The Future of Work for Women in the Pacific Islands

Working women in the Pacific Islands face a trifecta of challenges from Covid-19, climate change, and disruptive technology. A new report from The Asia Foundation takes a hard look at the path to a better future.

Transcript

Ellen Boccuzzi (00:02):

They said, "Oh, these ladies came and they built this house." And we thought, "Are the ladies able to build a house?" And then two weeks later there was this really amazing house that was so strong. All the men in the neighborhood came to look at the house and ask the women how they built it. I've actually never seen such a successful gender-empowerment program.

John Rieger (00:20):

The future of work for women in the Pacific Islands this week on InAsia, from the Asia Foundation. I'm John Rieger.

Tracie Yang (00:27):

And I'm Tracie Yang. A year without tourists has shaken the vacation destinations of the Pacific. As these island nations begin to think about their post-COVID recovery, a new report from the Asia Foundation spotlights some deep economic inequalities that could spell more trouble in the future of new technologies in a changing climate.

John Rieger (00:46):

Joining us today are Ellen Boccuzzi, author of The Future of Work for Women in the Pacific Islands, and Sandra Kraushaar, the Foundation's Pacific Islands Director. They're co-authors of a concise discussion of the new research in this week's blog. Ellen and Sandra, welcome to InAsia.

Ellen Boccuzzi (01:02):

Thank you for having us.

Sandra Kraushaar (01:03):

Delighted to be here.

John Rieger (01:04):

Sandra, the Pacific Islands Office is the Asia Foundation's newest. Can you give us an overview of the territory?

Sandra Kraushaar (01:10):

Yeah. You might be surprised to hear that the Pacific Islands region actually covers about 36% of the earth's surface. It is made up of 550,000 square kilometers of land and 118 million square kilometers of ocean. They see themselves as ocean states rather than land-based states.

John Rieger (01:33):

What are some of the familiar names?

Sandra Kraushaar (01:35):

There's particular groupings. We can have a look at Polynesia, there's Tonga, Samoa, [Carabas 00:01:42]. We have Palau and Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia up in the north. They're known as micro states. We have Papua New Guinea, Fiji, of course, and the Melanesian states, along with Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. There's also a population of around 7 million people over 2,000 inhabited islands. It's a vast region.

Tracie Yang (02:07):

Ellen, you're the author of the new research report. When you look at the future of work for women in the Pacific Islands, what factors are distinctive of this region at this time?

Ellen Boccuzzi (02:19):

I wanted to start by thanking the Asia Foundation's Women's Empowerment and Gender Equality Program for commissioning this research. Across the Pacific Islands, there are pronounced gender disparities and labor market participation, with many more men working than women, period. In addition, there are gender pay gaps for the same level of work. There's a significant difference in the types of work that men and women are doing, with men overwhelmingly working in industries such as construction and transport, while women are disproportionately employed in industries like education and healthcare.

Ellen Boccuzzi (02:55):

Overall, most of the employees in the Pacific work in fishing and agriculture, but men are more likely to hold formal jobs in these sectors. Prior to the pandemic, many women in the Pacific were actually working in subsistence agriculture or fishing, just growing food or fishing for their families. And if there was any surplus at the end of the day, selling that in local markets for income. There are also very high levels of unemployment in the region. This is a particular concern for young women.

John Rieger (03:23):

The pandemic has been particularly hard on tourism everywhere for obvious reasons. But the tourism industry in the Pacific Islands was already part of the problem in many ways, according to your essay, was it not?

Ellen Boccuzzi (03:36):

Yeah. There are positives and negatives, right? On the one hand, tourism is an important driver for economic growth across the Pacific. A third of the formal jobs in Fiji, Vanuatu and the Cook Islands are tourism jobs. Beyond that, many more informal jobs are linked to the industry. For every two formal jobs that are created in tourism, three more jobs are created indirectly.

Ellen Boccuzzi (03:59):

There are also some negatives. Many in the industry have precarious work arrangements, things like seasonal employment, part-time hours, or even excessive hours, where people are working very long hours, and informal hiring practices. There are also significant gender disparities in the type and level of work done by men and women in tourism. In Fiji, about two-thirds of university students in tourism are women, but women have only about one-quarter of the professional and managerial positions in the industry. Instead, most of those women are working in low-wage jobs at the front desk or in cleaning.

Tracie Yang (04:37):

Ellen, the pandemic has been a temporary disruption, if a revealing one. But looking at the longer term, we can foresee much greater disruption from advancing technology and the big one, climate change. Tell us a bit about how these will affect women and work.

