UNECE Gender Activities
The main purpose of the Workshop on Gender and Labour Markets in Transition Countries
is to evaluate gender activities of international organizations during the ten years of
transition and to propose a way forward based on lessons learned and good practice. The
workshop will gather over 80 participants from eastern Europe, the Baltic states as well
as from Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and other CIS countries. It will discuss
women’s losses on the labour market but also new job opportunities related to the
development of private sector and entrepreneurship. The workshop is organized jointly by
the ECE, UNIFEM and the World Bank. The ECE will be represented by Danuta Hbner,
Executive Secretary of the ECE. The keynote address will be delivered by Hanna Suchocka,
Former Prime Minister of Poland.
Economic recession, the closure of plants, restructuring and the
financial squeeze have especially negative effects on women. The female labour force
shrank as much as by over one third (Hungary) and one fourth (Latvia). Female jobs cuts in
industry were related to the restructuring of light industries, such as textiles, which
lost state support already in the early phase of transition (as opposed to male-dominated
heavy industry) and the shedding of clerical positions in industrial enterprises. Women
were also affected by large cuts in the feminized public sector service jobs and lost jobs
in transport and communication. This was not balanced by any meaningful increase in
women’s employment in expanding market-related services, such as banking, insurance
and business services. The deterioration of women’s position on the labour market is
explained by the pattern of structural changes but also by labour market policies. Women
were encouraged to leave the labour market through early retirement policies (the Czech
Republic and Poland) and more attractive parental leave schemes (Belarus and Ukraine).
Their withdrawal from the labour force was seen in many countries as a remedy for massive
male unemployment and cuts in childcare provided by the state.
The workshop will discuss how these negative trends could be
reversed. Three areas of concern include: (i) how to prevent discrimination against women
on the labour market; (ii) how to increase women’s employability; (iii) how to ensure
adequate social protection (unemployment benefits and pensions). The ECE contribution to
the workshop will focus on women’s entrepreneurship, which is an important avenue to
improve the quality of women’s jobs, opening the way to top management positions,
higher incomes and access to non-female sectors of activity. In the United States, about
8.5 million women-owned businesses, account for one third of all businesses in the United
States and employ one out of four workers. In the United Kingdom, women now start one new
business in four. Development of women’s entrepreneurship in transition countries
requires, however, enabling environment and policies aimed at elimination of many existing
barriers, such as weak regulatory framework, lack of access to credit, the undeveloped
institutional network of information and business incubation centres and business
associations as well as unfavourable social climate and stereotypes on gender roles in
society.
The workshop is expected to bring some answers to these important questions through a
regional dialogue on gender aspects of economic changes in transition countries and
exchange of best practices. It is expected also to enhance cooperation among the ECE,
UNIFEM and the World Bank in implementation of their gender programmes in the region.
For more information contact :
Ewa Ruminska-Zimny
Senior Adviser on Gender and Economy
UNECE
e-mail: ewa.zimny@unece.org