WHAT WOMEN WANT: Beyond

Technical Skills
Antara Ganguli
UN Women, Bangladesh
Asian Development Bank TVET Forum | Manila
December 2015

No clear data on women and TVET

No clear data on womens participation rates in
TVET
Estimates range from 25% of mens
participation rates to 70% of mens
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

WHY?

one expression of
women not being
counted.
TVET is the wrong
starting point because
we need to understand
underlying structural
inequalities.
Lets start with women
and work.

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

Education doesnt fix it. Neither does wealth.

c
v

c
v

c
v

c
v

Structural Inequalities

Structural
inequalities
Unpaid care work
Women have less time for productive work as
they are responsible for majority of caregiving
and household work
Violence 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
work
but 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 cant do and seek candidates
accordingly
Violence and the fear of violence can
constrain womens 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 womens access to resources,
negotiating ability and overall confidence.
Training and education of employers is
also necessary Focus today

From
Brazil:
knowledge
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 decisionmaking
Interest and demand for further
training on these issues to be
incorporated into technical training
on recycling, business management
and other areas.

on rights is key

From South Africa: soft skills are key

From South Africa: networks are key

Womens confidence gap is universal.

The (smart companies) in the

private sector deals with this
by investing in building
womens confidence to become
leaders.
If women leaders on Wall
Street and in Silicon Valley
need confidence training,
wouldnt 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.

Thank You
Ms. Antara Ganguli