Table of contents I. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 3 II. The attributes of textile weaving in Laos ........................................................................................ 4 2.1 Overview ..................................................................................................................................... 4 2.2 Women and textile weaving ........................................................................................................ 4 III. The role of women in socio economic development in Laos as a breadwinner .............................. 5 3.1 Role of women in national workforce ......................................................................................... 5 3.2 Role of women in family’s income earning ................................................................................ 5 IV. The case study of women’s income earning from textile weaving in Vientiane capital ................ 6 4.1 Methodology .............................................................................................................................. 6 4.2 Findings and discussion .................................................................................................................... 6 4.2.1 Home-based textile weavers ........................................................................................................... 7 a. The characteristics of weavers ......................................................................................................... 7 b. Cost of weaving textiles .................................................................................................................. 8 c. Income and expenditure ................................................................................................................... 9 4.2.2 Textile weaving entrepreneurs .................................................................................................... 12 a. The nature of business ................................................................................................................... 12 b. Business turnover .......................................................................................................................... 12 4.3 The challenges of weaving work ..................................................................................................... 12 a. The external factors ....................................................................................................................... 12 b. Internal factors ............................................................................................................................... 13 4.4 Overview of assistance to weaving work ....................................................................................... 14 V. Policy recommendations ...................................................................................................................... 15 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................. 16 References ................................................................................................................................................. 17 Annex table ............................................................................................................................................... 18 Abstract The study of weaving textile as an alternative source of income of women in Vientiane capital has tried to illustrate the role of women in family income earning, particularly in the high competitive society at this present. It was found that many skilled weaving textile women are more likely to engage in the weaving led-income generation rather than other causal jobs for supplementary income earning of the family. Weaving textile can help weaver to deal with daily expenditure of her family such as, school fee and food. The contribution of weaving income to the family’s income has made female weavers be recognized as co-breadwinner of the family. The weaving textile activities are not only seen in a form of informal weavers (small scale textile weaving by independent and dependent weavers) but also a formal weavers (weaving textile enterprise). The two forms of weavers have share indifferent views in terms of advantages and problems facing regarding to their work. The paper also includes some policy recommendations before its conclusion which extracted from the research findings in order to introduce some problems solving and raise a concerned of relevant agencies. 2 The contribution of informal work to household income: the case of women’s weaving work in Vientiane capital By Viengsavang THIPPHAVONG* I. Introduction Since the Lao government reformed the economy from a centrally planned to a market economy in 1986, the family income structure also has changed from one highly reliant on government subsidies to one that is more self-reliant. Many households became eager to pursue income earning activities by getting involved in small businesses which are largely of self-employed and informal nature. The families who engaged in this kind of informal work are often motivated by personal skills that some family members possess. For instance, a family may do handicraft work with the skills that the wife or the husband had inherited from her or his ancestors. Textile weaving is one such informal family business activity where the women account for almost the entire workforce in textile weaving in Laos. This is because textile weaving is a self-employed independent work, and it has the advantage of having less time pressures compared to other jobs. Weaving Lao traditional costumes, especially for women’s dresses seems to be the key product that gathers momentum in textile weaving in Laos. In these circumstances, textile weaving has become an important source of income for many families in both rural and urban areas, particularly for the families where husband has a low paid job and the wife does weaving at home to supplement the household income. Weaving Lao traditional costumes has brought about a new feature of financial control in the family as women are now able to help their families or husbands to increase household income and thus improve family well-being. The case study on Sayaboury province (a province in Northern part of Laos) by Kyoko et.al (2000) found that many women in this province engaged in weaving activities generating substantial incomes for their families, while the husbands engaged in work such as raising livestock, feeding chicken and pigs, which earlier used to be women’s work, and now as result has provided more time for their wives for weaving. This has also given women a strong position in controlling family income and expenditure which implies that women have more power in the family. Therefore, weaving work contributes significantly to not only empower women but also to reshape gender equality in the household. A research study on weaving as an alternative income source will help to illustrate the role of women and income earning of the family in Laos in the contemporary era of highly competitive society, where formal employment alone has become insufficient to meet the ever increasing costs of living of an average household. The study will examine the textile weaving activity of women in the Vientiane capital to illustrate how this activity has become an alternative source of family income for women. The case study will focus on two groups of people namely, the home-based textile weaver and the female entrepreneurs who run small and medium sized textile weaving businesses, and analyze the similarities and differences of problems faced by the two groups toward income earning of family. The former group is likely to be an informal activity – not register as a business entity, not pay taxes and not benefit from the legal contracts or effective coverage under the labor and social protection laws of the government. On the other hand, the latter group consists largely of formal enterprises that subject to business registration, tax payment, and be recognized as one of contributing factors to GDP of the country. Therefore, by demonstrating women’s role in family income earning through textile weaving, this case study will provide better understanding of how the benefits from textile weaving can empower women in the family and contribute to family expenditures, what difficulties and challenges textile weavers face, and finally what policy recommendations could be made to the government in order to help weavers to cope with any impediments they face. * A senior economic researcher at the Economic Research Institute for Trade, Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Lao PDR. 3 II. The attributes of textile weaving in Laos 2.1 Overview Textile weaving has been one of Laos’s ancient handicrafts. It has passed through three different eras of socio-economic changes - colonial period, Indochina war, and the New Economic Mechanism - that caused significant impacts on the cultural and economic landscape of the country. Textile weaving sector not only continues to exist but also has come to be recognized as one of the prominent sectors in Lao handicraft. These changes also mark the shift of weaving output distribution that used to be focusing on domestic markets to overseas ones. Shiraishi et.al (2002) demonstrated