CEDAW/C/PHI/5-6
361. Three of six informal sector workers are actually small farmers and unpaid family workers.
Outside agriculture, self-employed workers account for about 86 percent of the employed, of
whom 46 percent are in sales or trading, 28 percent in petty production, and 7 percent in
various forms of services (Illo 2002b). The 1995 NSO urban informal sector survey reports
that women account for at least 51 percent of operators of non-agricultural enterprises. Most of
these involve traditional roles, such as sewing garments or retaso (surplus rags from garments
industry), laundry and vending food or petty goods along the streets or in markets (Pineda
Ofreneo 1999). There is also a preponderance of women among homeworkers in the garments,
food, footwear and other manufacturing industries. In the country, five to seven million homebased women workers perform piece-rate work for the export industry and their number is
growing. Most of them work under subcontracting arrangements.
362. Informal sector workers have very limited access to credit and to social protection enjoyed by
employees in the formal sector, mainly because a great number of the workers are selfemployed, engaged in marginal activities. In cases where a semblance of employer-employee
relationship exists, there are often no formal contracts, but only verbal agreements on the work
terms and conditions, as is true for subcontract workers and homeworkers. Thus, informal
sector workers generally suffer from irregular employment, low income, and unsatisfactory
terms and conditions of work including non-entitlement to social security benefits (ILS 1996).
Women in government
363. The Philippine civil service classifies government positions into career and non-career posts.
Career positions are permanent or temporary appointments in executive and non-executive
posts. Non-career positions cover executive (appointive), elective, coterminous and contractual
appointments. Included in non-career executive posts are department secretaries and
undersecretaries, chairpersons and members of constitutional offices and other high level
appointees; elective officials; and coterminous employees, or confidential or personal staff of
elective and non-career executive officials. In 1999, there were more than 1.4 million
employees in government. Women formed 55.5 percent of career and 36.5 percent of noncareer positions. Although they occupied almost three-fourths of second-level career posts they
are outnumbered among decision-makers (career third level and non-career executives) and
higher paid employees. They also accounted for a small percentage of elective officials (BLES
2003d).
364. A study on the multiple burden of women and men in government indicated differences in
perceived sources of stress at home and at work (OSHC 1999). Significantly more female
respondents reported “inability to relax at home” after office work due to pressure of work at
home, which is indicative of the multiple burden suffered by working women. The study
prescribed flexible working arrangements to allow women to work from home and a stronger
support network for women.
Women entrepreneurs
365. A survey done by the Women’s Business Council in 1998 showed that there were womenowned and led businesses in all sectors, including electronics, and appliances, transportation,
real estate, financial consultancy, restaurants, marketing and public relations, and publishing.
Most of the women owner-managers of small and medium enterprises, however, were in
100
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents