Wide occupational and wage disparity

Despite their obvious potential, women do not enjoy the full benefits of participation in the workforce. According to Women and Children: the Double Dividend of Gender Equality, UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children 2007 report, in 2005, women accounted for roughly 40% of the world’s economically active population (population involved in some form of paid employment). But in most developing countries, women in the labor force work longer hours than men, earn significantly less when doing so and spend far more time on unpaid tasks (such as household work).

Women in developed markets do not fare much better. The gender gap is particularly stark in Europe, where, according to statistics from Eurostat and the European Commission’s 2006 Report on Equality Between Women and Men, women account for 55% of all university graduates, but have an employment rate 21% lower than that of men; the average wage gap between women and men is as high as 15%. The European Commission’s report states that women represent only 11% of the membership of the governing bodies of listed companies in Europe. The situation is much the same in the US. While females account for over a third of managers overall as of 2006, fewer than a third of the top 1,500 US firms reported even a single woman among their top executives, fewer than 6% reported more than one, and fewer than 3% had a female chief executive officer (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Women in the Labor Force: a Databook, 2007).

“Eliminating gender discrimination in relation to occupation and pay could increase women’s wages by about 50% and national output by 5%.”

Rachael Mayanja, UN Special Adviser on gender issues and the advancement of women

The US Census Bureau reported that in 2007, American women working full time earned 22% less than men working full time. Political participation is even more unbalanced. According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the United States currently ranks 71st in the world for women’s political participation. Marie Wilson, President of The White House Project, a nonprofit organization that advances women’s leadership, points out that as of 2008, women in the US held only 16% of Congressional seats and 24% of seats in state legislatures. They account for just 10% of big-city mayors and hold governorships in only eight states. The irony is that women bring vital and impressive qualifications to the workforce. The US Department of Education reports that women have been earning more bachelor’s degrees than men since 1982, and more master’s degrees than men since 1981. By 2016 women are projected to receive over 60% of bachelor’s degrees, 61% of master’s degrees and over 53% of all doctorate and first professional degrees.

The importance of women to earnings and productivity is all too apparent when considering the impact of layoffs. Equality in Job Loss, a report issued by The Joint Economic Committee of the US Congress in July 2008, makes the point that in the current economic downturn, women are increasingly vulnerable to job losses—and when women lose jobs, their families suffer. Basing its research on US Census Bureau data, the report says, “Women’s increased vulnerability to recession can wreak havoc on family economic well-being. The typical wife brings home over a third of her family’s income and the one quarter of children being raised in single-mother families have only their mother’s salary to rely upon. … The only families who have seen any increase in real income over the past three decades are those with a working wife.”

Next section: Q&A: focusing on first principles