Kristine Manalang

GENDER ANALYSIS ON WOOD-BASED INDUSTRIES IN LAGUNA AND QUEZON REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE GENDER VERSUS SEX Gender and sex are two of many social concepts that are being hammered by issues as they are commonly used interchangeably by some people. Hence, distinction between the two should be made. Gender refers to the social difference between men and women that are learned which change over time and have wide variations in and between cultures (P-Gata). It serves as a guide on how an individual think, act or interact with others or his society. It is determined based on the individual’s behavior .It is a culturally constructed pattern because it is a learned behavior dictated by a society. Gender differences vary from one society to another depending on the culturally structured male-females roles. Sex, on the other hand, refers to the biological differences between male and female (PGata). Differentiation between male and female relies on genital, chromosomal, and hormonal distribution (Miller, 2002). Contrary to gender, sex is determined upon conception. An individual can already be classified as a boy or a girl regardless of his or her performance. Cultural anthropology has already attested that a person’s biological makeup does not necessarily correspond to gender (Miller, 2002). WOOD-BASED INDUSTRY Utilization of forest resources is one of the key components of forest management (Calderon, 1999). One of which is the utilization of wood for different wood-based industries. Due to aesthetic value of wood products, its demand has continuously increased for the past years. FAO has estimated that consumption of total roundwood has increased by 40% between 1970 and 1996 wherein 90% of which are in developing countries. Roundwood production is basically used in fuelwood and charcoal. In the case of the use of wood for panels and furniture, it has been observed that the growth for production and demand has been significant in developed and developing countries. Bourke and Leitch (1998) have concluded that 70% of industrial wood products was produced and consumed in developed countries. FAO has also estimated that the expected annual consumption growth for sawnwood and wood-based panels is 1.1% to 1.3%. It has been reported that exports of most wood products have been expanding in terms of value, volume and percentage of global production. This is dominated by developed countries which accounts to 75% of total exports and imports. GENDER AND FOREST – BASED INDUSTRY A key factor in the sustainability of wood-based industries is the assessment of gender differentiation. It evaluates the responsibilities performed by both men and women as part of the industry. In most of the communities, men and women play different roles. In tribal communities, women are the foragers while taking care of their children. Whereas, the men are the hunters during the day in the night, they function as soldiers or guards of the tribe. In modern society, women are the one doing the household chores while men go to work. Women of rural areas are the main harvesters of wood and non-wood forest products. They commonly use small tools or no tools. Such practice causes less or no damage at all to the forest. Men, in contrast, usually engage in firewood or timberwood collection which is more economically lucrative. They use large tool and machineries which causes more damage to the forest. In the case of wood manufacturing industry, women are generally considered as seller rather than worker. Wood manufacturing, such as in furniture industry, is known as the domain of men since it requires heavy works. Selling of the products is handled by women since women are better communicators verbally. However, in some industries women are allowed to work especially in designing furniture. Involvement of women in forest-based industry has given them additional income especially those in the marginalized areas. However, despite their involvement they are still marginalized in terms of trainings and opportunities in technical and managerial positions. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK LOCATION OF THE STUDY The study was conducted in areas within Laguna and Quezon Province. Both province are part of the CALABARZON (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon). The following map shows the areas covered for the study. Legend: - Progreso Soft Products - Agila Furniture Industry - JD Layug Sash Factory RESULTS AND DISCUSSION PROGRESO SOFT WOOD PRODUCT Background of the Industry Progreso Soft Products is owned by Jonathan Limlengco and was established twenty years ago at Progreso, Gumaca in the province of Quezon. Their products include toothpicks, popsicle sticks, ice cream spoons and tongue depressors. During the time of conduct of study, they were manufacturing toothpicks and popsicle sticks. The industry mainly uses the Malapapaya (Polycias nodosa) species in which they have already established a plantation. However, due to lack of silvicultural treatments, the Malapapaya trees are still not yet harvestable. These may be attributed to the problem in spacing due to failure in conducting thinning operations. Acquisition of Raw Materials The wood species that the industry uses were bought from other plantations