1 Introduction1
In the past century, laws and justice have played a crucial role in advancing gender equality in the world of work. However, despite recent progress in equality legislation and in women’s educational attainment, the dividends of such progress have not fully translated into substantial closing of longstanding gender gaps at work. This is evident in the gender gaps relating to key labour market indicators, which have not narrowed in any meaningful way for more than 20 years. Such gender gaps further widen when gender intersects with other personal characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, nationality, sexual identity, age, disability or hiv status.2 This chapter provides an overview of longstanding structural barriers that have confined women to playing a supporting role in economies and labour markets designed by and for men. It examines how the covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated an already inequitable situation reversing, perhaps for many years to come, some of the progress towards gender equality. It gives an account of how women have historically fared in the world of work, highlighting the role played by the International Labour Organization (ilo) in shaping a rights agenda for women at work. It concludes with a call for a quantum leap for gender equality in the world of work through concrete policy recommendations.
2 Endemic Gender Gaps in the Labour Market: Before the covid-19 Pandemic
Over the past 27 years, the gender employment gap has shrunk by less than two percentage points. Both women’s and men’s employment rates have declined
Despite improvements in female educational attainment, occupational and sectoral segregation remains deeply entrenched globally, with women still clustered in low-paid jobs, with poor working conditions and limited prospects for career advancement. Although the expansion of new sectors, such as technology and renewable energy, provides an opportunity to increase women’s employment in male-dominated areas, increased participation in the labour force does not automatically result in equal opportunities and treatment for women. The persistence of occupational segregation stems from a combination of factors including gender differences in the fields of study, training and experience; multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination; deeply rooted social norms; and the unequal distribution of unpaid care and domestic work with women performing most of it. Stereotypes about gender roles and perceived differences in aptitudes also contribute to occupational segregation.4
Women are more exposed than men to informal employment in over 90 per cent of sub-Saharan African countries, 89 per cent of countries in Southern Asia and almost 75 per cent of Latin American countries.5 In addition, women are often found in the occupations that are the most vulnerable to decent work deficits, such as domestic work and other home-based occupations. Such occupations are frequently undervalued because they mirror work that has traditionally been carried out by women in the home without pay, or simply because it is work mainly performed by women. Discrimination on grounds that intersect with sex or gender, further exacerbates the likelihood of women experiencing unfavourable working conditions and might
Women are also under-represented in managerial and leadership positions. Globally, in 2020, only 28.3 per cent of managers and leaders were women, a figure that has changed very little over the past 27 years.8 However, even though few women make it to the top, those who do, get there faster than men. Across the world, women managers and leaders are almost one year younger than men. Women managers are also more likely to have a higher level of education than men managers. Globally, 44.3 per cent of women managers have an advanced university degree compared with 38.3 per cent of men managers.9
Overall, women working in the same occupation as men are systematically paid less, even if their educational levels equal or exceed those of their male counterparts. The global gender wage gap is still an average of 20 per cent throughout the world.10 Women experience further pay penalties when they belong to indigenous communities, ethnic minorities or racialised groups, are migrants or persons with disabilities.11 Furthermore, women continue to perform the lion’s share of unpaid care work. Worldwide, 606 million women of working age (or 21.7 per cent) are engaged full-time in unpaid care work, compared to 41 million men (or 1.5 per cent). Between 1997 and 2012, the time that women devoted to housework and caregiving diminished by only 15 minutes per day, whereas for men it increased by just eight minutes per day. At this pace, it is estimated that the gender gap in time spent doing unpaid care work will take many more generations to close.
