WHAT WOMEN WANT: Beyond Technical Skills

Antara GanguliUN Women, Bangladesh

Asian Development Bank TVET Forum | ManilaDecember 2015

• No clear data on women’s participation rates in TVET– Estimates range from 25% of men’s participation rates to

70% of men’s participation rates• Yet, a Google search of women and TVET is illustrative:

–608,000 results for a search on “TVET”

–153 results for a search on “women, TVET”

–176 results for a search on “gender, TVET”

No clear data on women and TVET

WHY?

Because TVET is only one expression of women not being

counted. TVET is the wrong starting point because we need to understand

underlying structural inequalities.

Let’s start with women and work.

From 1990 to now, women work less than men all over the world.

Education doesn’t fix it. Neither does wealth.

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Structural Inequalities

Structural inequalitiesUnpaid care work• Women have less time for productive work as they are

responsible for majority of caregiving and household workViolence against women as an obstacle to accessing work (and education/ training for work)• 76% of university students in a 2013 study in Bangladesh

experienced violence on campus, 100% of informal workers did as well (2007 study)

Absence of family friendly workplace policies• Clear correlation in Scandinavian countries of maternity leave,

paternity leave, high quality child care and FLFP

TVET cannot be the answer to fixing gender equality of labour

and workbut if done right, it can help

correct some of the inequalities.

Obstacles to work

Obstacles to work

Obstacles to work (summary)

• Women often lack the knowledge and confidence to aspire to higher-skill, higher-pay jobs, especially those related to STEM

• Employers often stereotype what women can and can’t do and seek candidates accordingly

• Violence and the fear of violence can constrain women’s options, especially around working longer hours

Insights from UN Women work

SOLUTIONS:• Self-esteem and confidence building are as important to

teach as technical skills

• Building networks can be a powerful way to build women’s access to resources, negotiating ability and overall confidence.

• Training and education of employers is also necessary -

Focus today

From Brazil: knowledge on rights is key• Recyclers in the Coca-Cola value chain were

trained on human rights, gender equality and armed with knowledge on their rights and benefits

• After one and a half years, a 15% increase in self-confidence according to the Rosenburg scale was associated with:

• Increased income (slight)

• Increased number of conversations with others in the community on the rights of women and unequal access to employment opportunities

• Increased participation in decision-making

• Interest and demand for further training on these issues to be incorporated into “technical training” on recycling, business management and other areas.

From South Africa: soft skills are key

From South Africa: networks are key

Women’s confidence gap is universal.

The (smart companies) in the private sector deals with this by investing in

building women’s confidence to become leaders.

If women leaders on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley need confidence training,

wouldn’t the typical woman TVET candidate need it too?

Women need “soft skills” even more to overcome the confidence gap.

1. Learning to learn: This includes the ability to acquire knowledge, skills, attitudes and aptitudes, enabling young workers to set, plan and reach their own learning goals, becoming independent lifelong learners.

2. Communication: The ability express ideas, opinions, thoughts and feelings in speech, writing and through ICT tools and have strategies and skills to share knowledge effectively with others.

3. Teamwork: The ability to operate effectively within a group, using communication and interpersonal skills like negotiation, advising and interpreting and learning to align and negotiate personal desires and ambitions to achieve team goals.

4. Problem-solving skills: The ability to evaluate information or situations, breaking them down into components, recognizing long-term consequences of solutions to problems and devising and implementing logical plans for resolution.

The data shows this. We know it. But we spend more money on technical skills.

Take aways• Women face many obstacles in entering the formal

workforce – violence and the fear of violence, unpaid work burden in the household, discriminatory attitudes of employers and the market

• Therefore, TVET programmes for women, especially those that seek to break gender stereotypes must develop the capacity of the women students to understand and fight these factors – and must also hold employers, the market and the state responsible for ensuring an equal playing field

• Confidence and leadership skills are key. • Networks are powerful. • Soft skills enhance the power of technical skills.

Thank You

Ms. Antara Ganguli