Ellen Boccuzzi (04:55):

Sure. Most workers in the region are employed in the sectors at greatest risk of climate change, agriculture, fisheries and tourism. In addition, the pandemic has been accelerating the use of technology, both for remote work and for communication. Women risk being left behind in this transition due to a lack of certain skills or because their jobs may be automated.

John Rieger (05:20):

Then, returning to the central question, what can be done to create a more equitable future of work in the Pacific Islands?

Sandra Kraushaar (05:26):

I have a really, quite a simple message. Put your gender and inclusion goggles on, because you have to really ask, will this policy, will this program, will this change actually affect men and women differently? Just pop your goggles on.

Ellen Boccuzzi (05:43):

One of the low hanging fruits would be creating green jobs in the agricultural sector, where most of the workforce is already working, together with creating new jobs in emerging green industries. Opportunities include things like organic farming, green building, recycling and waste management, as well as renewable energy. One thing that's important to mention here with regard to putting our goggles on, is that when new jobs are created in things like renewables or manufacturing or construction, for the most part, they're going to men. What we need is targeted skills training, first of all, particularly for women in areas of green employment, where new and better paying jobs will be created in the coming years, ICT training for work across all sectors-

John Rieger (06:31):

ICT, Information and Communications Technology. Do you think everybody's going to need that training?

Ellen Boccuzzi (06:35):

Correct. An important part of this is apprenticeship programs that can help bring women into male-dominated fields. There's an interesting opportunity here for the advancement of women in these fields, fields such as construction and renewables, because there's currently a skills gap in the Pacific Islands with large numbers of the higher level jobs actually going to migrants from abroad, rather than to the local labor force because of a skills mismatch. On the one hand you have high levels of unemployment among the local population. Then you also have people coming in to take the higher level jobs.

Ellen Boccuzzi (07:11):

There's a real opportunity here for up-skilling the local labor force to actually take on these jobs. About a year or so ago, I had the opportunity to go visit a pilot project conducted in Fiji by Habitat for Humanity, where they were training women to work in construction. They gave them courses on construction. Also, had an apprenticeship program where women built climate-resilient houses. It was incredibly effective. It was so interesting to interview the people in the communities. They said, "Oh, these ladies came and they built this house." And we thought, "Are the ladies able to build a house?" And then two weeks later there was this really amazing house that was so strong. All the men in the neighborhood came to look at the house and ask the women how they built it.

Ellen Boccuzzi (07:56):

I've actually never seen such a successful gender-empowerment program, because within two weeks, everybody in the community was convinced that women could be construction workers, that they were bringing important knowledge into the community. And a number of the families asked these women to mentor their sons, and their daughter, to become construction workers. It really is possible to have effective programs that bring women into these traditionally male-dominated fields.

Tracie Yang (08:24):

Sandra, in your blog post with Ellen this week, you quote author and environmentalist, Suzanna Arundhati Roy, as saying, "We should see the pandemic as a portal between one world and the next." What do you take from that remark?

Sandra Kraushaar (08:38):

Yes. I can remember reading this blog post quite early in the pandemic. I have to give credit to [Amber Parks 00:08:46] and [Nam Pavez 00:08:47] and [Donna Stefhoff 00:08:49], who mentioned Arundhati Roy's work. It's really, I think, looking at the opportunities for this more just, feminist future. But it helps us really think about, where are the gender divides in employment, incomes and types of work? And then, what are the aspirations? How can we support people that they're able to choose rather than being stuck in an old form of employment? Is this an opportunity to reset? It's really, I think, a portal into a new way of thinking about how our economies work.

John Rieger (09:18):

Sandra Kraushaar and Ellen Boccuzzi, thank you so much for joining us today.

Ellen Boccuzzi (09:22):

Thank you.

Sandra Kraushaar (09:22):

Thank you very much, John. Thanks, Tracie.

John Rieger (09:25):

That's all for this edition of InAsia. For more on the future of work for women in the Pacific Islands, be sure to visit this week's blog, where you'll also find links to Ellen's deeply-researched report.

Tracie Yang (09:35):

And you can hear more stories like this one from The World of International Development by visiting us at InAsia, one word, and subscribing to the InAsia podcast, highly recommended. Until next time, I'm Tracie Yang.

John Rieger (09:48):

And I'm John Rieger.

Tracie Yang (09:49):

Thanks for listening.