The research Women in Business: Opportunities and Impact of the Pandemic, was undertaken as part of the British Embassy Good Governance Fund (GGF) funded project POWER – Promoting Opportunities for Women’s Economic Resilience implemented by the Economic Policy Research Center (EPRC).
The purpose of the project POWER is to promote women entrepreneurship through evidence-informed and custom-tailored capacity-building interventions, such as knowledge transfer, inspirational encouragement, policy dialogue and advocacy at the local level. An informative-educational web-platform www.womenpower.ge was created as part of the project to foster entrepreneurial learning and success story sharing.
The survey was conducted in November 2020. It covered 331 women entrepreneurs across Georgia, including 96 in Tbilisi and 235 in the regions.
WOMEN IN BUSINESS – DESK RESEARCH FINDINGS
■ Women to men ratio in business sector employment is 40% to 60%. Man’s salary in the business sector is, on average, GEL 515 higher than woman’s salary and comprises GEL 1380.5. The largest pay gap (GEL 613) between employees is observed in medium sized enterprises.
■ As of 2019, only 29% of registered enterprises was owned by women, down by 2% on a corresponding indicator in 2017; the share of enterprises owned by men increased by 4% from 2017 to 2019 and reached 56%.
■ Shortcomings in gender statistics and absence of accurate data make it difficult to arrive at more correct conclusions; for example, the gender of 15% of owners of new enterprises registered in 2019 is not specified and may significantly affect the analysis.
■ Sectoral/vertical gender segregation in business activity of the country is apparent – businesses run by women dominate human health and social work activities as well as education sector whereas women lag far behind men in all other sectors.
■ Vertical segregation is observed in so-called “traditional” female occupations – women are less represented in managerial jobs. Consequently, women’s remuneration remains low. For example, in 2018, in health care sector, an average salary stood at GEL 837.7 for women and GEL 1394.2 for men.
■ According to the World Bank’s data, the gender gap on Georgia’s labor market results in the loss of 11% of Gross Domestic Product (per capita). This means that if those working-age women who are left beyond the labor market, get engage in it on a similar level to men, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will increase by 11.3%.
■ According to studies conducted in Georgia, women’s participation in government programs is low and they are mainly beneficiaries of small programs; for example, women account for 40.3% of beneficiaries of Micro and Small Business Support Program implemented by Enterprise Georgia, but the share of women in large industrial programs is much lower – women are seen in the management only in 27% of financed programs (the Parliamentary Gender Equality Council, 2019). Women’s participation in agricultural projects comprises 23%; in the program of cooperatives, the share of female members of cooperative stands at 27% and only 8% of them is on the leading position (Sapari).
■ According to international studies, during the Covid-19 pandemic, businesses run by women show a low capitalization and less dependence on self-financing, which means that businesses run by women face higher risks of closure or sharp drop in revenues than businesses run by men; women working in unstable environment/ sector were the first to lose jobs and will be the last to recover lost income/job.
■ The country has a legislative framework for the elimination of economic inequality of women – the Constitution of Georgia, the Law of Georgia on Gender Equality (2010), the Law on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination (2014), legislative amendments concerning discrimination, maternity leave, labor remuneration and labor KEY FINDINGS 5 inspection, which were adopted in 2020. The key problem, however, lies in actual enforcement of this legislation and mechanisms of its enforcement.
■ One should also take into account the effect of existing discriminatory attitudes and patriarchal norms on the economic empowerment of women. Access to financing and resources is an important factor for female entrepreneurs. The Georgian legislation recognizes the equality of children (woman and man) as heirs, but because of patriarchal attitudes, a son is perceived to be next in line, especially when it comes to inheriting real estate and land.
■ The SME Development Strategy of Georgia 2016-2020 acknowledges that “to promote inclusive growth, it is important to reinforce female entrepreneurship” and speaks about the importance of developing specific mechanisms to this end; however, results fall short of attaining this declared goal.
■ The Action Plan of the Government of Georgia for 2019-2020 dedicates just few sentences to gender equality, mainly placing emphasis on the response to domestic violence. The section on economic vision does not acknowledge a problem of gender inequality and accordingly, does not provide any solutions to it.