Critically important is the fact that mothers, particularly those with young children, experience systemic disadvantage in the workplace. This results in larger pay gaps and substantially lower retirement savings or pension contributions. For instance, working mothers are less likely to be in employment than women without children or fathers with young children. They are also less likely to reach managerial and leadership positions compared with their male counterparts. This is due to difficulties in balancing work and family responsibilities. However, where men share unpaid care work more equally with women, more women are found in managerial positions.15
Discriminatory laws restricting women’s rights at work and discriminatory practices including pregnancy discrimination, unfair treatment, abuse, violence and harassment remain among the top challenges facing women in the world of work, especially young women and women from further marginalised
3 The covid-19 Pandemic: Undoing Already Too Slow Progress
Almost two years into the covid-19 pandemic, there is no question that covid-19 has dramatically widened existing gender inequalities relating to gender division of labour and economic stability. The accompanying social and economic crises have further exacerbated gender gaps in the labour market. Between 2019 and 2020, women’s employment declined globally by 3.6 per cent, representing a decrease of 47 million jobs, whereas men’s employment declined by 2.9 per cent, or 57 million jobs. Not all regions have been impacted in the same way. The region of the Americas experienced the greatest reduction in women’s employment as a result of the pandemic (−8.9 per cent). The second biggest drop in the number of employed women was observed in Asia and the Pacific. Between 2019 and 2020, women’s employment declined by 3.3 per cent and men’s by 2.9 per cent.18
In 2021, the number of employed women globally was still 20 million less than in 2019, while the number of men in employment was 10 million less than in 2019.19 Young people, especially young women, continue to face greater employment shortfall. This gap between women and men in the world of work is likely to persist into the near to medium term with young women being the
The covid-19 pandemic has also brought to the surface wide gender gaps in the quality of employment, mainly for the many women working in sectors and occupations with high proportions of women, and in the informal economy. Of the 740 million women working in the informal economy,21 42 per cent were in sectors at high risk of job-losses and reductions in working hours,22 compared to 32 per cent of men.23 On the other hand, during the pandemic, 96 million women have continued to do essential work in the health and social work sector as well as in other essential occupations, often putting their lives at risk and facing increased working hours at work and at home.24 For most women and men employed either in high-risk sectors or in essential work, the covid-19 pandemic has increased care demands within households on an unprecedented scale. New evidence confirms that women continue to shoulder most of the unpaid care work. This has led the women who remained in employment to cut down on paid working hours or to extend their total daily working hours (paid and unpaid) to unsustainable levels.25
The covid-19 pandemic has hit those at the bottom of the wage scale harder than those at the top and women are disproportionately represented in low-paid jobs. covid-19 has unsettled the livelihoods of women working in the informal economy, as many informal businesses were forced to close temporarily or permanently. This has led to severe loss of income for women without recourse to social security measures and an increased risk of falling further into poverty. Domestic workers, many of whom work informally, were even more exposed to significant decent work deficits in respect of working hours, wages, social security, occupational safety and health, including violence and harassment.26
4
Persisting gender gaps in the labour market and the regressing position of women in the world of work as a result of the covid-19 pandemic prompt a reflection on the historical efforts made to advance gender equality at work over the past century. The situation also highlights the need to focus better and act faster to ensure a more equal world of work where women in all their diversity enjoy equal opportunities and treatment.
Undoubtedly, women’s increased involvement in the paid economy was the one of the most significant changes in labour markets during the past century. The two World Wars, in particular the second one, were the major catalyst for women’s increased entry into the labour market. However, for many women from less privileged socio-economic backgrounds, race, colour, national extraction or social origin, participation in the labour market was an economic imperative or a result of discriminatory practices that came much earlier than this, including in many parts of the world with still largely agrarian economies and societies. In all cases, women’s role and participation in the world of work have been conceived according to a structure of the world of work designed by men for men, and women had to fit in.27
Historically, the treatment of women’s rights at work revolved around the debate between ‘protectionism’ and ‘equal rights for women’. Protectionists claimed that women workers required special measures to protect their health and safety and, most importantly, their reproductive health and their role as caregivers. On the other hand, proponents of equal rights contended that establishing special protective measures for women detracted from the overall aims of labour legislation to protect all workers, including men.28
In the first deliberations of the ilo,29 adult women were protected against arduous working conditions on account of their reproductive role and traditional family responsibilities. The first Maternity Protection Convention,
It took some time for gender justice to prevail over the protectionist approach and the increasing activism of women’s organisations was instrumental in achieving this result.32 This shift was also reflected in the adoption of new international labour standards promoting equality and non-discrimination at work. Combating discrimination and ensuring equality of opportunity and treatment are essential to decent work, and success on this front has resonated well beyond the workplace. In 1951, the ilo adopted the Equal Remuneration Convention (No. 100), followed by the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111), aimed at preventing discrimination in employment and occupation on the grounds of race, colour, sex, religion, political opinion, national extraction or social origin, in both the public and private sectors. This Convention requires the elimination not only of direct discrimination based on one or more prohibited grounds, but also of more subtle and less visible forms of discrimination (indirect discrimination) and discriminatory-based harassment.33 It also requires that the underlying causes of inequalities that result from deeply entrenched discrimination, complex social patterns, institutional structures, policies and legal constructs, be addressed, including through the implementation of proactive measures, with the aim of achieving substantive equality.34 This can only be realised through the effective participation and involvement of women from all spheres and backgrounds.
