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Key
Figures
Why Gender Concerns?
Although women's
contribution in national socio-economic development is crucial for
Thai society, women remain unequal partners and gain unequal benefit
from the development process. This is so mainly because there is inadequate
gender awareness in the policy and planning process for national development
as women's roles are always stereotyped by social values. Thus Thai
women who account for half of the country's human resources are unavoidably
devalued and overlooked. Why gender statistics?
Gender statistics
can provide the right perception of women's and men's roles in reality.
They help understand the actual situation of women and men in society,
and help demolish stereotypes. Gender statistics can also show inequalities
to persuade policy makers to change policies, give a basis for formulation
of policies effective for both women and men. Moreover, gender statistics
can be used as a tool to monitor and evaluate policies and measures.
1.
Population
Thailand
ranks 18th in the world population 1998 and 4th in South East Asia.
Between 1970 and 2000, women have slightly outnumbered the men in
the total population. In 1999, women accounted for 50.2 percent
of the total population and there were 99.5 men per 100 women in
the country.
Table 1 : Population size by sex, 1970,1980,1990,1999 and 2000
The Balance
of Women and Men
In
1999, women is slightly outnumbered than men. The number of men
at age-group 0-49 year are higher than women, especially in the
non-municiple area. However the men at the age over 50 is less than
the women.
Table 2 : Sex ratio by
area,1999
Age-Sex Structure The
age structure of the population indicates the needs for healthcare
facilities, education and other services. It also regulates entries
into and withdrawals from the workforce. Social relationships within
a community are considerably affected by the relative numbers at
each age. The population pyramids showing age-sex distribution in
1999. Population of working age (15-59 years) in the municipal area
is more than in the non-municipal area, but young age (0-14 years)
and elderly (60 and over) are higher.
Figure
1 : Age sex distribution in 1999
Figure
2 : Population by age group and sex,1980,1990,1999 and 2010
between
1980 and 2010, the proportional share in total population of children
below 15 years decreased while that of elderly persons 60 years
and over increased. The percentage share of men in the young age
group is slightly higher than the corresponding share for women.
On the contrary, the proportion of men in the older age group is
lower than that of women. With an increase in the share of persons
in the working age-group 15-59 years, the dependency ratios for
both women and men have decreased over the years. The dependency
ratio is defined as the number of persons in a population who are
not economically active per 100 economically active persons in that
population. It is usual to use as a rough guide the ratio of the
population aged 0-14 years and 60 years and over to the population
in the age group 15-59 years.
Natural
Growth
The
decline in fertility, in combination with the better health of the
population, has resulted in a reduction of the natural growth rate
by half within 30 years.
Table
3: Crude Birth Rate, Crude Death Rate, Rate of Natural Growth and
Total Fertility Rate, 1964-1996
Figure 3: Crude Birth Rate and
Crude Death Rate, 1964 -1996
Fertility
Fertility
has now approached replacement level (TFR=2), that is, an average
of 2 children born per woman who have completed their reproductive
cycle. This means that there has been a considerable reduction in
the burden of child-bearing.
Figure
4: Total Fertility Rate, 1964-1996
Total Fertility
Rate (TFR) is the total number of livebirths per woman surviving
the childbearing ages, and is calculated from the age specific fertility
rates of current period.
Internal
Migration
The
internal migration in 1997 is approximately 5.2, the proportional
of women is about 10 percent less than men. It can be seen that
the rural to urban migration of women is higher than men. As the
job opportunity for women to work in the factory or other services
is more than men in urban.
Table 4 : Distribution
of the population by sex, migration status and type, 1997
Marital
Status of Migrants
The
migrants in 1994 an 1997 was almost equally. The proportion of the
migrants who were either single or currently married was conciderably
lower for women than for men, but ever-married is higher.
