Taking action: achieving gender equality and empowering women

Reduce gender inequality in employment
101
Countries
need better
resourced labor
inspectorates
and assistance
for women
in bringing
legal cases
been less successful in countries with decentralized wage-setting practices such
as the United States. 13 Enforcement is a big obstacle, especially in developing
countries with neither the resources nor the institutional infrastructure to monitor
employment practices (Rodgers 1999). Countries need better resourced
labor inspectorates and assistance for women in bringing legal cases.
Although important, equal pay laws do not address lower earnings that
result from occupational segregation by sex. Some countries have laws stipulating
equal pay for work of comparable value. Some have tackled occupational
segregation through legislation that improves women’s access to occupations
that have traditionally been dominated by men. Closely related measures that
prevent discrimination on the basis of marital status or family responsibilities
have similar objectives, but their impact has not been rigorously evaluated.
Policies to protect migrant women workers—a particularly vulnerable
group—are being implemented in some countries. As a result of a United
Nations Development Fund for Women regional program on migration, Jordan
and the Philippines have agreed to a minimum set of standards embodied in a
special working contract for migrant domestic workers. The contract provides
migrant women workers with benefits including life insurance, medical care,
rest days, and workplace protections. Whether this contract is being enforced
is not known, and the results of such policies have yet to be evaluated.
Interventions to reduce inequalities in pensions and retirement
Many countries, especially in Latin America and in Eastern and Central Europe,
are reforming their pension and social security programs. Gender equality has
not been a high priority in these reform efforts (Fultz, Ruck, and Steinhilber
2003). To protect retired women, such programs need to take account of gender
differences in earnings, labor force experience, and longevity.
Because the specifics of pension reform vary across countries and there
have been few studies of their effects, it is difficult to draw clear conclusions
about the effects of different types of pension programs on women. Nonetheless,
it is clear that programs that have a redistributive component and that do
not require many years of contributions are better able to protect women in
old age. Redistributive components may be based on residence or prorated by
years of employment. Both are superior to an all or nothing benefit requiring
a lifetime of formal market employment (World Bank 2001a). Since women’s
earnings tend to be lower than men’s, minimum pension guarantees, survivor
benefits, and joint annuities can ensure that women receive a minimum
threshold level of benefits (World Bank 2001a).
South Africa’s pension scheme has reduced poverty among elderly women.
It is a noncontributory, means-tested public pension that is payable to women
after age 60 and men after age 65 (Burns, Keswell, and Leibbrandt forthcoming).
14 A little more than three-fifths of people 60 and older are women. And
because women qualify earlier and live longer, the social pension reaches almost