In the same period, the ilo also adopted other relevant international labour standards for the promotion of women’s employment, such as the Social Security Convention, 1952 (No. 102) and the Employment Policy Convention,
Alive to the demands of civil rights movements and women’s liberation movements, the ilo adopted the Declaration on Equality of Opportunity and Treatment for Women Workers (1975).36 This Declaration set forth a number of principles as targets to be achieved progressively in relation to the integration of women in economic life. The Declaration reflected the continuing shift away from protectionism. It acknowledged that women’s status in the world of work cannot be changed without also changing the role of men in society and in the family and therefore reflecting on the different power relationships that perpetuate discrimination. It also recognised the need to enable women to exercise their right to gainful employment, regardless of family situation. It declared that ‘all forms of discrimination on the grounds of sex which deny or restrict [equality of opportunity and treatment for all workers] are unacceptable and must be eliminated’. A reflection of the times during which it was adopted, but perhaps still relevant to some of the debates of today, the Declaration calls for particular attention to be devoted to ‘the situation of women in countries under foreign domination or subject to the practices of apartheid’.37
From the 1980s onwards, the ilo adopted further standards to advance a gender-equal approach to work–family reconciliation. In particular, the Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention, 1981 (No. 156) finally recognised that family responsibilities not only lie on women’s shoulders, but are shared with men and the state. The Convention requires governments to ensure that persons with family responsibilities are not subjected to discrimination on account of those responsibilities, including in access to or progression within employment. Governments are also required to develop provisions such as childcare and family services to facilitate a good work–life balance. The most recent ilo standard on maternity protection, the Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 (No. 183), has sought to prevent maternity-based discrimination by, inter alia, shifting the onus of financing income replacement for mothers away from employers to social insurance or general taxation, making this a collective responsibility for the society.38
Most recently, in 2019, the Violence and Harassment Convention (No. 190) and its accompanying Recommendation (No. 206) were adopted, addressing one of the most pernicious and persistent barriers preventing women from accessing, remaining and advancing in the labour market. The Convention represents a game changer in fighting against discrimination and inequality in the world of work, by making the invisible visible and acknowledging the pervasiveness and unacceptability of violence and harassment. For the first time, violence and harassment in the world of work, which includes gender-based violence and harassment, is defined, and a common framework for action is provided. The Convention acknowledges that to be able to fully prevent and eradicate gender-based violence and harassment in the world of work, it is necessary to address its underlying causes, such as multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, gender stereotypes and unequal gender-based power relations.40 In this regard, the Convention calls on governments to adopt legislation ensuring the right to equality and non-discrimination in employment and occupation for all, and to develop and implement an inclusive, integrated and gender-responsive approach for the prevention and elimination of violence and harassment in the world of work. Moreover, by requiring that workplace risk assessments should take into account factors such as social and cultural norms that increase the likelihood of gender-based violence and harassment, it provides a concrete and effective entry point to change attitudes. Finally, the Convention also recognises, for the first time, domestic violence as an element that affects employment, as well as the health and safety of everyone in the world of work and calls on governments to take measures to mitigate its effects at work.
