Women suffer more difficulties in accessing the world of work than previously thought, and the gap in wages and conditions has remained almost unchanged in the last two decades, warned the UN on Monday.
The International Labor Organization (ILO) said it has developed a new indicator that better measures the unemployment rate and detects all jobless people looking for an activity.
This projects "a much bleaker picture of the situation of women in the world of work than the unemployment rate, more commonly used"said this UN agency in a statement, two days after International Women’s Day.
"New data shows that women are still having much more difficulty finding work than men"the agency said.
According to ILO data, 15% of women of working age worldwide would like to have a job, but do not have one, compared to 10.5% of men.
"This gender gap has remained virtually unchanged for two decades"the organization noted.
In contrast, the Official unemployment rates for men and women are very similar.
This is due, according to the ILO, to the fact that the criteria used to determine whether someone should be considered officially unemployed tends to disproportionately exclude women.
According to the reportpersonal and family responsibilitiesincluding unpaid care work, disproportionately affect women.
These types of activities prevent women from working, who are actively seeking employment or who are available at short notice.
"The labor gap is especially severe in developing countries, where the proportion of women who cannot find a job reaches 24.9% in low-income countries."the agency said.
Access to employment is not the only problem. The ILO noted that women tend to be overrepresented in some vulnerable jobsincluding help in family businesses.
"This vulnerability, coupled with lower employment rates, has an impact on women’s earnings"the agency said.
The ILO concluded that "globally, for every dollar of labor income earned by men, women earn just 51 cents".
