Progress of the World’s Women 2015-2016, Transforming Economies, Realizing Rights, UN Women’s flagship publication, released on Monday April 27th, in seven locations globally, brings together human rights and economic policymaking to call for far-reaching changes to the global policy agenda that will transform economies and make women’s rights, and equality, a reality. It takes an in-depth look at what the economy would look like if it truly worked for women, for the benefit of all.
Seven years after the global financial crisis, the world continues to struggle with low growth and high unemployment. Policy makers in rich and poor countries alike face huge challenges in creating enough decent jobs for all those who need them. And austerity policies in both developed and developing countries are shifting the burden of coping and caring back to families and onto the shoulders of women and girls. See UN Women’s position paper on the global economic crisis and gender equality.
Among those who are employed, women constitute nearly two thirds of ‘contributing family workers’, who work in family businesses without any direct pay. Occupational segregation remains a universal fact, with women over-represented in clerical and support positions and service and sales work, but under-represented in managerial occupations. Globally, on average, women’s earnings are 24 per cent less than men’s. Women also undertake almost two and a half times as much unpaid care and domestic work as men, and if paid and unpaid work are combined, women in almost all countries work longer hours than men each day. In most countries women are less likely than men to receive a pension in their old age. These economic disadvantages accumulate to produce large lifetime income gaps: In France and Sweden, for example, women can expect to earn 31 percent less than men; in Germany 49 percent less; and in Turkey an average woman can expect to earn just 25 per cent of what an average man will earn over her life time.
Changes in the global economy have not been beneficial for the majority of men either. At the global level, the narrowing of gender gaps in labour force participation from 28 to 26 percentage points has occurred primarily because men’s participation rates have declined faster than those of women. Similarly, the gender pay gap has narrowed over the past decade in most countries with available data, but this is not always a sign of progress: for example in some countries where gender pay gaps have narrowed this has been in the context of falling real wages for both women and men, and the gaps have narrowed only because men’s wages have fallen more dramatically than women’s. This can hardly be considered ‘progress’: instead of women catching up with men, there is a levelling down for all.
If economic and social policies are to expand women’s and men’s rights and opportunities, then things will need to change. To support substantive equality, economic and social policies need to work in tandem (see chapter 1 of Progress 2015-2016).
Typically, the role of economic policies is seen primarily in terms of promoting economic growth, while social policies are supposed to address its ‘casualties’ by redressing poverty and disadvantage and reducing inequality. But macroeconomic policies can, and should, pursue a broader set of goals, including gender equality and social justice. Conversely, well-designed social policies can enhance macroeconomic growth and post-crisis recovery through redistributive measures that increase employment, productivity and aggregate demand.
The specific policy package to achieve substantive equality will differ from context to context. Ultimately, the aim is to create a virtuous cycle through the generation of decent work, gender-responsive social protection and social services, alongside enabling macroeconomic policies that prioritize investment in human beings and the fulfilment of social objectives. Action is needed in three priority areas.
Decent work for women
Paid work that is compatible with women’s and men’s shared responsibility for unpaid care work as well as leisure and learning, where earnings are sufficient to maintain an adequate standard of living and women are treated with respect and dignity, is crucial to advancing gender equality. Yet, this type of work remains scarce and policies in all regions are failing to generate enough decent jobs for those who need them. Alongside economic policies that can create decent employment, extending labour rights and social protection to those in informal employment, such as domestic workers and home-based workers, is essential to increase the viability and security of their livelihoods.
Women’s continued heavy responsibilities for unpaid care and domestic work limit the types of work they can undertake, which further reinforces their socio-economic disadvantage. Measures are needed to reduce the drudgery of unpaid work through investment in time-saving infrastructure such as safe water sources within easy reach. There is also a need to redistribute some of the work, between women and men, as well as between families and society more broadly, through changes in social norms and accessible and quality social services.
Gender-responsive social policies
Social transfers—including family allowances, unemployment benefits and pensions—protect women and men in the face of contingencies such as unemployment or old age. They also help families shoulder some of the costs involved in raising children or caring for other dependents—challenges that have become more pressing in the face of population ageing and changing family structures. Social services that directly address women’s rights, including housing, health, education, training and childcare, are just as important and often have an even greater impact than social transfers in reducing poverty and gender inequality.
Rights-based macroeconomic policies
Because macroeconomic policy is treated as ‘gender-neutral’ it has, to date, failed to support the achievement of substantive equality for women. From a human rights perspective, macroeconomic policy needs to pursue a broad set of objectives that include the reduction of poverty and gender inequality. Integrating these social objectives would mean: expanding the targets of monetary policy to include creating decent work; mobilizing resources to enable investments in social services and transfers; and creating channels for meaningful participation by civil society organizations, including women’s movements, in macroeconomic decision-making.
Global policy coordination is essential to create a macroeconomic environment that is conducive to the realization of women’s rights. The growing integration of the world’s economies means that actions taken by one government affect the realization of rights elsewhere. Moreover, the proliferation of agreements to liberalize trade and financial flows between countries limits the policy space of individual governments. The lack of global coordination also affects the ability of governments to mobilize resources. Multinational corporations, for example, use a variety of accounting techniques to lower their tax obligations, thereby diminishing their overall contribution to the economies where they operate.
The current system of global governance exacerbates, rather than mitigates, the gender bias in macroeconomic policy. In most existing institutions, including the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the G20 and the World Trade Organization, power relations are such that governments of the poorest countries do not have an equal say in the decisions that affect them the most, let alone women in those countries. Global cooperation for the realization of economic and social rights can only be achieved if these institutions are democratized and powerful global players, from national governments to transnational corporations, accept that the obligation to respect, protect and fulfil human rights extends beyond borders.
With best wishes
Chief, Research & Data, UN Women, and research director of the report