All these achievements have undoubtedly contributed towards advancing gender equality at work. However, as we have seen, the current landscape of
5 At the Crossroads of Gender Equality in the World of Work: The Right Path to Gender Equality
Sluggish progress, stagnation and even setbacks in women’s employment outcomes should no longer be given room in the societies and economies of the present and the future. Economic transformation and growth must be equitably distributed, and be of equal benefit to women in all their diversity. The world of work is in the midst of profound and rapid changes. There is a need to recognise the full range of opportunities and risks of these changes and to have an explicit agenda for the achievement of equality and equity for all women and men.42
Cognisant of these persistent gaps in the labour market and of the new challenges, including digitalisation, migration, demographic shifts and climate change, the ilo has in recent years made it clear that immediate bolder actions are needed. ‘If we fail to deliver on gender equality, the attainment of decent work for all will be illusory’.43 The ilo Centenary Declaration for the Future of Work, adopted in 2019 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the ilo, specifically called for achieving gender equality at work through a transformative agenda. This includes the recognition and redistribution of care work, both paid and unpaid, as one of its key pillars as well as the need to ensure equal opportunities, equal participation and equal treatment for all women.44
Rethinking the economy post-covid-19 should be based on forward-looking gender-sound and transformative multi-systems decisions with adequate allocations in national budgets to respond to all women’s needs and priorities. The allocations need to include women in the informal economy and those who face multiple or intersecting forms of discrimination, who are often left at the margins of the economy and our societies. Gender-responsive and social budgeting can be an important tool for more effectively prioritising gender equality and diversity in the overall set of national policies. Data disaggregated by sex and other characteristics, such as race, indigeneity, disability, and sexual orientation and gender identity status, will be essential to design policies and monitor outcomes to establish what works for women. Urgently needed interventions are discussed the following subsections.
5.1 Double Investments in the Care Economy
Current levels of public investments (proportionate to gdp) in the care sectors need to be doubled to ensure that gender equality stands a chance of being achieved, together with the creation of decent work for paid care workers. One hundred and twenty million more quality jobs in the care sectors (health, social work and education) and one hundred and forty-nine million indirect jobs in non-care sectors could be generated with the right investments.47 Investing in the care economy is a win-win solution. It would offset job losses resulting from the economic fallout, while making health care systems more resilient to pandemic outbreaks. It would also increase educational opportunities for current and future generations. Creation of quality decent care jobs can help to accelerate progress in closing gender gaps in labour markets and disrupting
5.2 Promote Policies for Time and Care
covid-19 has led to an increase in care leave, availability of childcare services, and flexible working arrangements, including teleworking. However, latest ILO estimations show that the deficit in care leave policies and childcare services provision still results in a gap of 4.2 years between the end of paid care leave and the start of free and universal ecce or primary education.49 Such measures have long been called for to better balance the work–family equation for all workers and to promote women’s participation in the labour force. In recovering from the covid-19 crisis, such measures should be further advanced. Increased allocations of resources together with a comprehensive system of legislation providing for paid family and care leave for both women and men, whatever the form of their working arrangements or employment status, should be prioritised. This approach will ensure greater time sovereignty, allowing workers to exercise more choice and control over their working hours. In designing family leave and care policies, including flexible working arrangements, there should be no space for reinforcing traditional gender roles, avoiding the situation in which only women make use of them, while continuing to shoulder the majority of unpaid care work. Relevant ilo labour standards including the Maternity Protection Convention No. 183 and the Workers with Family Responsibilities No. 156 and their respective recommendations offer valuable policy guidance.
