CONCLUSIÓN DE LA RELACIÓN ENTRE ESTUDIANTES Y DOCENTES FRENTE

a. Female heads and male heads compared

In Section 3.9 of Chapter 3, the characteristics of male-headed and female­ headed households with respect to size and type were compared. In Sub-section 4.2.5 of this chapter, the characteristics of the heads of the different types of family households were examined. The present sub-section compares the characteristics of female heads of households with those of male heads of households, irrespective of the type of household. For the current analysis, persons in one-person households, who can also be considered the heads of these independent households, were excluded. One-person households are examined separately later in this sub-section.

Compared to male heads, who were usually married (96 per cent of all male heads), the majority of female heads were widowed (67 per cent) (Appendix Table 4.9). Female heads were mostly in their late forties and in their fifties. Also, a large percentage of them were in the age group 60-69. Male heads would normally be between 25 and 60 years of age. Thus, the mean age of female heads was higher than that for male heads (53 years as opposed to 42 years for male heads). Male heads would frequently be found in nuclear family households composed of the couple and unmarried children. In contrast, female heads were more likely to be found in lone-

parent households or in extended family households (see also Chapter 3, Sub-section 3.9.1). However, Sub-section 5.6.1 of Chapter 5 will show that non-married male heads with children were more likely to be found in extended family households compared to their female counterparts.

A large percentage of female heads were engaged in non-gainful occupations (41 per cent) (Appendix Table 4.9). It may be argued that this percentage is over-stated considering the difficulty in ascertaining the economic activities engaged in by women, especially if these are in the informal sector. For instance housekeepers, the majority of whom are women, who are at the same time participating in household-operated economic activities are more often than not classified as non-gainful workers. The extent of the misclassification of gainful workers among women as non-gainful workers in the 1990 census, if present at all, is believed to be minimal. The 1990 census defines a gainful worker as "a person who works for at least 10 hours a week for six months or longer with pay or profit, or without pay in own family farm or business" (NSO, 1990: 106-107). Such an operational definition would even under-state the percentage who were non-gainful workers rather than over-state it. Hence, there is a greater possibility that the above percentage of female heads who were non-gainful workers is under­ stated, and so is the corresponding percentage for male heads.

By comparison, only 1.3 per cent of male heads were non-gainful workers. During the week prior to the census-taking, the majority of male heads were employed (88 per cent) while only slightly more than half of the female heads were employed (53 per cent). This is attributable to the lower rate of labour force participation of women compared to men (47.5 per cent as opposed to 79.9 per cent for men for the year 1990) (NSO, 1992b: 80) rather than to the relatively high proportion of female heads who were over 60 years of age (Appendix Table 4.9).

The results of the analysis confined to household heads in the working ages (that is, 15-64 years) show that the percentage among female heads aged 15 to 64 years who were engaged in non-gainful activities was considerably higher than for male heads of

the same ages (Figure 4.10), but markedly lower than for all women in the working ages (Figure 4.11).

Figure 4.10. Percentage distributions of male and of female heads aged 15 to 64 years by usual occupation, Philippines: 1990

Female heads Male heads I i White collar I I Agriculture I P Skilled ^ Elementary Occupation M Non-gainful

Notes: White-collar workers include professionals, technicians, clerks, service and shop/ market sales workers. Agricultural workers include farmers, forestry workers and fishermen. Skilled workers include craft and related workers, plant and machine operators and assemblers. Those engaged in the so-called elementary occupations include market stall and street vendors, domestic helpers, garbage collectors, and labourers. Cases whose occupations were in the category not elsewhere classified

and those whose occupations were not reported were excluded in the calculation.

Source: Calculated using a 0.5 per cent sample from the 1990 census data for the

Philippines.

Figures 4.10 and 4.11 also show that, compared to male heads in the working ages or to all women in the working ages, a higher percentage of the female heads in the working ages were in the occupational group consisting of professionals, technicians, clerks and such service workers as travel attendants and guides, restaurant services workers, shops salespersons and demonstrators. In the current analysis, these are called white-collar workers. This could be because the proportion having an academic degree was higher among female heads in the working ages in comparison to male heads in the working ages (13 per cent compared to 8 per cent), and compared to all women in the working ages (Figure 4.12).