■ The country has not revised the Georgia State Concept on Gender Equality. This document was adopted in 2006; in 2018, the Parliamentary Gender Equality Council presented a revised version and set seven years for its further revision – the work is still in progress and is not publicly available to discuss its details.
■ The Action Plan of Parliamentary Gender Equality Council for 2018-2020 pays a particular attention to women’s economic empowerment, including to the development of a new methodology to calculate pay gap and a gender analysis of state budget; however, much will depend on the enforcement timeframe and mechanisms of the action plan.
The recommendations provided below aim at supporting women entrepreneurs in Georgia, in general, and in particular, at overcoming adverse economic effects of Covid-19. Furthermore, offered interventions will improve a general business environment in the country which will positively affect both female and male entrepreneurs.
Recommendations to state entities:
● With the involvement of relevant state entities, draw up a state policy on women’s economic empowerment, which will convey the vision of the government in this area and alongside other issues, will set the aim of supporting women entrepreneurship and eliminating negative effects of Covid-19 pandemic.
● Introduce mandatory gender analysis in public policymaking process in order to assess impact of a new policy, law or measure on gender equality. This may be achieved by introducing Gender Impact Assessment mechanism or improving the existing Regulatory Impact Analysis mechanism and clearly specifying gender indicators in it.
● Analyze the engagement of women in existing economic programs (Enterprise Georgia and Ministry of Agriculture programs), identify factors that impede and facilitate the engagement and implement corresponding changes.
● Incorporate mechanisms oriented on women and girl empowerment (training, mentoring, knowledge expansion and skills development-improvement) in measures designed for women’s economic empowerment and their engagement in business, which will aim at supporting women and girl to obtain agency.
● Ratify a number of international labor agreements that will foster women’s economic empowerment and engagement in business activity: the ILO Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930; the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families; the ILO Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 (No. 183) and the ILO Termination of Employment Convention (No. 158).
● Undertake relevant measures to implement the principle of equal remuneration for equal work performed in order to eliminate a gendered pay gap, and regularly assess remuneration of women and men in all spheres. To this end, develop and introduce a methodology for the assessment of pay rates and performed work.
● Introduce amendments to the Labor Code, which will require from every employer whose employees exceed a set minimum number, to annually present Geostat with segregated gender statistics about employees, including their salaries.
● In cooperation with banking and microfinance institutions, develop special programs which will notably increase access to financial resources.
● Conduct needs assessment of those female entrepreneurs who may additionally experience other type of RECOMMENDATIONS 35 discrimination (on the ground of ethnicity, place of residence/rural settlers, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity), and develop needs-tailored programs that will improve their access to resources.
● Introduce a mechanism of informing women applicants of the reasons of denial to place them in government programs, thereby enabling entrepreneurs to improve their future applications.
● For the aim of increasing access to resources, national action plans and strategies must envisage the introduction of gender budgeting, as an effective means of gender mainstreaming, in all ministries and local self-government bodies.
● To avoid sectoral segregation, introduce gender-sensitive training on all stages of education.
● To increase access to financial resources for women, plan and implement continuous campaigns that will raise awareness of equal rights of women and man to inheritance.
● Amend policy documents to ensure women with free legal aid on issues of land ownership and registration; place special emphasis on rural women.
● Develop technical assistance programs that will help female entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs make a correct and informed choice of a sphere of activity.
● Conduct in-depth survey about factors that prevent women entrepreneurs from expanding their business.
● Make business operation/entrepreneurial activity part of formal education and introduce gender-sensitive training. Pay special attention to training among girls to increase engagement of youth in business activity.
● Plan and implement awareness raising campaigns about sharing domestic work with male family members.
● Prioritize the development of care-related infrastructure (kindergartens, elderly and PWD support programs, rehabilitation centers for children as well as elderly people, etc.) which will significantly facilitate economic empowerment of women, including female entrepreneurs.
● Define the construction and repair of kindergartens in rural settlements as a priority of the Rural Development Strategy of Georgia and specify in the Local Self-Government Code an explicit obligation of ensuring sufficient number of kindergartens up to international standards.
● Create and develop women entrepreneur networks which will be goal-oriented, inclusive and interactive, where women will have opportunity to exchange knowledge, establish contacts, form partnerships and embolden one another.
