MANILA — The current economic crisis is deepening faster than even the most pessimistic of experts predicted just a few months ago. The effects are already trickling down to ordinary working people.
In the Asia-Pacific, the International Labor Organization has projected that as many as 27 million more people could become unemployed this year. One hundred forty million others in the region's developing economies could be forced into extreme poverty.
Without a doubt, everyone will be touched by this crisis. Yet what is so far lacking in many of the debates on how countries should respond is a realization that this crisis has a gender bias. Here in Asia, working women will be affected more severely, and differently, from their male counterparts.