Table 5 : Migrants aged
15 years and over by sex and marital status, 1994 and 4997
Education
of Migrants
Table
6 : Percentage distribution of migrants aged 5 years and over by
sex and educational attainment,1994 and 1997
Table 7 : Percentage distribution
of migrants by sex and reasons for migration, 1994 and 1997
Figure 5 : Percentage distribution of migrants aged 13 years
and
over in various types of economic activitices, 1997
Table 8 : Distribution
of migrants aged 13 years and over by sex and type of economic activities,1994
and 1997
Population
of Elderly
Between
1993 and 1997, the population of elderly were higher for women than
for men. Elder index have increased between 1993 and 1997.
Table 9 : Sex ratio of
population aged 60 years and over,1993-1997
Table 10 : Number of elderly
in the home 60years and over, 1994-1998
Disabled
Population
Men
have outnumbered the women in the total disabled population. The
sex ratio of disabled persons in 1991 and 1996 was 158.2 and 139.6 respectively.
It can be seen that men are more disability from accident,but women
are at their birth.
Table
11: Disabled population by age group and sex, 1994 and 1996
Table 12 : Percentage
distribution of disabled population by cause of disability
and sex, 1996
Table 13 : Disabled population
by government assistance needed and sex , 1996
Table 14: Disabled population
need government assistance by kind of governmental assistance need
and sex , 1996
2. Household and Family
The household
is the smallest group of persons living together, taking collective
decisions and making common provision for food and other essentials.
The composition of a household including factors such as its size,
age, sex, marital status and education of its members, are crucial
in determining the roles and status of women and men within it.
Household Size
During the past
three decades, household size has gradually decreased mainly because
of the decline in fertility. This implies that, to some extent, the
burden of taking care of a large number of household members has been
reduced for women.Table
15 : Average household size, 1965-2000
Household
Structure
Nuclear family
households constitute the bulk of the households in Thailand. Women
in such households are usually deprived of the traditional source
of child care and other support available in the extended family system.
| Household
Structure :
- Unrelated
individuals: A single person household or a person residing
with non-related person.
- Nuclear
family: Husband and /or wife with /without unmarried children
/unmarried relatives.
- Extended
family: Husband and /or wife with married and /or unmarried
children.
|
Figure
6: Household structure by sex of household head, 1970,1980,1990 Table
16: Percentage distribution of households by type and sex of household
head, 1996
Marriage
Patterns
Marriage patterns
differ for women and men. Women tend to get married at an earlier
age than men, and are more likely to be widowed. Compared to men,
there was nearly proportion married and a smaller proportion single
among women in 1990 and 1995. However, the percentage of married women,
as well as married men tend to increase slightly with a decrease in
the proportion of the single persons. Table
17: Singulate mean age at first marriage, 1970, 1980 and 1990Figure
7: Marital status of the population aged 13 years and over, 1990 and
1995Figure
8 : Percentage distribution of the population aged 13-29 years by
marital status and sex, 1990 and 1995
Figure
9 : Percentage distribution of the population aged 30-59 years by
marital status and sex, 1990and 1995
More women than
men under age 30 were married, but at aged 30 and above, a higher
percentage of men than women remained married.Figure
10: Percentage of currently married women and men by age groups, 1990
and 1995
Household
HeadWomen are not
usually enumerated as heads of households unless they are either living
alone or there are no adult men in the households. Only about 24 percent
of the households in Thailand are headed by women, and over half of
the women household heads are widowed.Figure
11 : Percentage distributions of household head by marital status
and sex, 1994 and 1996
Table
18 : Percentage distribution of households by age and sex of household
head, 1980, 1990 and 1995
3. Health
The
improvement in the quality of health service delivery in combination
with the achievement and maintenance of a better quality of life
among the Thai population has resulted in a remarkable reduction
in mortality and in an increase in life expectancy at birth.
Average
life expectancy and infant mortality
Women
live longer than men. However, the gaps between the average expectancy
of life for women and men has been widening.
| Average
life expectancy is the average number of years new born children
may be expected to live if subject to mortality risks prevailing
for the cross-section of population at the time of their birth. |
Table 19 : Life expectancy at birth (in year) 1985,1989,1991 and 1995
Table 20 : Infant Mortality
Rate and Child Mortality Rate, 1964-1965, 1974-1975,
1985-1986 and 1996-1997
Figure
12 : Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), 1964-1965, 1974-1975
The
death rate among female infants is lower than the rate for male
infants.