5.3 Expand Social Protection for a Human-centred World of Work
Public investment in social protection is required to overcome the covid-19 crisis and build a solid base for systemic change. This is an opportunity to expand social protection to women in vulnerable working situations and to promote their transition from the informal to the formal economy in line with the ilo Recommendation No. 204. Efforts should also be directed towards providing universal access to comprehensive, adequate and sustainable social
5.4 Overcome Discrimination, Gender Stereotypes, Violence and Harassment
Structural and systemic discrimination, including the persistence of stereotypes and expectations based on sex or gender, race or other grounds of discrimination, as well as violence and harassment, need to be specifically addressed. Otherwise, existing inequalities in the world of work will continue to be a barrier for women to enter, remain and succeed in the world of work. Discrimination is not only a persistent scourge that needs to be prevented and eliminated, but it also influences how, and in what ways, women are more vulnerable to violence and harassment both at home and at work. Laws to establish that women and men have equal rights are the basis for demanding and achieving substantive equality in practice. In this regard, ilo international labour standards, including Conventions Nos. 111 and 190, are more than ever an essential compass to guide the design and implementation of human-centred laws and policies for a future of work based on dignity and respect for all. Collective agreements and workplace measures can be important vehicles for ensuring and promoting equality, as well as for addressing violence and harassment in the world of work by improving the scope and coverage of existing legislation or by filling a gap when legislation is non-existent.50
Achieving gender equality in the world of work is possible if laws that discriminate against women and girls in employment and occupation, as well as prior to entry into the labour market are repealed. Lifting such barriers has been shown to have a positive effect on the participation of women in the labour market. Mainstreaming equality and other proactive measures would be particularly valuable since they imply initiatives aiming at identifying and targeting those who are disadvantaged in several different ways.51 For instance, to rebalance occupational segregation, it is equally important to introduce incentives and measures to encourage women to take up jobs in male-dominated sectors as it is to encourage men to take up jobs in female-dominated sectors,
5.5 Lifelong Learning so that No One Is Left Behind
The fast-changing pace at which the world of work is transforming requires an approach that allows workers to keep up with demands for new skills. Lifelong learning can be instrumental in helping to prevent people, women in particular, from being left behind during social and economic development. Proactive measures encouraging young women to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics (stem) and occupational trajectories are increasing, as are training programmes aimed at facilitating the return to work for women and men either after childbirth, following a period of parental leave, or as a result of long-term unemployment due to unpaid family care responsibilities. Closing the digital gender divide must also be a focus of gender-responsive lifelong learning initiatives.
Without targeted intervention, existing patterns of segregation will be replicated in newly emerging sectors. Such interventions include temporary special measures to increase women’s representation in high-growth sectors; the provision of education, skills development, on-the-job and lifelong learning for women to transition from jobs that are at risk of automation to high-growth areas; and incentives and interventions to increase women’s representation in education and employment in stem. In designing such measures, special attention should be given to women further disadvantaged because of additional layers of discrimination. Policy and regulatory frameworks can play an important role in creating obligations for employers to report on the gender composition of their enterprises or organisations by occupation, gender pay gap and women’s representation in leadership.53
5.6 Give Decision-making Power to Women
Having more women in decision-making structures, including task forces appointed to plan the recovery from the impacts of covid-19 will have a positive influence on the overall response to covid-19 as well as on governance, identity and public image.54 It can influence women’s perceptions about the values of these organisations and incentivise them to participate. The presence of women in decision-making bodies is an important precondition for the pursuit of women’s interests in the world of work.
6 Conclusions: A Quantum Leap for Gender Equality at Work and Beyond
The right path to equality at work for all women, irrespective of their personal characteristics, is in front of us, but only fair and forward-looking choices and actions will determine whether the world of work will be a more equal place for women and, as a consequence, for men too. This will require an ecosystem of reinforcing measures and an unwavering commitment to equality for all women, which definitely should encompass challenging and addressing the confluence of different power relationships which compound disadvantage.
To move from potential to reality, a human-centred agenda offers the best way to achieve the transformative and multi-systems changes needed in this new era. Women have always made an important contribution to the economy and to societies. All these contributions need to be acknowledged and valued, and solutions that will allow women to fully enjoy equal opportunities and treatment at work need to be consciously accelerated with women leading the way. covid-19 has been a reminder that we must do better because humanity is at its best when gender equality is at its core. A giant leap for gender equality at work and at home is of benefit to all.
This Chapter draws upon the report published by the International Labour Organization in 2019 (International Labour Organization (ilo), ‘A Quantum Leap for Gender Equality – For a Better Future of Work for All’ 2019).
ilo (n 1).
ibid.
United Nations (UN), ‘Women’s Human Rights in the Changing World of Work’, a/hrc/44/51 (2020).
ilo, ‘Women and Men in the Informal Economy: A Statistical Picture’ (Third edition, 30 April 2018).
ilo (n 1).
