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Gender inequality has always been a major problem in the world of work. However, in spite of the giant strides world bodies like United Nations have made to close the gap over the last decade, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has said gender equality in the workplace is still a fantasy
According to the ILO, progress is needed in many areas and in every region to achieve gender equality in the labour market.
The analysis, which looks at pay, participation in management and opportunities for young women, highlights the challenges faced on International Parity at Work Day, which aims to champion the value of diversity and raise awareness of persistent workplace inequality.
ILOSTAT data shows the unfortunate reality that women face too many barriers in the labour market.
“There’s a lot of work to be done to close gender gaps and improve the environment for current and future generations,” said Rafael Diez de Medina, ILO chief statistician.
“While most of us are aware that women are often paid less than men in the same occupation, ILOSTAT data show where the gaps are largest,” the chief statistician added.
The median gender wage gap for 115 countries with available data is 14% in favour of men. And male-dominated occupations have even higher wage premiums for men. For example, 73% of managers and 77% of craft and trade workers are men according to ILO estimates, and these are the two occupational groups where men enjoy the largest wage premiums.
Glass ceiling
The ILO expressed that around the world there are far fewer women than men in management, and progress in this area since the turn of the century has been virtually non-existent.
It noted that women make up 39% of the world’s employed according to ILO estimates, but only 27% of managerial workers and that share of female managers has hardly changed in two decades.
In 2018, the share of female managers was highest in Latin America and the Caribbean at 39%, and in Northern America and Europe at around 37%. Western Asia and Northern Africa had the lowest shares at only 12%.
Rocky start
While there has been much debate about closing gender gaps and improving the environment for current and future generations, this has yet to be borne out in the data. The world of work body said that young women around the world are routinely left behind.
Women aged between 15 and 24 years old are more likely to be unemployed than men in the same age bracket, with large differences in some parts of the world.
In the Arab states, ILO stated that the unemployment rate for young women has been about twice that of young men throughout the last decade.
There is also a much higher inactivity rate for young women than for young men across regions, and more young women than young men are not in employment, education or training (NEET), particularly in rural areas.