Since 1975, the gap between the two rates has been narrowing.
Reproductive
Health
Reproductive
health has a pervasive effect on women's lives. It also influences
their life styles, life changes and personal alternatives. In Thailand,
maternal and child care has been remarkably improved. However, along
with late marriage, women are also having children at a later age.
As a result, older women bearing children, especially the first
child, face increasing risk of complications during pregnancy and
delivery
| Maternal
deaths are deaths among women as a result of complications
of pregnancy, childbirth and puerperium. |
Table
21: Maternal death rate, 1980-1997
Complications
of labor and delivery are the main causes of maternal death in Thailand.
Table
22: Distribution of maternal deaths by major causes,1996-1997
Family
PlanningThe
proportion of currently married women in the reproductive age using
contraception is reported to have increased between 1994 and 1997.
Women constitute the bulk of the new family planning acceptors;
only 7 percent of these acceptors were men.
Table
23 : Percentage of new family planning acceptors by method, 1994 -1997
Figure 13: Percentage of new sterilization acceptors by sex, 1994
- 1997
Malnutrition
Time
series data indicate that the incidence of malnutrition among infants
and pre-school children has decreased considerably between 1991
and 1997. This decline could largely be attributed to improvements
in health and education of the mothers.
Table
24 : Percentage of infant and pre-school children suffering from
various degrees of malnutrition, 1991-1997
Table 25 : Prevalence
of malnutrition among children, 1993 - 1997
Sex
Differentials in General HealthSome
diseases are related to the sex, while others are probably related
to differing exposure to risk factors for women and men. In Thailand,
the first two leading causes of death between 1995 and 1997 were
heart disease, accidents and poisonings. Men are more exposed to
the risk of death from these principal causes than women.
Table
26 : Death by principal cause group, 1996 - 1997
Table 27: Population reported
admission to hospital by group of diseased
and sex,1995
AIDS
SituationIn
recent years, AIDS has become a growing public health concern in
the country with several hundred thousands feared to be infected
with the HIV virus. However, between September 1984 and May 1999,
only 114,837 cases have been officially recorded, of which women
patients amounted to 20.7 percent. A very high proportion of men
and women infected with HIV virus are in the active reproductive
ages. Of great concern is the possibility of infected mothers transferring
the disease to their babies.
Figure
14 : AIDS patients by age group and sex, September 1984-May 1999 Table
28 : Distribution of AIDS patients by risk factor and sex, 1994-1998.
4. Education and Training For the country
as a whole, women appear to have a lower level of education than men.
The illiteracy rate among women is higher than the rate of men. The
proportion of persons with no education is also higher among women
than among men. The educational situation of women has improved substantially
during the past two decades, at a rate faster than for men. However,
the gap between women and men still remains wide.
|
Literacy: A person is deemed as literate if she or he can read
and write with understanding in any language. A person who can
merely read but cannot write is not considered as literate. |
Table
29: Illiteracy rate by area and sex, 1970, 1980 and 1990
Figure
15: Illiteracy rate by age group and sex, 1980 and 1990
Table
30: Percentage distribution of women and men aged 6 years and over
by grade of school completed , 1970, 1980 and 1990 Available data
for the population as a whole shows that women appear to have less
access to education than men. This is because the figures include
the old generation women who generally had limited access to education.
But recent statistics and indicators on education, such as number
of students in various levels, opportunity rates, indicate that the
present generation generally has equal access to education. However,
gender inequality still remains in terms of major fields of studies.
