THE FEMINIZED FACE OF ECONOMIC CRISIS: WHY SOCIAL PROTECTION MUST BE AT THE HEART OF REGIONAL SOLIDARITY
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Across Asia and the Pacific, economic crises are never neutral. They always have a face, and far too often that face is a woman’s. When energy prices spike due to conflicts in the Middle East, it is usually women who first tighten household budgets. When jobs disappear, women workers in the informal economy are often the first to lose income. And when the state pulls back from its responsibility to provide social protection, women absorb the shock through unpaid care work that remains invisible in official economic accounts.[1][2][3]
For social democrats in Asia and the Pacific, confronting this reality is not optional. It is the starting point for any honest conversation about regional solidarity.[4][5]
NUMBERS THAT DEMAND A RESPONSE
The data are clear. In Asia and the Pacific, 68.2% of all jobs are still in the informal economy, with women overrepresented in the most vulnerable segments: home-based workers, domestic workers, and small-scale vendors. At the same time, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) projects that economic growth in developing Asia and the Pacific will slow to 5.1% in both 2026 and 2027 under an early stabilization scenario. Slower growth in a region with weak social protection means one thing: greater insecurity for those already on the margins, especially women.[2][1]
Globally, the ILO’s World Social Protection Report notes that in the 50 countries most vulnerable to the climate crisis, 2.1 billion people still have no access to social protection. Behind that number are women who cannot afford to fall sick, lose a job, or care for a family member without risking their family’s basic survival.[3]
For young women, these trends are particularly devastating. They translate into precarious work, volatile income, and care responsibilities that are still treated as a private burden rather than a public concern.
A GENERATION OF YOUNG WOMEN ON THE FRONTLINE
The generation that should be shaping the future of this region is entering the labour market under conditions that are deeply unfair. Young women face a toxic mix of stagnant opportunities, insecure contracts, and persistent social norms that assign care work almost exclusively to them.
Many are pushed out of decent work not because they lack skills or ambition, but because the rules of the game were not designed with them in mind. This is not an individual failure. It is a policy failure—and as social democrats, we must name it as a political responsibility.
WHEN THE STATE RETREATS, WOMEN STEP IN
Asia and the Pacific has been one of the fastest-growing regions in the world for decades. Yet it still lacks social protection systems that are universal, rights-based, and genuinely gender-responsive. In practice, this means women take on a disproportionate share of unpaid care work—raising children, looking after older persons, and caring for sick family members—without proper recognition or protection.
When public care services are limited, underfunded, or entirely absent, women are effectively forced to become the social protection system themselves. They plug the gaps left by underdeveloped welfare states with their time, energy, and unpaid labour.
ADB and the ILO have both underlined the importance of expanding social protection and making it more inclusive, including for informal workers and caregivers. But acknowledgement in reports is not enough. Without organised political pressure, these recommendations will remain footnotes rather than policy.[1][3]
WHAT REGIONAL SOLIDARITY SHOULD LOOK LIKE
For a network like Social Democracy Asia Pacific—built to advance social democratic alternatives across the region—this is a call to action, not just an analytical insight.[5][4]
Regional solidarity must move from rhetoric to a concrete agenda:
· Establish a regional minimum standard for social protection that explicitly includes informal workers and recognises care work as a legitimate economic contribution.
· Advance gender-inclusive labour market policies, including equal pay, fair and shared parental leave, and the removal of structural barriers that keep young women out of formal, decent work.
· Treat public investment in care services as a strategic economic investment. Affordable childcare, quality eldercare, and community-based care systems are essential infrastructure for a fair and productive economy.
· Ensure meaningful participation of women—especially young women—in decision-making within parties, parliaments, unions, and regional forums. Policies crafted without the voices of those most impacted will fail to deliver real change.
These are not abstract demands. They are the foundations of a social democratic response to a crisis that is reshaping our societies today.
FROM CRISIS ANALYSIS TO COLLECTIVE COMMITMENTS
The upcoming SocDem Asia Pacific webinar in August 2026 is an opportunity to turn analysis into commitments, and commitments into coordinated action. It should not only document how the crisis has a feminized face, but also map out what our parties, movements, and allies in the region will actually do about it.[6][5]
An economic crisis that falls hardest on women will not be solved by higher GDP growth alone. It requires a redistribution of power, resources, and care responsibilities—away from households and onto the shoulders of states and institutions that can and must act.
As a regional social democratic network, we have a long tradition of fighting for equality, human dignity, and solidarity. That history will only matter if we can answer, clearly and honestly: Who is this growth for? Whose lives are made more secure by the policies we defend and design?[4][5]
If women—particularly young women navigating an unfair labour market—are not yet at the centre of our answer, then our work is not done.
Regional solidarity begins with the courage to see who is most harmed, and the determination to act together so that no one is left to carry the crisis alone.
Sondang Tarida Tampubolon is the Coordinator of Social Democrats Asia Pacific (SocDem Asia Pacific) and Deputy Secretary-General of the National Democratic Party (Partai NasDem), Indonesia. This article is part of the SocDem Asia Pacific editorial series leading up to the webinar “Regional Solidarity in Times of Crisis,” August 2026.
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