ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Policy Brief - Empowering Female Workforces for The Future of Work: Redefining Productivity and Work/Life Balance

ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Policy Brief – Empowering Female Workforces for The Future of Work: Redefining Productivity and Work/Life Balance

- This policy brief focuses on female professional office workers and female domestic workers as a proxy for workers in general.
- Implementation of hybrid and flexible work arrangements, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, have reshaped workplace dynamics, increased productivity and helped the target groups mention above to better manage their professional and caregiving responsibilities, and maintain a better work/life balance. This has led to greater workplace gender inclusivity, especially for caregivers.
- However, women continue to face blurred boundaries between work and home life, substantial caregiving burdens, and career setbacks due to persistent gender expectations and biases associated with flexible work.
- Current policy gaps exacerbate these challenges. Frequently, parental leave policies and workplace support structures do not fully address women’s unequal caregiving burden, while a lack of standardised flexible work practices or arrangements has perpetuated gendered expectations and workplace inequality.
- Women domestic workers face substantial challenges due to the nature of their work, which often requires live-in arrangements that blur personal/professional boundaries, long working hours, limited access to social protections, and a lack of privacy.

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Headline	Empowering Female Workforces for The Future of Work: Redefining Productivity and Work/Life Balance
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Barcode number	<000000019403>
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