Women tend to enroll in courses such as liberal arts and home economic
which conform to their socially defined roles.
|
Opportunity rate at educational level A = no. of student at
level A X 100 0 no. of population who are in the eligible age
for level A |
Table
31 :Percentage distribution of students in the formal school system
by Educational level and sex Academic year 1996 and 1998
Table
32 : Opportunity rate of students by education level and sex , Academic
year 1996 1998
Figure
16: Percentage distribution of students in the formal vocational education
under the Ministry of Education by type of course and sex , Academic
year 1996 and 1997
Table
33: Participation in courses of private vocational institutes by sex
, 1996-1998Figure17:
Percentage distribution of students at undergraduate level in public
institutions by sex , 1997 and 1998Table
34: Percentage distribution of students under thedepartment of non-formal
by educational activities , 1997Table
35: Percentage distribution of graduates under the department of non-formal
by educational activities, 1997Table
36 : Percentage of children and youth 6-24 year of age not attending
school by level of education completed and sex,1992 and 1997
Table
37: Percentage of children and youth 13-19 year of age not attending
school by reasons for not attending school and sex ,1997Table
38 : Percentage of children and youth 13-19 year of age not attending
school by most of the time used after leaving school and sex ,1997
5. Work and Employment
Work
/ Employment Unequal Access to Employment for Women and Men
Although the
number of women and men of working age (13 years and over) is almost
equal, more women than men have consistently been classified as "not being in the labor force". Among these, a large proportion
are housewives, whose contributions were unrecorded or who were
considered as economically inactive.
| Persons
in the labor force include all persons aged 13 years and over,
who during the survey week were employed, unemployed or were
classified as seasonally inactive. |
Figure
18 : Percentage distribution of persons "in the labor force" and "not
in the labor
force" by sex, August 1998Figure
19 : Percentage share among women and men of persons "in the labor
force"
and "not in the labor force" by labor force status categories, August
1998 The female labor
force participation rate in Thailand is relatively high compared to
expounding rate in many other countries.Table
39 : Percentage distribution of persons in the labor force by residence
and sex ,
August 1991-1998
Figure 20 : Labor force participation
rates , August 1986-1998Figure
21 : Labor force participation rates by age and sex, August 1998 Table
40 : Percentage distribution of women and men by labor force status,
August
1994 - 1998
Women have consistently
had higher rates of unemployment than men over time but between 1997 and 1998 unemployment rates of women and men had almost
equal.Figure
22 : Unemployment rates by sex , August 1989-1998Table
41 : Percentage distribution of unemployed persons by duration of
employment
and sex, August 1996-1a998Table
42 : Percentage distribution of unemployed women and men by duration
of uunemployment, August 1996-1998Both government
and private sectors appear to employ more men than women.Table
43 : Percentage distribution of employed persons in government and
private
sectors by sex , August 1991-1998
Women's
Working World Differs from that of Men in Regard to Employed
Status, Type of Work and Amount of Pay Women's
employment status is relatively lower than that of men. Although some
well-educated women have achieved considerable occupational advancement,
many women still remain concentrated in traditional and relatively
low status workTable
44 : Percentage distribution of employed persons by employment status
,
August 1996-1998Today, nearly
half of the women in the labor force work as unpaid family workers.Table
45 : Percentage distribution of employed women and men by employment status , August 1996-1998
ore women than
men worked in sales, services, and professional occupations,whereas far more men than women were concentrated in transport, administrative
and craft work.
Figure
23 : Percentage distribution of employed persons by occupation , August 1996-1998 About half of
the women and men in the labor force work as farmers.
Table
46 : Percentage distribution of employed women and men by major occupational
group , August 1996-1998Table
47: Percentage distribution of employed persons by industry , August
1996-1998 Table
48 : Percentage distribution of employed persons by employment status,
sex and occupation , August 1998Table
49 : Percentage share among employed women and employed men by employment
status, sex and occupation , August 1998
Working in
Private Section
In 1998 the
establishment, women's employment status was lower than men. More
men than women worked in Director, Department Manager and Supervisor,
whereas far more women than men were concentrated in Officer.
The average
monthly pays per capita by level of working status were found that
men were recieved more than women.Table
50 : Percentage of worker in private section by size of establishment,
level of
position and sex, 1998Table
51 : Average monthly income of worker by size of establishment, level
of position
and sex, 1998
6. Economic Status
Nowadays women
participate in economic activity more than in the past. Although the
remarkable growth of the Thai economy during the past decade has provided
women with increased income-earning opportunities,a high proportion
of women in the workforce continue to be classified as unpaid family
workers on farms or other family business enterprises.
