G E N D E R A N D T H E R E G I O N ’ S E M E R G I N G D E V E L O P M E N T C H A L L E N G E S
children, which thereby leaves the total time that younger women spend on housework and caring unchanged or diminished. For example, staff analysis of household data from TimorLeste finds that living with elderly members increases the time devoted to housework and caring activities by 40 minutes a day among women without young children (NSD TimorLeste 2007). In contrast, in households with young children the presence of elderly members reduces the time devoted by younger women to housekeeping and caring activities, who spend 30 fewer minutes on these activities than women with children who do not live with elderly members.
Implications of aging populations for gender policy The population of the East Asia and Pacific region is aging rapidly, in many countries at a faster pace than that in the rest of the world. This demographic change will likely have significant repercussions for women since they live longer than men but have access to fewer economic assets and resources and are less vested in formal social security systems. Although women are more likely to have access to informal caregiving and support systems, traditional systems of caregiving are evolving and exposing more elderly individuals to lower levels of familial support. Because older women are less likely than men to be covered by insurance or to have accumulated assets, the burden of their care is still likely to fall on younger women. Policy makers can address the burden of aging in several ways. Policies to close gender gaps in access to human and physical assets will affect both older and younger women, with implications for gender gaps among future generations of older women. Policies that focus on ensuring that health care and social security systems cover those most in need are likely to benefit both elderly men and women. The design of old-age security systems becomes particularly important in the context of the rapid demographic transition and cultural change occurring in many countries in the region. Old-age income security
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FIGURE 5.14 Women’s time devoted to housework and caregiving activities is not significantly greater in households with elderly members 5
number of hours spent on housework and caring activities per day by working-age men and women (15–64)
4 hours
3 2 1 0 male
female
Cambodia, 2004
male
female
Lao PDR, 2008
male
female
Timor-Leste, 2007
households with an elderly member households without an elderly member Source: World Bank staff estimates using CSES (NIS Cambodia), 2004 data; LECS (LSB Lao PDR), 2008 data; and Timor-Leste SLS (NSD Timor-Leste) 2007.
programs can protect women from destitution and reduce their reliance upon familial transfers. For example, joint annuities and survivor pensions are likely to be effective means to compensate and secure women’s incomes in their old age. Finally, policy makers may consider ways to strengthen elder care to ensure that younger women do not face the disproportionate burden of care giving.
Information and communication technologies The literature contains little evidence on how access to and use of ICTs vary by gender. Therefore, this section provides predominantly anecdotal or project-specific global evidence on the gender implications of the spread of ICTs. The exponential growth of information and communication technologies in the developed and developing world is widely lauded as the defining economic and social force of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. ICTs encompass a plethora of technological advances, including radio, cell phones, computers, e-mail, social networking sites, and the Internet. Figures 5.15 and 5.16 show