Taking action: achieving gender equality and empowering women

Reduce gender inequality in employment
95
Although most
at risk and
therefore most
in need, informal
workers—the
majority of them
women—have
little or no
social protection
and receive
little or no
social security
While wages tend to be lower for both men and women in informal employment,
the gender gap in earnings appears to be higher than in formal employment
(ILO 2002b). Within informal employment earnings tend to decline
from self-employed workers (dominated by men) to casual wage workers to
subcontracted workers (dominated by women; Chen, Vanek, and Carr 2004).
Nature and terms of employment: informalization and flexibilization of work.
With globalization (Standing 1989, 1999) and the growth of nonregular and
nonwage employment (Bettio 1996) employment has become increasingly
flexible. Numerous studies show the increased use of women as temporary,
casual, contract, and part-time workers in manufacturing (Standing 1989,
1999; Carr, Chen, and Tate 2000; and Balakrishnan 2002). The agricultural
sector has also been affected as seasonal employment in agricultural exports
has expanded (UNDAW 1999). Women are the preferred source of temporary
workers in the Chilean and South African export grape industries but hold
only a small share of permanent jobs (Barrientos 2001). Men are increasingly
affected by informalization and flexibilization as well, as the jobs they hold
take on the character of women’s jobs (temporary or casual status, limited job
mobility, few or no benefits), but the share of women in flexible jobs greatly
exceeds that of men (UNDAW 1999; Standing 1999).
Informal employment is often characterized by undefined workplaces,
unsafe and unhealthy working conditions, low levels of skills and productivity,
low or irregular incomes, long working hours, and a lack of access to information,
markets, finance, training, and technology. Although most at risk and
therefore most in need, informal workers—the majority of them women—
have little or no social protection and receive little or no social security, either
from their employer or from the government (ILO 2002a).
Unemployment. Gender differences are also apparent in unemployment, with
women more likely than men to be unemployed in recent years. Unemployment
data often are of questionable quality because of measurement problems and
limited population coverage in low-income economies, where the majority of the
population engages in informal or self-employment. In the Caribbean economies,
for which more reliable data are available because of the way unemployment is
measured (Seguino 2003), women’s unemployment rates are almost double those
of men. Similarly, in transition economies, women have experienced declines in
access to jobs relative to men (Bridger, Kay, and Pinnick 1996).
Inequalities in pensions and retirement
Women live longer than men, and in most regions they are more likely to spend
time as widows, when they are more vulnerable to poverty than are men. Many
older women, especially widows, have little income security in old age. Women’s
responsibilities for unpaid care work and their predominance in informal