Women, is the election helping them?

"Of the 8.5 million households in the farm sector, 31% of household heads are women, and steadily increasing."

A commodity prices guarantee. A farm chemicals subsidy. Flood insurance. Credit cards for farmers. Financial aid for first-home owners. Debt refinancing. Five years' income tax exemption for first jobbers. An increase in the monthly support for the elderly from 500 to 1,000 baht.

The list goes on and on as political parties are noisily competing to offer all sorts of goodies to the voters. Of course, it all boils down to policy handouts to buy votes.

Yet even if we choose to ignore this fact, the voters who will benefit are still men more than women.

Why?

It is because even though Thai women are fully participating in the economy, they still face legal and cultural constraints that prevent them from equally benefiting from state policies and services, handouts or not.

For example, many benefits make it clear that only household heads need apply.

Household heads mean men - if not blatantly spelled out in the regulations, then in practice. When women apply, they are made to go through dizzying paperwork, and are often rejected.

This gender inequality question was recently raised by a network of women's rights groups and activists called WREST, which stands for Women Reshaping Thailand, to monitor election policies.

The same question is not only limited to policy giveaways. It also applies to such efforts such as land for the landless and access to low-interest credit for farmers to address structural inequality.

It will be scandalous if women farmers are bypassed by these policies because there are more women in the agricultural sector. They are also poorer.

According to the Community Development Department, of the 31.8 million people in the farm sector in 2009, there are about 200,000 women more than men.

Of the 8.5 million households in the farm sector, 31% of household heads are women, and steadily increasing. Female household heads also have less income than their male counterparts.

According to the National Statistics Office in 2009, there is a higher number of women among workers with primary education. Meanwhile, there are more men than women among the employees with a middle-range income. Interestingly, it is mostly women who are working for free for their families.

It is the same with the minimum wage. While the Democrat and Pheu Thai parties compete in upping each other with a higher figure, they are both blind to the different conditions, needs and concerns of women workers.

The problem is not only about lack of enforcement. Women have been routinely paid less than men despite the minimum wage law, or despite working in the exact same job. The new wage scale won't change that.

A big problem in a woman's life is the double workload from the traditional burden as wife and natural calling as mother. The minimum wage is calculated to support only one person, so it can never help workers/mothers to better provide for their children.

The husbands? Much research has shown that the husband's money goes largely on their social life. For the wives, it goes directly to feed the kids.

To help women workers, the policy must then go beyond the minimum wage to improve social policy such as a nursery at the workplace, longer paid maternity leave, a more egalitarian access to good education for their children, and a more effective alimony system.

Thai society is also fast ageing, with more elderly women than men. Since women live longer, and since they are expected to be care givers, the burden of the grey society falls flatly on women. Yet, all political parties are blind to this reality by focusing only on the monthly allowance for the elderly, which makes little difference in their life.

It is clear. There is an urgent need for policy intervention to bridge the gender gap in family and at work. The same goes for policies to protect women from gender discrimination, sexual harassment and domestic violence.

It is also an uphill task. No matter what policy the government dishes out, women will continue to be bypassed when policy-makers - and society as a whole - remain gender blind.

Source : Bangkok Post, COMMENTARY, 'Progressive' society leaves women behind, 2/06/2011, Sanitsuda Ekachai, link