely constrained and unrealized. For instance, the impressive gains achieved by some women who have succeeded in becoming top corporate leaders, business owners and politicians are predominantly concentrated in developed markets where labor laws are more consistently implemented and fair practices more strictly adhered to. In the majority of the emerging markets, the prevalence of gender divide is comparatively more widespread and acute - a concern that continues to stand out in MasterCards study on womens advancement in Asia Pacific. Conducted for the 10th year, the 2016 MasterCard Index on Womens Advancement (MIWA) is part of MasterCards ongoing dedication towards tracking and analyzing womens progress across 18 markets in Asia Pacific. Comprising three main components - Employment, Capability and Leadership - the results underscore inconsistency in the pace at which women are progressing at each component level. This is particularly evident in the high scores for Capability (level of knowledge asset) and lower scores for Employment (workforce participation and opportunity for regular employment) and Leadership (business and political leadership). Specifically, women in developed markets have access to more regular employment opportunities in the formal sector while those in developing markets are exposed to more vulnerable employment in the informal sector. The results also highlight that notwithstanding the tremendous effort and commitment extended by various interest groups such as The Asian Foundation and government programs in helping women become more empowered, at the national, political and corporate level, the lack of critical mass in womens representation and participation - coupled with the inadequate and inconsistent implementation of equality legislation - continues to be the biggest challenge for women. This is reflected across all markets irrespective of the pace of economic development. We also discuss the impact of the rising trend in Japan and South Korea for working fathers to take paternity leave and assume the roles of childrearing so that their wives may work. This is of particular interest given the survey results reveal that around 30 percent of women in these markets regard having better maternal/paternal leave entitlement as the top issue in their advancement in society. In Singapore, we explore the challenges faced by working women in striking a balance between career advancement and meeting expectations demanded from them at the national, corporate and societal/family levels. In our discussion on the weakness of Leadership among women, we highlight the interesting finding that the majority of women in developed markets perceive having more women SME business opportunities as one of the top three most important issues in womens advancement in society. 2. ASIA PACIFIC1 Women on par with men in Capability in New Zealand, Philippines, China, Taiwan Advancement in Leadership remains the biggest hurdle For the 10th consecutive year, New Zealand, Australia and the Philippines continue to hold the reins in the region with top scores of 78.0, 76.0 and 71.4, respectively. Apart from Singapore (70), all other markets in Asia Pacific (and South Asia) had scores below the 70-point mark with Japan being the lowest and only market scoring below 50 points. Compared to the previous year, the latest results are broadly similar and stable with little fluctuations. Women in New Zealand made the most progress with a 0.7 points increase to 78.0, followed by Japan (up 0.5 points to 49.5). In contrast, Malaysia retracted by 0.4 points to 52.7 (the lowest in 5 years), followed by China (down 0.2 points to 66.3). 1 The Asia Pacific region includes the 13 markets of Australia, New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam. For the purpose of reporting, the South Asian region comprising Bangladesh, India Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka is discussed and presented in a separate section in the later part of the report. 2.1. Capability As an indicator of Female-to-Male Secondary and Tertiary School Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) ratio, the Capability sub-index serves as a proxy for womens access to education and acquisition of knowledge assets relative to their male counterparts. Of the three index components, Capability remains the strongest indicator of womens advancement towards gender parity for the 10th consecutive year with 5 markets scoring 100 points (New Zealand, Philippines, China, Taiwan and Thailand). With the exception of Korea (86.6), all other markets in the region scored above 90 points in Capability. Women in New Zealand, Thailand, Philippines and Taiwan have been on par with their male counterparts consistently since the series commenced in 2007. It is encouraging to note that women in Indonesia and Hong Kong continue to make positive steps towards greater knowledge asset attainment with their scores edging closer to parity ( 99.1 and 98.5, respectively). In terms of tertiary GER, women continue to outnumber men in nine out of the 13 APAC markets with New Zealand retaining top spot with an impressive score of 141.8, followed by Australia at 137.5 and Thailand at 134.5. In Indonesia, we observe the number of enrolment in advanced education to have grown quite markedly from 87.2 in 2007 to 105.1 in 2016, an increase of 21 percent. It is also uplifting to note that the number of female GER in the five markets of China, New Zealand, Thailand, Philippines and Taiwan continue to outnumber that of their male counterparts in both secondary and tertiary education. However, it remains a concern that while the opportunity to attain advanced education is available, a large gap still exists in the ability for these women to translate their knowledge assets into economic benefits by way of contribution to the economy, career advancement, business ownership or political/business leadership. This is evident in the lower scores in the female to male Workforce Participation ratio, such as 63.6 in Philippines, 83.5 in New Zealand, and 83.2 in China. In the developing markets of China, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia, it is observed that both females and males GERs in tertiary education are remarkably low compared to their regional peers as shown in the table below. This could be due to the fact that most males forego the pursuit of advance education and enter the workforce at an earlier age to help support the family (especially in the rural areas), while women are likely to remain in the household to take care of the family and young/elderly ones instead of pursuing tertiary education. Market Female GER in Tertiary Education Male GER in Tertiary Education China 32.2 27.9 Philippines 37.9 29.2 Vietnam 23.6 26.0 Malaysia 44.2 36.0 Indonesia 34.9 33.2 2.2. Employment Women in developing markets undermined by lack of formal work; Labor shortage in Japan may reverse trend of low female workforce participation Of the 13 Asia Pacific markets, women in New Zealand (91.4), Australia (91.0) and Taiwan (90.7) retain their top three positions as being the most economically active with highest access to regular formal employment. They are the closest to being at par with their respective male cohorts in terms of Workforce Participation2 and Regular Employment3. The results also underscore that in general, womens progress in employment remains broadly stagnant across the region. A breakdown of the Employment component as shown in the graph below reveals that out of the total female population, the proportion of women who are economically active in the formal or informal labor force (as measured by the Workforce Participation sub-component) is consistently lower than that of men across the region. With the exception of Malaysia, women in developing markets such as Vietnam (74 percent), China (66 percent) and Thailand (64 percent) are more likely to be working (formal or informal) than women in the advanced economies of Japan and Korea (both 49 percent). This is not surprising given that the need for women to work to contribute to the household income will be greater in the less wealthy markets. 