With increasing numbers of women entering wage employment, women and labor issues are emerging in the region as new areas of concern. Along with the traditional challenges of achieving greater improvements in women s health, education, access to financial services, and income-generating opportunities, there are new challenges emerging in the region that need to be addressed. Many of these new challenges and emerging areas of concern are conspicuously manifested in the region. Feminization of poverty is a serious concern in Asia, where two thirds of the world s poor reside, of whom two thirds are women. In poor households, women are more disadvantaged than men in terms of their workloads and access to resources and remunerative activity.
Households headed by women are particularly vulnerable.
Disproportionate numbers of women among the poor pose serious constraints to human development because children raised in poor households are more likely to repeat cycles of poverty and disadvantage. The phenomenon of migrant women workers, who are recognized as a vulnerable group in the Beijing Platform for Action, is increasing in the Asian and Pacific region. Migrant women workers contribute substantially to the national economies of several DMCs and are the mainstay of the remittance economy relied upon by many poor urban and rural families. In spite of the valued contribution of migrant women workers not only to their families but also to the economy, there is an absence of protective legislation and regulatory mechanisms to prevent their exploitation and ensure their protection. Disproportionate burdens of structural adjustment and economic transition are borne by women.