Global employment trends for women. Geneva: ILO, 2008

Review

In 2007, 1.2 billion women around the world worked, almost 200 million or 18.4 per cent more than ten years ago. But, the number of unemployed women also grew from 70.2 to 81.6 million over the same period and in 2007, women at the global level still had a higher likelihood of being unemployed than men. The female unemployment rate stood at 6.4 per cent compared to the male rate of 5.7 per cent. (See table 3.) As for women who do find work, they are often confined to work in the less productive sectors of economies and in status groups that carry higher economic risk and a lesser likelihood of meeting the characteristics that define decent work, including access to social protection, basic rights and a voice at work. Also, as a result of the type of work where women can find employment (in terms of both sector and status), they often earn less than men.

But, is it all bad news concerning female labour market trends? Certainly not, there are some positive trends as well: education levels for women around the world continue to increase and gender gaps for certain labour market indicators are decreasing in many regions. To find which regions are making progress in the economic integration of women and in offering them an equal chance at attaining decent work, this Report is organized according to nine regional trends analyses. The report shows clearly that most regions are making progress in increasing the number of women in decent employment, but that full gender equality in terms of labour market access and conditions of employment has not yet been attained.

Economic empowerment for women has a lot to do with their ability or inability to participate in labour markets and with the conditions of employment that the women who do manage to find work face. The international community stresses more and more the fact that promoting decent work is the only sustainable way out of poverty. In fact, a new target was recently introduced in the Millennium Development Goals calling for “full and productive employment and decent work for all”. There is also growing recognition that labour markets are the key transmission mechanism through which the benefits of growth can be distributed to the poor and disadvantaged groups. Access to labour markets and, more specifically, to decent employment is thereby crucial in the process towards improving equality between men and women. Decent work for women is also a precondition for economic development since, in the long run, economies cannot afford to ignore an untapped resource such as that which could be offered by female labour.

Despite the evident challenges involved in achieving gender equality in the world of work the goal remains a worthy one and the challenges well worth taking up. As of now, however, the fact remains that far fewer women participate in labour markets than men. At the global level less than 70 women (66.9) are economically active for every 100 men. While one should not assume that all women want to work, it is safe to say that women want to be given the same freedom as men to choose to work if they want to; and if they do choose to work, they should have the same chance of finding decent jobs as men.

As stated earlier, this report focuses on female labour market trends at the regional level. Regarding global trends, some significant trends are identified here:

Of all people employed in the world, 40 per cent are women. This share has not changed over the last ten years.

The share of women above the working age (15 years and over in most countries) who are employed (the employment-to-population ratio) was 49.1 per cent in 2007 compared to a male employment-to-population ratio of 74.3 per cent. (See table 4.) Both ratios decreased slightly over the decade. In six out of nine regions, however, female employment-topopulation ratios increased over the last ten years.

In absolute numbers, worldwide there were equal numbers of women and men above the age of 15 years in 2007 (2.4 billion of each), but among these only 1.2 billion women were employed as opposed to 1.8 billion men.

In developed countries a portion of the employment gap can be attributed to the fact that some women freely choose to stay at home because they can afford to not enter the labour market. Yet in some lesser-developed regions of the world, remaining outside of the labour force is not a choice or the majority of women but an obligation; it is likely that women would opt to work in these regions if it became socially acceptable to do so. This of course does not mean that these women remain at home doing nothing; most are heavily engaged in household activities. Regardless, because most female household work continues to be classified as non-economic activity, the women who are thus occupied are classified as outside of the labour force.

Attracting more women into the labour force requires as a first step equal access to education and equal opportunity in gaining the skills necessary to compete in the labour market. More women are gaining access to education, but equality in education is still far from the reality in some regions.

In addition, broadening access for women to employment in an enlarged scope of industries and occupations will be important to enhancing opportunities for them in the labour market. Society’s ability to accept new economic roles for women and the economy’s ability to create the jobs to accommodate them are the key prerequisites to improving labour market outcomes for women, as well as for economic development on the whole.

Overall, there is not a significant difference between the sexes when it comes to young people’s (aged 15 to 24 years) search for work. The unemployment rate of female youth at 12.5 per cent is only slightly higher than the male rate of 12.2 per cent. (See table 3.) A young person’s likelihood to be unemployed continues to be three times higher than for adults.

Whereas ten years ago agriculture was still the main employer for women, the services sector now provides the majority of female jobs: out of the total number of employed women in 2007, 36.1 per cent worked in agriculture and 46.3 per cent in services. Male sectoral shares in comparison were 34.0 per cent in agriculture and 40.4 per cent in services.

The poorer the region, the greater the likelihood that women are among the ranks of the contributing family workers or own-account workers. The two statuses together make up the newly defined “vulnerable employment”.7 Female contributing family workers, in particular, are not likely to be economically independent.

The move away from vulnerable employment into wage and salaried work can be a major step toward economic freedom and self-determination for many women. Economic independence or at least co-determination in resource distribution within the family is highest when women are in wage and salaried work or are employers, lower when they are own-account workers and lowest when they are contributing family workers. The share of women in wage and salaried work grew during the last ten years from 41.8 per cent in 1997 to 46.4 per cent in 2007 whereas the share of vulnerable employment decreased from 56.1 to 51.7 per cent. However, the vulnerable share is still larger for women than for men, especially in the world’s poorest regions.

The status of women in the world of work has improved, but gains have been slow. While female shares in wage and salaried work versus vulnerable employment are approaching those of men, the sluggish pace of change means that disparities remain significant.