page_title: Gender inequality in Thailand
section_title: Employment segregation by gender in Thailand
hierarchical_section_title: Gender inequality in Thailand / Employment segregation by gender in Thailand
caption_attribution_description: English: Certified nurse "Som" (a resident of Nakhoon Yai) in Na Wa Public Hospital (Thailand).
context_page_description: The social and economic changes in Thailand in the past decades have important implications for the quality and quantity of labor. The economic and non-economic roles of women in Thailand can be traced back several hundred years in Thai history, when there were traditional discriminatory attitudes towards women in the culture of Thailand. The transformation of Thailand's social and economic structure since the 1960s led to the gender disparities in Thai society. Recently, the position of Thai women in the labor market has improved a lot in comparison to the past as a result of modernization. In 2011, Thailand ranked 69th out of 143 countries in the Gender Inequality Index. In labor economics, gender inequality is widely discussed in terms of concepts of sex segregation and employment discrimination. Thai government and non-governmental organizations have put forth many policies and programs to address gender inequalities in the last few decades.
context_section_description: Thailand's economic transformation from an agricultural to an industrial economy in the 1960s reduced the demand for labor on farms and, in the meantime, increased the demand for unskilled labor in the factories. As a result, unskilled female laborers migrate from poor rural areas to the urban areas to work for minimum wages or less, as can be seen in female workers tendency to concentrate in low-paid, low-skilled occupations.
  In 2011, the majority of Thai women labor force concentrated in agricultural, wholesale and retail trade, and manufacturing sectors, which employed approximately 39.17%, 16.22% and 14.63% of the total female labor force, respectively, in comparison to 69.6%, 8.1% and 2.3%, respectively in 1980. These figures demonstrate the large-scale reallocation of women workers from the agricultural sector to the retail trade and manufacturing sectors. 
  In 2011, women accounted for 46.21% of the total employment rate. Most of this employment was in informal activities. Out of the total female labor force, 62.49% were occupied in the informal sector, which was nearly identical to the proportion of male workers who were employed in the informal sector.
  The types of job occupied by each sex are also different. The industries/occupations that Thai men dominated include:
  Agricultural (55.8%)
  Mining and quarrying (83.6%)
  Public administration and defense (64.0%)
  Water supply (69.7%)
  Construction (84.6%)
  Transportation storage (86.9%)
  Information and communication (64.8%)
  Professional, Scientific and technical (52.4%)
  Administrative and support services (57.7%)
  Electricity, gas, stream supply industry (81.17%).
  The numbers in the parentheses show the number of men workers as a percentage of the total employment in each industry (occupation) as of 2011.
  Women were, in contrast, occupied in the industries/occupations such as: 
  Accommodation and food service (64.2%)
  Financial and insurance activities (55.5%)
  Real estate activities (55.7%)
  Education (61.1%)
  Human health and social work (75.9%)
  Activities of household employers (82.1%)
  Activities in international organizations (100.0%)
  Other service activity industry (55.3%).
  The numbers in the parentheses show the number of women workers as a percentage of the total employment in each industry (occupation) as of 2011.
  In summary, in 2011 male workers were heavily employed in the transportation, mining, and building trades while female workers were largely employed in clerical and service occupations. 
  Occupational segregation by sex is widely associated with gender wage disparity. As elsewhere, men's jobs in Thailand are mostly blue-collar jobs, which require specific skills with higher pay, while women's jobs are mostly white-collar jobs. After controlling for the effects of the differences in education, work experience and location, that may reflect the income disparity between men and women, the study of Son (2011) indicates that wage pays largely contribute to the income disparity between men and women.
  As of 2011, almost a third of women in the labor force were unpaid family workers, in contrast to 16% of men. Out of the total female labor force, 50.78% are engaged in the informal sector. Many of these workers work part-time or are temporarily employed in family businesses. In 2000, 7.5% of employed female workers were reported to work as part-time workers. As of the first quarter of 2012, 43.93% of Thai women, beside those who were too young or too old, were out of the labor force because of household duties and 22.21% were students.
  Preference of workers and cultural factors that lead to job segregation are the causes of gendered wage disparity as well. The labor markets are embedded with societal gender norms that shape the preferences of employers and workers on choices of jobs that are appropriate to each sex.
caption: Thai nurse in Na Wa Public Hospital
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