In the Philippines, educational attainment is highly regarded. The higher level one reaches or finishes, the better chances of landing better-paying jobs. Nowadays, however, Filipino women often put aside their diplomas and become underemployed. This is especially true when they decide to work abroad regardless of over-qualification for the jobs they apply for or that are offered to them.
This is a classic case of what is termed as ´brain drain´ or ´brain waste´ in the country, as believed by the Women and Gender Institute (WAGI).
In an interview by GMANews.TV in September 2008, WAGI´s Aurora Javate De Dios said that “Women are under-qualifying themselves. The number of women migrating is increasing but the jobs placed for them are designated…There is hardly any country where women CEOs are in-demand.” De Dios presented a paper in the International Conference on Gender Migration and Development in Manila.
Women professionals under-qualify mainly because of what the actual labor market abroad demands, which is/are often not what they studied many years for. Quite saddening as according to Aiko Kikkawa of the International Organization of Migration (IOM), the Philippines, as compared to its ¨competitions¨ – India, China, Mexico – has the greatest number of migrant women than men who graduated in college. IOM data shows that there were more than 570,000 of them working abroad in “dirty, demeaning, and dangerous” low-skilled or unskilled jobs. This still worked for the women who, according to a 2007 World Bank report, regularly sent money home.
Statistically, based on the reports of the Overseas Workers´ Welfare Administration, while the number of women migrants fluctuates and declines annually, compared to several years prior to 2008, the number hitting the million-mark is still very significant.
Data aside, there is an obvious need to address the issue of underemployment and the various women employee abuse and discrimination cases which news often reach Philippine shores. De Dios stressed the need to seize more opportunities for women migrants as well as uphold their women´s and human rights, rights that they practically lose once they step on foreign soil.
Source: GMANews.TV (09/26/2008)
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: | violence against women, women employee abuse, women employees abuse, Women Empowerment, women harassment, women's rights, women's welfare
