Women maintain simply 30% of managerial positions globally, with solely a modest enchancment over the previous twenty years, in response to ‘Women and the Economy: 30 Years after the Beijing Declaration’, a brand new temporary launched in Geneva by the International Labour Organization (ILO) on the event of International Women’s Day. Cautioning that, at this tempo, reaching gender parity in employment charges globally will take over 190 years, the report discovered that ladies proceed to be overrepresented in low-paid sectors like nursing and childcare, whereas males dominate fields like transport and mechanics.
“They also continue to face lower average earnings and fewer paid working hours globally and are overrepresented in informal employment in low- and lower-middle-income countries,” the report added.
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The ILO mentioned although progress in direction of equality has occurred over the previous 30 years however has been modest and uneven. “Crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, have interrupted that progress,” the ILO mentioned in the temporary.
In 2024, 46.4% of working-age ladies had been employed, in comparison with 69.5% of males. “In over 30 years, the gender employment gap has narrowed by only 4 percentage points, with high-income and lower-middle income countries exhibiting the largest reduction. At this pace of progress, achieving gender parity in employment rates globally will take over 190 years,” the report famous.
Between 2004 and 2024, the temporary mentioned, progress has been made in lowering gender inequalities in annual earnings per employee, throughout all nation earnings teams, notably in low-income nations.
“However, employed women globally still earn significantly less on average than men, work fewer paid hours, and are overrepresented in informal employment in low- and lower-middle income countries,” it mentioned.
Globally in 2024, ladies labored roughly six hours and 25 minutes much less per week than males in paid employment. “However, women spend 3.2 times more hours on unpaid care work than men. Excessive and unequal care responsibilities keep 708 million women outside the labour force globally,” the temporary discovered.
As of 2023, ladies maintain simply 30% of managerial positions globally, which is a modest enchancment over the previous twenty years. “Low-income countries have demonstrated significant progress, with women’s representation in management rising from 24.7 to 36.5%,” the report mentioned. It added that ladies are 1.6 occasions extra seemingly than males to expertise sexual violence and harassment in the world of labor, with younger and migrant ladies being at higher threat.
“Three decades since world leaders gathered in Beijing and pledged to advance the rights of women worldwide, significant challenges remain in fulfilling the Beijing Declaration,” mentioned Sukti Dasgupta, Director of the ILO Conditions of Work and Equality Department.
“Urgent reforms are needed to address unequal care responsibilities, wage gaps between women and men, and violence and harassment in the world of work, factors which continue to make workplaces more unequal and less safe for women,” she added.
Published – March 07, 2025 04:24 am IST