nearby. For woods with dbh of 14-40cm, the price is 16Php per volume. Woods with higher dbh commands higher price. Since their plantation is still young at eight years, the industry resorts to buying the wood species. Production Flow The following figure illustrates the production flow of the factory. Upon delivery of raw materials, it is sorted as to whether it will be used for toothpick or popsicle production based on its diameter-at-breast-height (dbh) and quality. Woods with small dbh will be used for toothpick making while those with large dbh will be used for popsicle making. However, woods with surface cracks will be used also for toothpick making. Only woods with good quality will be used for popsicle making. After sorting, manual debarking will follow. This is done using a double-handled bolo knife (Fig. 1). Fig. 1. A double-handled bolo knife used in manual debarking. Woods with smaller dbh take 20 seconds to debark per piece while those with larger dbh takes 19 seconds per piece. Since this is a manual process, the time for debarking depends on how fast the debarker works. The wood is then fed into the veneer lathe. Here, the log is stripped like a paper of about 1.06 mm thick, thus be turned into rolls of veneers(Fig. 2). Fig. 2. Woods are turned into veneers. After the rotary veneering, the veneers will pass the grinding process wherein it is inserted into the toopick puncher. The punching one roll of veneer takes about ten minutes to produce toothpicks. The workers just estimates the number of toothpicks produced in a roll of veneer. The amout of toothpicks vary per roll of veneer. After producing toothpicks, the finished products are now ready for the drying process (Fig. 3). It takes seven hours to dry up tons of toothpicks. The products are dried separately. Fig. 3. Toothpicks inside the kiln ready for drying. After drying, the finished products undergo grading process. The dried products were transferred into a grading machine which continuously vibrates. The machine have openings which enables the rejected pieces to fall. The graded products were then stacked into a arranger. The arrangers were put into shelves ready to be packed. The last stage of production is the packing stage. The toothpicks and spoons were packed aseptically in a separate room. Workers in the packing areas were required to wear laboratory gowns and face masks. In the toothpick station, workers can pack a box of toothpick at 7.8 seconds per box (Fig. 4). Twenty-four boxes of toothpicks were then sealed in a plastic which takes about 15.7 seconds. Fig. 4. A woman worker packing a box of toothpick. The sealed boxes were then put in a larger boxes ready to be delivered. Each large box contains 576 small boxes of toothpick (24 x 24 boxes). Gender Analysis The factory employs about about forty-two people, eighteen of which are men, and the others are composed of women. Men dominates the production flow, except for the packing stage given that all work involve use of heavey raw materials and machineries. The sorting and packing are given to women since the workload is easier than that of the men’s. Eighteen women do the sorting and packing of toothpick products while about six women work at the ice-cream stick station. Both groups are given equal benefits and leniency by the management. Hence, workers are at ease with their positions and that they are satisfied with their workplace and workloads. The management is also indulgent when it comes to breaktime. So long as the workers have finished their jobs, they could have a break any time. Before a woman is fully employed, she undergoes probation wherein she is given a quota. For three consecutive months, she must be able to fill to large boxes with small packs of toothpicks every working day. Two of the women interviewed said that if other women workers want to last in the workplace, then they should have enough patience. Most of the women worked for the factory for more than ten years already. Women are paid in bulks of toothpicks, popsicles, or ice-cream spoons. One large box of toothpick amounts to Php 106.00. A woman finishes an average of fifteen boxes a day so she is paid Php 1,590.00 if all of the boxes are sold. However, the men are paid daily with Php 280.00, dependending on their workload. Most of the workers of Progreso Soft Wood Product are household heads. A lot of them are aged 40 and above and have their own family. Some are even husbands and wives, sisters/brothers, fathers/sons, even cousins. Since this is the case, their income becomes sufficient enough for their households. AGILA FURNITURE INDUSTRY Background of the Industry The Agila Furniture Industry has been running for two years now under the ownership of Arnhel Van Catapang, a former OFW. Most of the industry’s products are furnitures made up of rattan and wood. They only manufacture rattan products while their wood furnitures were bought readymade. It is a small-based industry owned by a family, thus employing only a few number of workers. Fig. 5. One of the researchers during an interview with the owner. Acquisition of Raw Materials The rattans used by the industry as raw materials were bought in Balintawak (Fig. 6). Fig. 6. Rattans used as raw materials. Production Flow The following figure illustrates the production flow of the