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conditions has also diminished. In this difficult globalcontext, women continue to face gender-specificbarriers to accessing labour markets. Efforts to createa ‘level playing field’ by removing legal impedimentsto women’s employment and ensuring equal accessto education have not been enough, on their own, toclose gender gaps in participation and pay.The conventional view that regulation ‘distorts’ labourmarkets and dampens job creation has been widelyrefuted. This opens up space for a much more proactiveset of policies to increase the quantity andimprove the quality of employment available. AsChapter 4 highlights, getting the macroeconomicpolicy environment right is critically important forthis endeavour. The policy framework must bedesigned in a way that supports substantive equalityfor women. Strengthening women’s agency, voiceand participation as a central part of defining anagenda for change, through trade unions and otherworkers’ organizations that represent women’sdiverse experiences at work, is one way to meet thatchallenge.Measures to redress women’s socio-economicdisadvantage should be a priority. Where they areset at the right level and properly implemented,minimum wages have a particularly importantimpact in raising the incomes of the poorest womenworkers and are also shown to narrow genderpay gaps. Extending the coverage of minimumwages as well as social protection, includingpensions and health care, to all workers is alsovital for providing a basic level of income security.For millions of informally self-employed women,measures to move them from survival-orientedactivities to owning viable and profitable businessesare needed, from extending legal recognition toinvesting in urban infrastructure; from guaranteeingaccess to land and markets to making financialservices accessible for all.But these measures will only be effective ifstereotypes, stigma and violence against women arealso addressed. Much of women’s disadvantage inlabour markets stems from persistent stereotypesabout the kind of work that is suitable for them.Gender stereotypes, which define caregiving asquintessentially female, have been much harder todislodge than those that prescribe breadwinning asa male domain. In the absence of adequate careservices, the result has often been greater uptake ofpaid work among women, but little change in theirunpaid work responsibilities, with negative impactson the quality of work they can accept and theirquality of life more broadly.Gender stereotypes also feed occupationalsegregation, channelling women into a limited setof jobs that mirror their unpaid caring roles and areundervalued as a result. Hierarchies in the workplaceare often maintained by violent means, includingsexual harassment, which reinforces male power anddeters women from moving into ‘non-traditional’ jobsor up the occupational ladder.Addressing these issues requires a fundamentalrethink of how paid employment and unpaid careand domestic work are organized, starting with amore even distribution of unpaid care and domesticwork between women and men and betweenhouseholds and society. Radically altering the waythat women’s work is valued in society would alsomean recognizing the enormous contribution thatpaid care jobs in teaching, nursing and domesticwork make to the everyday functioning of economiesand societies and properly compensating women forthis work.Employment and social policies are intrinsicallylinked, and both are critical for the realization ofeconomic and social rights and substantive equalityfor women. Even if the agenda for change outlined inthis chapter was fully implemented, social protectionand public services are needed to guarantee the fullrange of rights, whether women participate in paidwork or not. Social transfers, such as pensions andchild benefits, are imperative for supporting familieswith children and providing income security overthe life course. And social services, such as health-,elder- and childcare, and water and sanitation arenot only crucial for women, but also contribute tothe daily and intergenerational reproduction of ahealthy workforce. It is to this set of policy issues thatthe Report now turns in Chapter 3.121