GENEVA (ILO News) – The International Labour Organization (ILO) is to host a high-level discussion here to examine concerns over the impact of globalization on women in the world of work and how they can close what Director-General Juan Somavia has called "the glaring gender gaps in today’s world."
The one-day Symposium entitled "Decent Work for Women: ILO’s contribution to Women 2000", will be held Friday, 24 March, at 10:00 hours in the Governing Body Room of the ILO and is part of the follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995. Developments since Beijing will be evaluated during the Symposium and subsequently at the "Women 2000" special session at the United Nations in New York on 5-9 June.
The Symposium will be opened by Mr. Somavia who has strengthened institutional commitment to gender issues since becoming Director-General of the ILO last year. Guest speakers will include Ms. Angela King, Special Adviser on Gender Issues and the Advancement of Women to the Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan, and Ms. Bina Agarwal, Professor of Economics, Institute of Economic Growth, University of Delhi, India. Representatives of governments, workers’ and employers’ organizations as well as non-governmental organizations (NGOs) will also participate.
"Globalization has opened up new opportunities for growth and employment," according to a new book, "Gender: A Partnership of Equals," launched by the ILO’s Bureau for Gender Equality as part of preparations for Women 2000. "But if the institutional framework is wrong, intensified competition on global markets can also lead to a downward spiral in wages and working conditions ... These risks and opportunities are asymmetrical between genders."
The book points out that women face "traditional gender disparities in wages that appear to be widening in globalizing economies" and may lose their jobs because they lack required skills and education or work in jobs that can be subcontracted, relocated or eliminated by labour-saving technologies.
Symposium programme
The ILO Symposium will identify existing obstacles to gender equality, and develop initiatives and actions for the future and lead to an increase in ILO initiatives already taken since the 1995 World Conference on Women. In an effort to address calls for reform in the Platform for Action adopted in Beijing, the ILO has created many programmes in favour of women on such issues as poverty, inequalities in education and training, economic participation, power-sharing and decision-making, national and international machinery, human rights and promotion of the rights of the girl child.
"This symposium will provide a useful opportunity to highlight links between the ILO’s goal of promoting decent work for women and men and the strategic objectives of the Beijing Platform for Action," Mr. Somavia said. "I believe that we have made a good start. But we cannot be complacent, given the glaring gender gaps in today’s world."
Among the topics for discussion at the Symposium will be rights-based and development-based approaches; progress and gaps in decent work for men and women; promoting women workers’ rights; a gender perspective on poverty, employment and social protection; management development and entrepreneurship for women; and, gender in crisis response and reconstruction.
Gender: A Partnership of Equals?
Of the world’s female population, over 70% in developed countries and 60% in developing countries are engaged in paid employment. However, sheer numbers do not necessarily imply greater gender equality. The book "Gender: A Partnership of Equals" shows that:
1. Part time work: Between 65 and 90% of part time workers in industrialized countries are women;
2. Public sector: Women constitute a majority of the workforce in education and health, but hold only 1-2% of jobs in public utilities (water, gas, electricity)
3. Occupational segregation: A majority of workers in the world work in what can legitimately be regarded as "female" or "male" occupations;
4. Export processing zones (EPZs): Between 60 and 90% of workers in EPZs are women, often young and in their first job;
5. Child labour: Some 110 million child workers are girls aged 5 to 14;
6. Trade unions: Despite the fact that women now constitute a significant proportion of union membership – in some sectors 30 to 50% (agriculture, teachers, nurses) – their active participation is still quite limited;
7. Vocational training: Male dominated occupations are seven times more common than female-dominated occupations;
8. Management jobs: Women represent 40% of the world’s labour force but their share of management jobs rarely exceeds 20%, dropping to 2-3% in the largest and most powerful enterprises.