Figure 4.11. Percentage distributions of female heads aged 15-64 years and of all females aged 15-64 years by usual occupation, Philippines: 1990 20 - Female heads All females I I White collar l~1 Agriculture ^ Skilled i ü Elementary Occupation M Non-gainful

Notes: Refer to Figure 4.10

Source: Calculated using a 0.5 per cent sample from the 1990 census data for the

Philippines.

A higher percentage who were academic degree holders among all female heads than among all male heads can also be noted in Appendix Table 4.9. However, the proportion of female heads who had no formal education was almost twice that for male heads (11 per cent as compared to 6 per cent). Also, just like their male counterparts, the majority of the female heads had attained elementary education only (Appendix Table 4.9). A similar finding was noted from the distributions according to education of male and female heads in the working ages (data not shown). Among all women in the working ages, the percentage who had not reached high school was slightly lower than for female heads in the same ages (Figure 4.12).

Figure 4.12. Percentage distributions of female heads aged 15-64 years and of all females aged 15-64 years by education, Philippines: 1990 40 35 30 25 g 20 a. 15 10 5 0 CD None CD Grades 1-4 CD Grades 5-7

HE High school undergraduate 1^1 Highschool graduate EH Tertiary level S Academic degree holder

All females Female heads

Source: Calculated using a 0.5 per cent sample from the 1990 census data for the Philippines.

So far, the findings presented in the foregoing paragraphs tend to suggest that, on average, female heads were socio-economically worse off than male heads. If this is indeed so, does this mean that the socio-economic situation of the households headed by a woman was worse than for the households headed by a man? An examination of the characteristics of the other members may provide an answer to this question.

b. Characteristics of the other members: female-headed households and male-headed households compared

With respect to the composition of the other members according to their relationship to the household head, the most apparent difference between female­ headed and male-headed households was the higher proportion in female-headed households of members other than those belonging to the family nucleus of the head. These included parents, siblings, grandchildren, and other relatives of the head (Table 4.11). The proportion of siblings of the head in households headed by a woman was at its highest in Metropolitan Manila (Appendix Table 4.10). The largest percentage of

non-relatives in female-headed households was likewise found in Metropolitan Manila, and the second largest percentage in highly urban areas.

The proportion of children less than five years of age was lower in female­ headed households, and was only about half that for male-headed households (10 per cent as compared to 18 per cent for male-headed households). This is because female heads were mostly widowed with a mean age of 53 years and therefore would generally have older offspring than the couples in male-headed households.

Members aged 15 to 34 years accounted for a higher percentage in female­ headed households than in male-headed households. The proportion of young adults (15-24 years old), in particular, was notably higher (34 per cent as compared to 23 per cent for male-headed households). This proportion was even higher in female-headed households of Metropolitan Manila and highly urban areas. The proportions of children (that is, aged less than 15 years) in female-headed households in these areas were lower than for other urban areas and rural areas (Appendix Table 4.10).

Consequently, as young adults (aged 15-24 years) were mostly never married, the percentage of the never-married members was higher in female-headed households than in male-headed households (84 per cent as opposed to 73 per cent for male-headed households). The widowed in female-headed households accounted for a relatively small percentage (2.4 per cent), but was about twice that for male-headed households despite the higher proportion of older members in male-headed households (Table 4.11).

Table 4.11. Household members other than the head by selected demographic characteristics and by sex of household head, Philippines: 1990

Characteristics of

household members Total Male Female

Relationship to household head spouse 19.8 21.5 0.9 child 66.3 66.8 60.2 grandchild 4.7 3.6 16.0 parents 0.8 0.7 1.6 siblings 1.4 1.1 4.9 other relatives 5.3 4.6 12.6 non-relatives 1.7 1.5 3.8 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 Age less than 5 17.4 18.1 9.7 5-14 31.5 31.9 26.7 15-24 23.8 22.8 34.4 25-34 12.5 12.1 16.9 35-44 6.5 6.6 5.6 45-59 5.2 5.4 3.5 60-69 1.7 1.8 1.3 70 and over 1.3 1.2 1.9 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 Marital status never married 74.3 73.4 84.2 married 24.0 25.1 12.2 widowed 1.3 1.2 2.4 divorced/ separated 0.3 0.3 1.0 others 0.1 0.1 0.1 not stated 0.0 0.0 0.1 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0

Source: Calculated using a 0.5 per cent sample from the 1990 census data for the Philippines.

