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Chapter overviewThe first part of this chapter assesses progressin women’s and men’s LFPR, and reviews thecontribution of wider economic and social policiesto substantive equality in the labour market. Theremainder of the chapter is concerned with howsubstantive equality at work can be achieved ina challenging global environment. Drawing onthe framework set out in Chapter 1, it proposesa comprehensive agenda for public action bygovernments, labour organizations and employersto address persistent obstacles to women’s rights toand at work.The chapter shows that redressing women’ssocio-economic disadvantage requires action torecognize and support unpaid care and domesticwork, tackle gender segregation in occupationsand close the gender pay gap. Gender segregationis a major cause of pay differentials betweenwomen and men. Tackling this requires a focus onthe stereotyping, stigma and violence that lead towomen being clustered into lower status and lowerwage jobs. The chapter then lays out three priorityarenas for public action: informal employment,rural livelihoods and public sector employment.The last section of the chapter highlights theneed to strengthen women’s agency, voice andparticipation. Women’s capacity to influenceand shape their workplaces and the conditionsunder which they work—whether via trade unionsor in new forms of collective action—is crucial toachieving substantive equality.In the longer term, the challenge is to transformlabour markets and households in ways thatenable a decent standard of living for all. Drawingon experiences from around the world, thechapter demonstrates that, although progresstowards strengthening women’s rights at work hasbeen uneven, it is far from impossible. Even in thecurrent challenging global context, some countrieshave been able to make significant headway inadvancing substantive equality at work.UNEVEN PROGRESS IN WOMEN’SLABOUR FORCE PARTICIPATIONGlobally, women’s LFPR has stagnated sincethe early 1990s, albeit with significant regionalvariation (see Box 2.3 for definitions). In 2013,50 per cent of women were in the labour force,a decline of 2 percentage points since 1990.Although the gender gap in LFPR narrowedslightly during this period, this was primarilybecause participation rates for men declinedfaster than for women. The gender gap isstriking and persistent: half of women are inthe labour force compared to more than threequarters of men.