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A Detailed Look: East Asia and Pacific
Gender discrimination in social institutions is fairly low across the 17 countries of the East Asia and Pacific region, but there are exceptions: China, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia all figure in the bottom half of the SIGI ranking and display high inequalities in terms of son preference and women’s physical integrity. It should be noted that gender equality can vary greatly not just between countries in this region but within them. This is largely due to a rural-urban divide, and often high levels of social diversity and ethnic fragmentation.
Discrimination in labour markets, education and political participation is an issue for women in many parts of the region, especially in rural areas. Many women still work in the agricultural or informal sector, and have a lower standard of living than men. Division of labour by gender is still common, for example in the electronics industry in the Philippines, where women are often relegated to low-skilled positions.
On the positive side, there has been significant progress in improving girls’ educational attainment and in providing women with better job opportunities: newly created jobs, especially in the export manufacturing sector, have lifted many women out of poverty. This has had a positive impact on early marriage, which has declined in countries like China, Myanmar, or Singapore. It is also worth noting that in Chinese Taipei, the portrayal of traditional gender roles has been removed from school textbooks, a major achievement that contributes to positive socio-cultural change.
Key challenges in the region relate to women’s empowerment. Not only do women look after the household, but they often perform most of the agricultural work. Despite this, their chances of obtaining land in their own names are limited, since men are traditionally perceived as heads of households. Another regional challenge is sex trafficking and domestic violence. Legal frameworks exist to protect women’s physical integrity, but women are rarely fully informed of their rights.
Key issue: missing women
“Missing women”, a term coined by Nobel-laureate Amartya Sen, refers to gender bias in mortality. His work suggests that the preference for sons over daughters has led to some 100 million “missing women” in South Asia, East Asia and the Middle East and North Africa. This is a result of sex-selective abortion, poorer access for girls and women to nutrition and healthcare and abandonment of female infants. It is an issue in some parts of this region, including Papua New Guinea; Chinese Taipei; Hong Kong, China; Mongolia; and Myanmar. China is the most telling example: With more than 40 million “missing women” in 2000, it is the bottom ranking country in the region.
