Filipinas now dominate the number of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWS) according to the Philippine Statistics Authority. The data show that out of 2.3 million Filipinos working abroad, 55.8 percent of them are women.
This is a major shift from in the 2000 data that showed 53.9 percent of the OFW labor force are male dominated.
“Employment of women in household service, nursing and waiting/bartending is now largely more prominent than manual or skilled industrial work,” according to a Senate report obtained by ABS-CBN News.
OFW advocate and former Labor Undersecretary Susan Toots Ople explained that the demand for domestic workers continue to grow in Middle East countries.
She adds that majority of those who hired domestic workers are busy with careers and their work.
“Hindi naman iyan katulad dito na puwede mong ipakiusap sa in-laws o sa lola,” Ople told ABS-CBN News.
Life of a ‘Househusband’
A former OFW in United Kingdom also shared how a shift in roles took place when his wife left the country to work as a Singapore supermarket manager.
Randy Granada worked as an undocumented OFW for 12 years he went home to the Philippines in 2012.
Granada now takes over the role of managing household chores and raising their teenage kids while his wife is abroad who comes to the Philippines thrice a year.
Changing roles
Clinical Psychologist Lourdes Carandang also told ABS-CBN news that men left to take care of their home suffer from deflating ego or self-esteem.
“Hindi nila alam ang gagawin. They felt bad because parang iyung ego nila, hindi kami dapat ang andito,” said Carandang.
She adds there is a need to ‘change’ people’s minds when it comes to gender roles. Carandang said that parents should not instill to children’s minds that household work is only for women.
