As Thailand seeks to bridge the human resources gap expected to widen in the years ahead, we should keep women in mind. The question is whether the nation is fully tapping into the much-needed talents of female workers and managers.
By some measures, women are doing fine. Thailand has had a female head of government, and girls here do well in terms of schooling. Girls outnumber boys in secondary schools and at the tertiary level, and are only slightly outnumbered by boys in primary schools. Statistics show female students tend to outperform males. For example, a 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) by the Orgnisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reports that in Thailand, girls scored higher than boys in reading, mathematics and science.
As for women's participation in the workforce, Thailand has less of a gender gap than countries like Japan, where there is a 22 percentage point difference between the amount of women working and men working, or in Malaysia, where the disparity is even greater at 31 percentage points. Nevertheless, working women in Thailand still lag behind men by 16 percentage points. This means a significant share of the nation's human capital is still left out of the economic equation.
Moreover, the typical Thai workplace appears to have a glass ceiling that keeps women from moving up the managerial ranks, even in the public sector. Women made up only 20% of senior officials in the civil service, according to the most recent statistics available, from 2004. In parliament, the share of women stood at 16% in 2013, despite the fact that 51% of the population is female.
In the private sector, women are more visible than in other Asian countries. The inclusion of women has improved over the years, but there is room for further progress.
A survey published earlier this year by Grant Thornton, the international accounting firm, revealed the proportion of women in senior positions in business is 27% in Thailand. On the boards of the blue-chip companies that comprise the SET50 stock index, about 10% of members were women as of 2014.
In comparison, 17% of the corporate board seats of US-listed companies in the S&P 500 index, the American stock market index, were held by women in 2012. Meanwhile, Norwegian corporates had the highest percentage of women on boards of directors, at 36% in 2011. It appears Thai corporate boards have some catching up to do.
As for wages and income, women still fall behind in Thailand, despite their solid performance at school. Based on our analysis using the government's Labour Force Survey in 2014, women made approximately 15% less money than men with the same jobs, marital status and age.
The gender disparity manifests when graduates begin working because significant numbers of women take a career break for family reasons, or even drop out of the labour force. We might perceive this as a choice, but let's bear in mind the pressures that lead to it. Because of the prevailing gender gap in income, it makes economic sense for a household to rely on the wife or mother to handle care-giving. This seeming "choice" later drives a larger wage difference between women and men because a worker's skills and career progression risk lagging after a long leave of absence.
Given the evidence of gender disparity in Thailand, it is puzzling the public seems little aware of any gap. Perhaps this is good news. It might mean most people do not themselves practise overt discrimination and therefore believe it is not widespread among others.
On the other hand, the low awareness could be explained by the fact that people tend to internalise social norms that dictate gender roles and expectations. Thus they don't recognise their own attitudes as being biased.
Thailand has traditionally been a patriarchal society. Many Thais still believe each gender has its own separate sphere of skills and responsibilities in society. Many still expect that women will shoulder most of a family's caregiving burden.
These long-existing gender norms shape the preferences and decisions of Thai women today, creating internal barriers that affect their level of confidence, ambition and career aspirations. Gender stereotypes still channel men and women into different career paths, which can clearly be seen in how workers get sorted into different occupations. Thus it could well be that the most difficult career barriers for women to overcome are the ones that they themselves have come to believe in. This explains why many women opt out of leadership roles, because they have to struggle more than men do to achieve balance between family and career.
But achieving gender equality doesn't necessarily means that roles need to be perfectly equal in every way. Some basic differences persist for simple reasons of biology. Equality should mean men and women both enjoy a level playing field in terms of workplace treatment and opportunity.
It's a waste of resources when the workforce loses the participation of women, especially because so many of them have attained high levels of education and skills. Japan is a case in point. A 2014 Goldman Sachs report estimates closing the gender employment gap would boost Japan's GDP by 13%. Like Japan, Thailand needs more help from women because our population and workforce are ageing.
Employers should improve work-life balance for female workers to enhance retention. A study by the International Labour Organisation shows maternity-protection measures cost little and yield high returns. Such measures include flexible work hours and providing workplace facilities to store breast milk. In Sweden and Belgium, parental leave laws ensure job security and provide financial support during the leave.
This allows both parents to jointly care for their child and later return to their jobs. Workplaces can also provide subsidised daycare to retain new mothers. Malaysia offers tax incentives to companies that establish child-care facilities and allow flexible work arrangements for women.
We should care deeply about that glass ceiling, which currently blocks the full growth potential for Thailand. But we must do more as a nation, in terms of both accessibility and awareness.
On a personal note, I admit I used to be among the many of us who were blissfully unaware of gender inequality in the workplace. After all, I work in a financial institution that has had two female presidents in a row, whose highly visible tenures spanned a period of nearly two decades. Only when I became a mother a few years ago did it dawn on me the kind of personal and professional support I had taken for granted were often unavailable to women at other firms and occupations, and it needed to change.
This support will allow me to return to this column after I take leave for maternity once again starting next month. I look forward to seeing you in November.
Sutapa Amornvivat, PhD is Head of the Economic Intelligence Centre, Siam Commercial Bank. She has international work experience at IMF, ING Group and Booz, Allen, Hamilton. She received a BA from Harvard and a PhD from MIT. eic@scb.co.th | EIC Online: www.scbeic.com