2 Workforce Participation is the percent of women aged 15 and above working formally or informally divided by the total female population. 3 Regular Employment measures the gender proportion of regular employees to the total number of workers who could also be self-employed, casual labor or business owners. A low score suggests that regular formal job opportunities are les available for women than they are for men. Casual labor is described by the International Labor Organisation (ILO) as vulnerable employment due to the lack of labor law protection, paid leave and employee benefits. Note: The scores for both Workforce Participation and Regular Employment are for females only in each respective market. 2.2.1. Anticipated Reverse in Trend of Low Female Workforce Participation The low Employment scores for Japan and Korea suggest that the cultural bias against women working is fairly strong in these societies. However, we anticipate this trend to gradually change in the coming years due to the following factors. In Japan, there has been a rising concern over labor shortage across all sectors from technology to services caused by factors such as an aging workforce, education gaps, inflexible hiring laws and immigration curbs. This is already starting to stunt economic growth in the country. With GDP shrinking at an annualized pace of -0.8 percent in the July to September 2015 quarter compared to -0.7 percent the previous quarter, the labor shortage woes are compounding the existing challenges of tepid consumer spending and softening corporate investment. Notwithstanding the governments attempt to mitigate the problem by allowing more skilled foreign workers into Japan, there remains a severe mismatch and lack of skills-set to meet corporate requirements (e.g. web technology skills). There is also a shortage of low-skilled service workers such as security guards, restaurant servers and care providers with many local firms forced to close down due to their inability to secure workers for operations4. As noted by IMF in its July report (2015), this has also muted the governments implementation of fiscal and monetary stimulus measures with slow wages growth weighing heavily on household spending. 4 “Lack of workers hobbles Japans growth”, The Wall Street Journal Online, 15 Nov 2015, Available Online: wsj/asia In order to address the labor shortage problem, the government has implemented various programs aimed at encouraging more women and seniors to enter or remain in the workforce. One such program is the “Ikumen Project” that allows men to take paternity leave (usually one month) and assume more active roles in childrearing so that their wives may work. However, this initiative will take time given that as of 2012, only 1.9 percent of Japanese men took paternity leave (Cabinet Office). By 2020, the government hopes to not only raise this figure to 12 percent, but increase the percentage of employees taking annual paid vacation from 47 percent to 70 percent, and women returning to work after giving birth from 38 percent to 55 percent5. A similar trend is also taking place in Korea whereby more and more working fathers are applying for the one-year paternity leave they are entitled to in order to spend more time at home with their children as women increasingly resist their traditional roles as the primary caretaker in the family. Heralded as “brave” stay-home fathers, this move has surprised many in the male-dominated society where daily childcare has traditionally been considered as a womans responsibility6. With the governments recent multi-billion campaign that includes subsidies7 to encourage more men to take paternity leave, this will hopefully allow more women to join the workforce in the future8. 2.2.2. Regular Employment The results also show the proportion of women in the developed economies of Hong Kong (95 percent), Australia (92 percent), Singapore and Japan (both 89 percent) that have greater access to Regular (formal) Employment opportunities than the females in developing markets such as Vietnam (31 percent), Indonesia (33 percent) and China (43 percent). For instance, in Hong Kong, 95 percent of women who are working are formally employed in regular work with employee benefits and labor force protection, leaving the remaining five percent engaged in informal vulnerable work such as casual labor, businesses and self-employment. Conversely, in Vietnam, only 31 percent of working females are engaged in the formal sector with regular work while the remaining majority (69 percent) are engaged in informal work with no labor force protection and employment 5 “Japanese men bringing up babies aim to send wives to work”, Bloomberg online, 23 Apr 2014, Available Online: bloomberg/news/articles/2014-04-22/japanese-men-bringing-up-babies-seek-to-send-wives-back-to-work 6 “South Koreas brave stay-home fathers”, Yahoo News Online, 14 Jan 2016, Available Online: news.yahoo/south-koreas-brave-stay-home-fathers-035758918.html 7 This subsidy from the government is equivalent to 40 percent of the monthly income capped at 1.0 million won (USD840) 8 South Koreas fertility rate in 2014 is only 1.21, well below the required replacement level of 2.1 births per female and lowest among OECD member nations and far below the OECD average of 1.67, Demographics of South Korea, Wikipedia, Oct 2015 benefits a situation that exposes their vulnerability to being marginalized. This is likely due to the fact that most of the women in the developing markets are working in the rural sectors where work is typically irregular and informal, a condition that is acknowledged by global organizations such as UN Women9. 2.2.3. Case Study: Working Women in Singapore In Singapore, women are playing a more important role in advancing the economy through their participation in the workforce. Within the region, they are ranked sixth with a score 86.3 for the Employment component. According to the 2014 Labor Force Statistics (Singapore), the employment rate for women was at its peak of 76 percent for the prime working ages of 25 to 54. Over the last decade, Singapore ha
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