Occasional Paper: Making Working Poor Women Visible in Economic Reality

2013, AMRC

In the Southeast Asian region, working poor women account for 30 percent of vulnerable and unpaid family workers. The traditional values in society have put women of the lower economic strata namely the working-poor in a vulnerable position, where they are stigmatized for lacking skills and capacity.

In urban areas, working-poor women work may perform domestic work traditionally assigned to mothers or wives. In the service sector, women are employed to perform work that is low skilled and pays less, such as serving customers or cleaning. The outsourcing of the industrial process also depends on working-poor women employed in home based industries. Meanwhile in the rural areas, many women are forced to become unpaid family workers, assisting their spouses, to meet their target/quota at work.

The work performed by working-poor women is considered as a work traditionally assigned to women. Therefore, in the economic reality, the work is devalued and the workers are excluded from the legal framework and its protection. This article, using case studies of organizing working-poor women, explores some strategies to encourage working-poor women to become agents of change of their situation and livelihood.