The Gender Implications of Public Sector Downsizing : The Reform Program of Vietnam
Men and women may be affected differently by the transition from central planning to a market economy and especially by the privatization and restructuring of state-owned enterprises. After briefly reviewing the international evidence on this issue...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2001/03/1047508/gender-implications-public-sector-downsizing-reform-program-vietnam http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19699 |
| Summary: | Men and women may be affected
differently by the transition from central planning to a
market economy and especially by the privatization and
restructuring of state-owned enterprises. After briefly
reviewing the international evidence on this issue, the
author looks at the recent experience of Vietnam and the
prospects of its new reform program. During the massive
downsizing in Vietnam in the early 1990s, many more women
than men were laid off. Women withdrew from the labor force
in larger numbers than men after separation, but the
difference nearly vanished after a year. Economic reforms
were associated with a considerable decline in the gender
gap in earnings, both in the state sector and outside it.
Women are less likely to be retrenched in large numbers in
the downsizing in the early part of this decade. Labor
redundancies are concentrated in male-dominated sectors,
such as mining, transport, and construction; redundancies
are smaller in female-dominated sectors, such as footwear,
textiles, and garments. Moreover, temporary and short-term
contracts are more prevalent in female-dominated sectors,
suggesting demand for women's work. Assistance programs
for redundant workers have potential gender biases. The
authors shows that separation packages defined as a multiple
of earnings favor men more, while lump-sum packages favor
women more. Packages based on seniority are roughly gender
neutral, but require a substantially higher expenditure to
reach the same acceptance rate as the other two. |
|---|