Because the percentage of children less than 15 years of age was relatively large in male-headed households (Table 4.11), it can be concluded that the child-dependency burden was higher among male-headed households than among female-headed households. Although some children were economically active, they constituted a small percentage in both male-headed households (2.5 per cent) and female-headed households (2.3 per cent).

It is of some interest to examine the proportions of members aged 15 years and older who were economically active, in both male-headed households and female­ headed households. This proportion could be a better indicator of the economic well­ being of the household, particularly that headed by a woman, than the labour force participation of the head. As mentioned, a large percentage of the female heads were past the working ages and thus were more likely not in the labour force. Even among the female heads who were in the working ages, a larger percentage were not economically active compared to the male heads in the working ages (Figure 4.10).

Table 4.12 presents the proportions of the members of male-headed and female­ headed households who were less than 15 years of age, who were 15 years and older and employed, and who were 15 years and older and unemployed. The table also shows the figures for the employed members aged 15 years and over expressed as percentages of total members in the same ages.

Table 4.12. Proportions of members of male- and female-headed households who were less than 15 years of age, who were 15 years old and older and employed, who were 15 years old and older and unemployed, Philippines: 1990

Sex of the head/ characteristics of the member Total Metro Manila Highly urban Other urban Rural M a le h ead less than 15 40.7 34.1 37.7 39.5 42.9 employed 15 + 31.1 42.4 32.9 30.6 29.3 unemployed 15 + 28.2 23.5 29.3 29.9 27.8 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 (employed 15+)/ (total 15+) 52.5 64.4 52.9 50.6 51.4 F e m a le h ea d less than 15 27.5 21.6 23.9 27.4 30.2 employed 15 + 37.4 50.0 41.0 34.4 34.8 unemployed 15 + 35.1 28.5 35.0 38.2 35.0 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 (employed 15+)/ (total 15+) 52.4 64.3 53.0 50.2 51.2

Source: Calculated using a 0.5 per cent sample from the 1990 census data for the Philippines.

For all areas of residence, the percentage of household members who were 15 years of age and over and who were employed during the week prior to the census­ taking was higher for female-headed households than for male-headed households. The higher labour force participation rate of adult members other than the head in female­ headed households than in male-headed households compensates for the relatively low labour force participation rate of female heads compared to male heads. This finding suggests that female-headed households in 1990 were in fact not economically worse off than male-headed households. This suggestion is substantiated by the family income data for the years 1985 and 1988 which showed a higher average family income for female-headed than for male-headed households (NSO, 1992b: 97). This is also corroborated by the finding of Raymundo, Marquez and Reolalas (1995: 21-22) which

showed that female-headed households are better off in terms of land ownership and the condition of their dwelling units.

Table 4.12 also shows that the percentage of young dependent members (that is, less than 15 years of age) was markedly lower for female-headed households. Furthermore, for all areas of residence, the proportion of the members aged 15 years and over who were employed during the week prior to the census-taking was about the same. Slightly more than half of the household members aged 15 years and over in both male-headed and female headed households were employed, except in Metropolitan Manila where the percentage was about 64 per cent.

A scrutiny of the usual occupations of the employed adults other than the head in both male-headed and female-headed households revealed that approximately the same percentage (27 per cent) of the employed members of both male- and female­ headed households were white-collar workers (Appendix Table 4.11). Likewise, the proportion of those engaged in the so-called elementary occupations was. about the same for both female- and male-headed households (28 per cent).

c. Residential variation in the characteristics of female heads of households The characteristics of female heads of households varied by area of residence (Appendix Table 4.12). The proportion of female heads who were widowed was highest in rural areas (75 per cent), second highest in other urban areas (69 per cent) and lowest in Metropolitan Manila (43 per cent). This is attributable to the larger proportion of elderly female heads in rural areas and other urban areas (Appendix Table 4.12), in addition to the higher mortality of the population in the rural areas and less urbanised areas than in the more urbanised areas of the Philippines (Zablan, 1983: 100).

Metropolitan Manila had the largest proportion of female heads who were under 35 years of age (28 per cent), who were never married (25 per cent), who were academic degree holders (23 per cent) and who were white-collar workers (40 per cent).

In marked contrast, in rural areas, only 9 per cent of female heads were younger than 35 years, 8 per cent were never married, 4 per cent were academic degree holders, and 8 per cent were white-collar workers. Rural areas had the highest percentage of female household heads who were non-gainful workers (45 per cent).