PRESS KIT 1 Gender Equality and the Global Jobs Challenge 5-6 March 2014 KEY STATISTICS EQUAL ACCESS REMAINS A CHALLENGE Gender differences in access to economic opportunities limit wo
Trang 1PRESS KIT
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Gender Equality and the Global Jobs Challenge
5-6 March 2014
KEY STATISTICS
EQUAL ACCESS REMAINS A CHALLENGE
Gender differences in access to economic opportunities limit women in the formal, informal, agricultural and entrepreneurial sectors According to the World Bank Development Report 2012, this “gender segregation” in access to economic opportunities reinforces inequalities in many arenas, perpetuating women’s exclusion, trapping women in low-paying jobs and low-productivity businesses Research shows that economic development does not in itself eliminate differences in opportunities between men and women
However, taking conscious steps to break down barriers that limit access to economic opportunities for women yields significant payoff For example, Equalizing access to productive resources between female and male farmers could increase agricultural output in developing countries by 2.5-4 percent
Eliminating discrimination against female workers and managers could increase productivity per worker
by 25-40 percent
The private sector can support and gain from higher female participation as women’s skills and talent are employed in jobs that make the best use of those abilities
BY THE NUMBERS
• Jobs drive development and include those in formal, informal, entrepreneurial and agricultural sectors
• The World Bank Development Report 2013 says: Jobs—including informal jobs—can be
transformational along three dimensions:
1 Improving Living Standards and Decreasing Poverty
2 Productivity
3 Social Cohesion
• Creating jobs is one of the private sector’s roles and strengths – providing 90 percent of today’s jobs
• Around 600 million new jobs need to be created over a 15-year period just to keep employment rates constant
• Worldwide, 200 million people, including a disproportionate share of youth, are unemployed and actively looking for work
• An estimated 620 million youth, the majority of them women, are neither working nor looking for work
• Women, who comprise 49.6 percent of the world’s population, account for about 40 percent of the total global workforce, but 58 percent of all unpaid work, 44 percent of wage employment and 50 percent of informal employment
Trang 2• Women are more likely than men to work in agriculture (37 percent of all employed women, against 33 percent of all employed men) and in services (47 percent of all employed women, against 40 percent of all employed men The opposite is true for manufacturing
• These gender difference in employment—with women more likely than men to work in sectors, industries, occupations, and jobs with lower average (labor) productivity—explain a large fraction of the gender gap in productivity and earnings
• Austerity measures hit women hardest – with at least 9 Eurozone countries cutting or
eliminating subsidies, targeting safety nets – women have to fill the care gap
• In August 2012 women’s unemployment rates were higher than men in 10 European Union countries
• The International Labour Organisation (ILO) reports that the proportion of women in vulnerable employment is higher than for men globally — North Africa, 55 percent of women compared to
32 percent of men in vulnerable employment; Middle east, 42 percent compared to 27 percent; Sub-Saharan Africa, 85 percent compared to 70 percent
QUICK LINKS
• World Bank World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development
• World Bank World Development Report 2013: Jobs
• IFC Jobs Study, January 2013, see Findings on Gender
• IFC Private Sector Development Solutions/JOBS, Vol 7 / Issue 1, 2013
• IFC Telling Our Story, Women and Business, Drivers of Development, Vol 5 / Issue 2, 2011
• IFC Investing in women’s employment: The business rational, forthcoming (WINvest project)
• Finance & Development, A Quarterly Publication of the International Monetary Fund, A
Women’s World, June 2013, Volume 50, Number 2
• Economist Intelligence Unit, Women’s economic opportunity 2012
• Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), a member of the IDB Group, Women’s Entrepreneurial Venture Scope (WEVentureScope), in partnership with the Economist Intelligence Unit
• World Economic Forum, Global Gender Gap Report 2013
• World Economic Forum, “Young women hold the key to Arab world growth”
• UN Women reports on Domestic Workers, Paid Workers Employment, Economic Crises and
• UNGC’ s Private Sector Engagement Through the MDG Process
• Video Resources business case for women’s participation and equality; removing barriers