SECTION 5 Lessons for Gender Policy

This paper has discussed what is known from past experience of the relationship between industrialization and women's employment opportunities in developing countries, in the context of international trade, and what tendencies in the contemporary world economy seem to have implications for women's employment in future. The analysis points to several areas of concern for gender policy

• There is a possible relationship between the degree and duration of export orientation in manufacturing and the wage gap by gender.

One hypothesis is that the wage gap by gender widens as export manufacturing capacity is consolidated. This proposition has never been systematically investigated, and the difficulties of testing it rigorously are obvious in view of the multiple determinants of changes in male and female wage rates and in wages and wage relativities over time. This indicates two needs for gender policy. First, there is a pressing need for research (or action-research) to investigate the hypothesis and to develop better understanding of the factors involved.

Second, the precautionary principle may be important for policy purposes in this connection. In other words, to ensure gender equity, it may be prudent for policy makers to give credence to the "wage divergence" hypothesis and draw up possible policy instruments to ensure that the more equitable pay relativities that seem to obtain at the early stages of the export industrialization process (as seen in Bangladesh and Viet Nam) endure.

There may be thought to be some inconsistency in advocating use of the precautionary principle before the particular mechanisms that come into effect are identified and understood in any particular case. A range of possible mechanisms have been suggested in this paper. Nevertheless, it is clear that tough monitoring and application of equal pay laws is the single main means of enforcement for pay policy, regardless of specific cause; so there is a general recommendation to governments to review the wage statutes and devote resources to enforcement of those laws in anticipation of greater calls for their use, and to NGOs and donor agencies to support advocacy groups able to press for action with employers and bring equal pay cases to the courts.

Experience in Bangladesh and Viet Nam is a counter to the argument that there is a necessary trade-off between pay equity and export success — that is, that a gender wage gap is in some sense necessary to competitive advantage in labour-intensive manufacturing. In those countries no such gap in wages proved necessary for entry into the international market in clothing. Government policy should seek ways of influencing the incentives facing employers in such a way that productivity improvements, rather than the socially unjust practice of reducing female wages, are seen as the best long-term means to cost cutting and maintenance of international competitiveness.

• The distinction between educational attainment levels per se and the subjects in which women obtain educational qualifications will become increasingly important in future.

Scientific, technical and managerial qualifications are all going to be important in giving women access to high-level jobs in the future, particularly in export manufacturing industries, as they diversify and upgrade, and in the newly internationalized services sector. In most countries, women are underrepresented in technically skilled and in senior grades in industry, and so lose out as industrial capacity evolves and the production processes in use become more diverse.

Policies must be designed and implemented to bring about a more gender-equitable spread of students among different subjects at secondary and tertiary levels of education, with a view to increasing the numbers of scientifically and technically qualified women in the labour force. This may require a revision of curriculum and teaching practices starting from the lowest levels of primary school. But it is crucial if women's entry to the modern labour force in strength, brought about by building capacity in export manufacturing, is to be converted to a gain in women's labour force participation in all dimensions.

It may be particularly important to improve the educational and training situation with respect to employment in the new, internationalized services sector. While data entry and similar, low-skill operations may offer immediate prospects for job creation on a significant scale for women, in relatively prestigious work and at relatively good rates of pay, the work is extremely vulnerable to labour displacement from new technology. Work in this sector will be inherently insecure, and it does not carry promotion prospects for the women concerned. Similarly, many of the low-level jobs in the financial sector seem doomed to disappear. The best prospects for women, where indications are that access will not be denied, are in other branches of the financial and management corporate services sector. Governments must ensure that equity in educational provision, now so widely accepted as a policy goal at primary level, must be carried through to all levels and all subject departments of the educational and training system.

• The evidence indicates that in many developing countries TNCs are becoming increasingly important as employers, especially in certain parts of the services sector.

It may be an opportune moment in which to mount an audit of TNCs' employment practices and to enlist their support for gender equity in employment, as regards pay, promotion, and other practices. This applies especially strongly to education and training, for research shows that TNCs undertake more training than comparable local firms (Lall, 1994). Both governments — in their capacity as representative of the national interest — and labour organizations, as well as women's organizations, would have an interest in such an audit. In respect of their involvement in the new services sector, this would be unlikely to meet with any opposition from TNCs, because all the indications are that, if only in imitation of employment practices in their home countries, they emerge as good recruiters of women in this sector. Whether they are good employers subsequently in other respects is something that an audit would reveal.

The value of a gender audit of TNCs would be to identify any lagging employers; to indicate best practice in the sector, for the attention of local firms as well as TNCs themselves and to serve as comparator for local employers; and to give notice that the issue is important, and will continue to be monitored by governments, in future. In a globalizing world, where governments' control over national macro-economic policy is being limited by trends in international markets, discretion over employment practices in the modern sector is an area where authority does remain with governments. In exercising this authority in the furtherance of gender equity, governments can take some action to ensure that internationalization of economic activity contributes to "human development" and the betterment of society.

Trade expansion thus opens up particular possibilities of leverage for social action groups concerned to bring about gender parity in employment. Developing country governments need to be made to ratify ILO Convention 100 and enact equal wage and opportunity legislation, if it is not already on the statute book. More difficult, sound and effective mechanisms for implementation of that legislation need to be in place. NGOs, the women's movement and any other groups acting for women's interests need to be vigilant in preventing any movement towards greater wage inequality, and be prepared to take action in the courts if necessary. Lessons can surely be learned internationally from the experiences of similar groups in developed countries.

Two other possible arenas for action present themselves. First, the potential for equal wage provisions to be promoted as part of — perhaps the least controversial part of — putative "social clauses" in international trade agreements should be explored. The effort to include general social clauses in trade agreements has been strongly resisted by developing country governments which see them as a veiled protectionist device; developed countries are divided and the ILO, for example, is split down the middle over the issue. But the topic may be shelved rather than permanently dead in international fora and women's groups might take advantage of the pause to re-examine the issues, consider their position and lobby their governments to take a stand in international negotiations.

The second forum is the "sub-political" arena of civil society, in which the international environmentalist groups have been so influential. The recent case of Shell's reversal of policy over disposal of an old oil-rig in direct response to pressure from Greenpeace is a graphic recent case. Women's interest groups (both Northern and Southern) could bring their own strength to bear similarly directly on TNCs, which are likely to become an increasingly important actor in, and influence over, labour markets and employment practices towards women in developing countries. Vigilance over TNCs' employment practices in general and equal wage payments by gender in particular could be monitored locally, information published, good and bad employers identified and representations made for improved practices for women employees. There is vast potential for international alliances between women's organizations worldwide for movement on this issue — indeed, in keeping with the globalization of the world economy, international action may not only be appropriate but necessary for promotion of gender equity in this connection.