Context:
A recent report from the International Labour Organization (ILO), Women and the Economy: 30 Years after the Beijing Declaration, reveals that gender parity in global employment will take over 190 years at the current pace. Released to coincide with International Women’s Day 2025, the report highlights persistent gender gaps in employment, wages, and working conditions.
Key findings of the report:
Current Gender Parity Status:
As of 2023, women hold just 30% of managerial positions globally. While this shows a modest improvement over the past two decades, significant disparities remain. In 2024, 46.4% of working-age women were employed, compared to 69.5% of men. The gender employment gap has narrowed by only 4 percentage points over the past 30 years, with progress concentrated in high- and lower-middle-income countries. The ILO cautions that at this pace, it will take more than 190 years to achieve gender parity globally.
Women in Low-Paid Sectors:
Women remain overrepresented in low-paid sectors such as nursing, childcare, and education, while men dominate fields like transport and mechanics. This pattern results in women earning less and holding fewer high-status jobs. Additionally, women are more likely to be employed informally, especially in low- and lower-middle-income countries, leaving them vulnerable to job insecurity and lack of social protection.
Gender Pay Gap and Unpaid Care Work:
Despite some progress in reducing the gender wage gap, employed women still earn significantly less than men globally. Women work, on average, 6 hours and 25 minutes fewer per week than men in paid employment. However, they spend 3.2 times more hours on unpaid care work, such as childcare and household chores, which prevents 708 million women from entering the labor force.
Barriers to Equality:
Sexual violence and harassment in the workplace continue to affect women disproportionately. Women are 1.6 times more likely than men to experience such violence, with young and migrant women at even greater risk. Unequal care responsibilities also remain a major obstacle, limiting women’s opportunities to participate fully in the workforce.
Suggestion by ILO:
The ILO calls for urgent reforms to address these disparities, including tackling the unequal distribution of care work, closing the wage gap, and eliminating workplace harassment. Addressing these issues is essential for achieving gender equality and ensuring women’s full participation in the global economy.
Conclusion
The ILO report highlights the slow pace of gender parity progress in employment. While some positive changes have been made, such as increased female representation in management, the journey toward global equality remains long and challenging. Urgent action is required to accelerate this progress.
