It will take over 190 years for gender parity in employment: ILO report by StuffsEarth

As of 2023, women hold just 30% of managerial positions globally, which is a modest improvement over the past two decades. Image for representation.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

Women hold just 30% of managerial positions globally, with only a modest improvement over the past two decades, according to ‘Women and the Economy: 30 Years after the Beijing Declaration’, a new brief released in Geneva by the International Labour Organization (ILO) on the occasion of International Women’s Day. Cautioning that, at this pace, achieving gender parity in employment rates globally will take over 190 years, the report found that women continue to be overrepresented in low-paid sectors like nursing and childcare, while men dominate fields like transport and mechanics.

“They also continue to face lower average earnings and fewer paid working hours globally and are overrepresented in informal employment in low- and lower-middle-income countries,” the report added.

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The ILO said though progress towards equality has occurred over the past 30 years but has been modest and uneven. “Crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, have interrupted that progress,” the ILO said in the brief.

In 2024, 46.4% of working-age women were employed, compared to 69.5% of men. “In over 30 years, the gender employment gap has narrowed by only 4 percentage points, with high-income and lower-middle income countries exhibiting the largest reduction. At this pace of progress, achieving gender parity in employment rates globally will take over 190 years,” the report noted.

Between 2004 and 2024, the brief said, progress has been made in reducing gender inequalities in annual earnings per worker, across all country income groups, particularly in low-income countries.

“However, employed women globally still earn significantly less on average than men, work fewer paid hours, and are overrepresented in informal employment in low- and lower-middle income countries,” it said.

Globally in 2024, women worked approximately six hours and 25 minutes less per week than men in paid employment. “However, women spend 3.2 times more hours on unpaid care work than men. Excessive and unequal care responsibilities keep 708 million women outside the labour force globally,” the brief found.

As of 2023, women hold just 30% of managerial positions globally, which is a modest improvement over the past two decades. “Low-income countries have demonstrated significant progress, with women’s representation in management rising from 24.7 to 36.5%,” the report said. It added that women are 1.6 times more likely than men to experience sexual violence and harassment in the world of work, with young and migrant women being at greater risk.

“Three decades since world leaders gathered in Beijing and pledged to advance the rights of women worldwide, significant challenges remain in fulfilling the Beijing Declaration,” said Sukti Dasgupta, Director of the ILO Conditions of Work and Equality Department.

“Urgent reforms are needed to address unequal care responsibilities, wage gaps between women and men, and violence and harassment in the world of work, factors which continue to make workplaces more unequal and less safe for women,” she added.