Table
52 : Distribution of unpaid family workers by industry and sex, August
1998
In 1998, the
majority of employed persons earned less than 128 baht per day which
was lower than the official minimum wage during that time. This proportion
was higher among women (61.7 %) than men (55.2 %).
Table
53 : Employed persons by income and sex, August 1998Figure
24 : Percentage distribution of employed persons by income and sex
for selected occupation, August 1998
Table
54 : Percentage distribution of employed women and men by income group
and occupation, August 1998
Household
Income
Households
headed by women are generally poorer than those headed by men, but
it is contrary in 1996. The reason for this may be, the households
headed by women gained income from current transfer (pension, scholarship
and others, etc.)
Table
55 : Average monthly income of household by source of income and sex
of household head, 1996
Table
56 : Average monthly income of household by socio-economic class,
residence and sex of household head, 1996 Household
Expenditures
The expenditures
of households headed by women are less than those headed by men. The
expenditure for food and beverage is highest. The households headed
by men spend almost twice for cigarette and alcoholic drink than those
headed by women. The other expenditures are not so different.
Table
57 : Average monthly expenditures of houselolds by type of expenditure,
residence and sex of household head,1996
7. Dicision Making
Decision-Making
Political
Power
Women's
access to political power has been severely limited, with women
constituting less than 6 percent of the total number of members
of parliament. This is so partly because of the low participation
of women in politics, and partly because of the unequal opportunities
for women and men. Many factors influence the chance of winning
in a national election; qualifications of the candidate; political
party affiliation; resources available and number of candidates
competing. Sex of the candidate may not be an important factor.
Statistics shows that being a woman does not limit the chance of
being successful in a national elections. However, other than national
elections, women appear to have less opportunities than men in sharing
power in politics. Thai women were given the right to vote or to
stand for election in 1932, but women were first elected to parliament
only in 1949.
Table
58 : Number and percentage distribution of members of parliament by
sex, 1986 - 1996 The number of
women candidates at national elections has increased over the years.
Table
59 : Number and percentage distribution of candidates for parliamentary
election by sex, 1986 - 1996 Table
60 : Women and men candidates elected as a percentage of number of
candidates contesting national elections, 1986 - 1996 In1996, more
women than men voted at the national elections. The proportions of
actual voters to eligible voters for women were also higher than men.
Table
61 : Percentage distribution of voters in the national election, 1996
Table
62 : Actual voters as percentage of eligible voters, 1996 Very few women
were appointed by the government to be senators, whose role is to
assist the elected members of parliament on legislative matters. Table
63 : Number and percentage distribution of senators by sex, 1988 -
1996
Participation
in AdministrationWomen have limited
opportunities for promotion to higher level positions. Women officers
are mostly concentrated in the lower levels, whereas a very high proportion
of positions at the higher management and executive levels are occupied
by men. Table
64 : Number and percentage distribution of government officials in
the diplomatic service by sex, 1997 and 1998 Women's participation
in the decision-making process at local level through either appointed
(Provincial Administrators) or elected positions (Local Administrators)
is lower than men. It was only in 1995 that women were appointed as
Provincial Governor and Assistant District Chief Officer for the first
time. Table
65 : Number and percentage distribution of provincial administrators,
1999 Table
66 : Number and percentage distribution of local administrators, 1999
8. Crime and Violence
Crime and violence
have to call for a special attention. Violence taking place at home
or at work is rarely reported, while other reported cases of violence
are under-reported.Table
67 : Number of inmates by sex , 1993 -1998Between 1991
and 1997, men who commit suicide are more than women.Table
68 : Reported cases of suicides, 1991 - 1997Table
69 : Reported cases of suicides by sex and marital status,1993 - 1997Table
70 : Number of prostitutes by place of services,1989 - 1998
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