industry. Upon acquisition of rattan raw materials, it is then treated by heating. Heat treatment of rattan makes it malleable. After treating, it is then framed according to desired products. Only one worker is assigned to do this job (Fig 7). His salary depends on the type and size of the frame done. For framing stools, his salary ranges from Php 150.00 to Php 250.00 depending on the size, while big sofa costs Php 1000.00. Fig. 7. A worker making rattan frames. After doing the frames, the next step would be the weaving. In weaving, the abaca ropes will be weaved in the prepared frames (Fig. 8). Salaries of workers doing the weaving also depend on the products. Their salaries range from Php 400.00 to Php 700.00. Fig. 8. Workers weaving abaca ropes in a mojacco chair. Gender Analysis Agila Furniture industry does not employ women as their laborers. Since their sales are focused on delivering, Catapang found it practical to hire only men who can both lift furnitures and at the same time do the sales talk. As for the rattan furniture making, there are still no women employees. Lifting materials takes time and is energy-consuming. Also, women tend to work a little bit slower because they are more concerned about the details of their work. JD LAYUG SASH FACTORY Background of the Industry The JD Layug Sash factory is owned by Lody Sanchez for seven years already. This industry specializes in manufacturing wooden doors and panels. Their raw materials include White Lauan (Shorea contorta), Narra (Ptericarpus indicus), and Red Lauan (Shorea nigrensis). Fig. 9. One of the researchers interviewing one of the workers. Acquisition of Raw Materials The woods used by the industry were bought from Cavite. Their latest purchase has amounted to Php 4,ooo.oo. Gender Analysis In contrast to other family-owned industry, the head of household of the said business was Lody Sanchez, a woman. Based on what the interviewee said, Lody Sanchez has received the highest form of education thus making her worthy of managing both the household and the business. Since the family business focuses on door-making and includes heavy raw materials plus heavy and complicated equipments, the owners opted not to hire women employees. Also, doormaking involves a lot of strength and perfection in crafting the designs. Since men are more adaptable to carpentry, there is no need to employ women. CONCLUSION Employment of men and women depends on the availability of the work and its description. For a family-owned wood furniture business, it is only practical to employ only men since their production entails heavy works. This involves lifting and delivering products to their clients and prospective buyers. Employing men makes the industry more efficient in terms of cost and opportunity inputs for it saves them effort, time and money. In line with this, the allocation of men and women then is segregated from skills or preferences that may be defined by the limitations or restrictions on opportunity upon applying for a job (Afshari, 2001b). Apart from this, Yuan Juanwen (As cited by Linlin) says that “… men give more emphasis to the utilization of commercially oriented products such as timber, coal and charcoal.” Hence, most of the wood-based industries not only in CALABARZON, but nationwide, prefer employing men since working for these industries have something to do with weighty materials and arduous work. However, for a large factory producing light products, such as the Progreso Soft Wood Products, employing women workers is a must. The production flow of Progreso includes a detailed workmanship which is fit for women. This is because women in nature are very keen and a perfectionist hence, making them more efficient in packing than men. Also, as we all know, education plays a major role when it comes to hiring people, though this is the least of the worries of the Progreso Soft Wood Products’ owner. What’s important for the owner is that the men he hired or is going to hire is strong and healthy and can carry on hours of heavy work. For women, patience is a major factor that’s why women hired are given a quota and underwent probationary months. The same goes with the two family-owned wood furniture business, though they prefer to hire men rather than women. By this we conclude that not all wood-based industries are closed to the fact that women are needed in their workforce. Though women may lack the necessary strength needed in delivering, lifting, and using materials and machines, women of Progreso Soft Wood Products proved that with patience and dedication, they can contribute in producing high quality wood products and that women can also provide or contribute something for their households. LITERATURE CITED Afshari, Z. (2001). Women’s Participation in the Industrial Sector of Iran: Evaluating the scopes for creating jobs for women. University of Michigan. Linlin, M. (2009). The Relevace and Impact of Gender Issues on the Outlook fro Forestry to 2020 in North Asia. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific. Bangkok. Miller, B. (2002). Cultural Anthropology. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. FAO/ECE/ILO (2000). Gender in Forest-based Small and Medium Enterprises. Twarog, S. (2000). Trade, Sustainable Development and Gender in the Forestry Sector. UNCTAD.