UN (n 4).
ilo, ‘Building Forward Fairer: Women’s Rights to Work and at Work at the Core of the COVID-19 Recovery’, Policy Brief (2021).
ilo (n 1).
ilo, ‘Global Wage Report 2018/2019’ (2018).
ilo, ‘Implementing the ILO Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention No. 169: Towards an Inclusive, Sustainable and Just Future’ (2020); ilo, ‘ILO Global Estimates on International Migrant Workers’ (2021); ilo, ‘The Migrant Pay Gap: Understanding Wage Differences between Migrants and Nationals’ (2020); and the Centre for Social Justice (csj) Disability Commission, ‘Now Is the Time’ (2021).
ilo, ‘Care Work and Care Jobs for the Future of Decent Work’ (2018).
ilo, ‘Resolution i – Resolution Concerning Statistics of Work, Employment and Labour Underutilization’ (2013), 19th International Conference of Labour Statisticians; and ilo, ‘Resolution i – Resolution Concerning Statistics on Work Relationships’, 20th International Conference of Labour Statisticians (2014).
ilo (n 1).
ibid.
ilo-Gallup, ‘Towards a Better Future for Women and Work: Voices of Women and Men’ (2017).
ilo, ‘Violence and Harassment in the World of Work: A Guide on Convention No. 190 and Recommendation No. 206’ (2021).
ilo, Building Forward Fairer: Women’s Rights to Work and at Work at the Core of the COVID-19 Recovery (2021).
ibid.
ilo, ‘ILO Monitor: COVID-19 and the World of Work’ (8th edn, 2021).
ilo (n 5).
Such as accommodation and food services; real estate, business and administrative activities; manufacturing; and the wholesale/retail trade.
ilo, ‘The COVID-19 Response: Getting Gender Equality Right for a better Future for Women at Work’ (2020).
ibid.
European Institute for Gender Equality (eige), ‘Gender Equality and the Socio-Economic Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic’ (2021) Research Note.
ilo (n 23).
ilo, ‘The Women at Work Initiative: The Push for Equality’, Report of the Director-General I (B) (2018).
Eileen Boris et al. (eds), Women’s ILO, Transnational Networks, Global Labour Standards and Gender Equity, 1919 to Present (brill 2018).
The ilo was established in 1919, as part of the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War i, to reflect the belief that universal and lasting peace can be accomplished only if it is based on social justice. The ilo is the only tripartite United Nations agency, which brings together governments, employers, and workers of 187 Member States to set labour standards, develop policies and devise programmes promoting decent work for all women and men.
George P Politakis, ‘Night Work of Women in Industry: Standards and Sensibility’ (2001) 140 (4) International Labour Review 403.
Boris et al. (n 28).
Eileen Boris, Making the Woman Worker. Precarious Labor and the Fight for Global Standards, 1919–2019 (oup 2019); and Sandra Whitworth, ‘Gender, International Relations and the Case of the ILO’ (1994) 20 Review of International Studies 389.
Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (ceacr), ‘General Observation on Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111)’ (2019).
ceacr, ‘Giving Globalization a Human Face (General Survey on the Fundamental Conventions)’ (2012).
ilo (n 1).
ilo, ‘Declaration on Equality of Opportunity and Treatment for Women Workers’ (25 June 1975).
Boris et al. (n 28).
ibid.
See ilo, ‘Convention on Discrimination (Employment and Occupation), 1958 (No. 111)’ (4 June 1958).
ilo (n 17).
ilo, ‘ILO Centenary Declaration for the Future of Work, 2019’ (2019); and ilo, ‘Global Call to Action for a Human-Centred Recovery from the COVID-19 Crisis that is Inclusive, Sustainable and Resilient’ (2021).
UN (n 4).
ilo (n 27).
ilo (n 41).
ilo (n 41).
ibid.
ilo (n 12).
UN, ‘Our Common Agenda’ (2021) Report of Secretary-General.
ILO, ‘Care at Work: Investing in Care Leave and Services for a More Gender Equal World of Work’ (2022).
ilo (n 1).
ibid; Sandra Fredman, ‘Intersectional Discrimination in EU Gender Equality and Non-Discrimination Law’ (4 August 2016).
ilo (n 1).
UN (n 4).
See Chapter 10.