Indian Statistical Service| Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation| Deputy Director| Views are personal
While speaking about women’s participation in labour market, merely looking at figures like labour force participation rate or unemployment rate is not sufficient. The quality of job they do and the wage they receive is of utmost importance. While self employed has a different meaning in developed countries, the may have many definitions in developing countries.
Besides unpaid work, what does vulnerable employment look like?⬇️ ⏰Shorter hours – While part-time work represents a family-friendly working arrangement, for many workers, it is involuntary. Women, especially mothers, in paid jobs are more likely to work fewer hours than men, but usually not by choice and due to care responsibilities. Across the globe, women constitute 45% of underutilized labour, which takes into consideration time-related underemployment and the potential labour force. 👨🌾👩🌾Contributing family workers – Women are more than twice as likely to be contributing family workers (i.e. self-employed in a business owned or operated by a relative) than men. Such workers are likely to be poorly paid (if at all) and living in poverty, with no employment contract and little access to social protection. This gap is even more pronounced in low-income countries. 🤰Maternity coverage - While over two-thirds of potential mothers live in countries where maternity leave cash benefits are funded through social protection, effective coverage remains low. In 2020, only 44.9 per cent of women giving birth worldwide received maternity leave cash benefits. This lack of coverage has a major impact on women’s and children’s health outcomes and can push them into poverty. 👨👧👦Paternity leave – When fathers take paternity leave, they increase their long-term involvement in unpaid care work, in turn promoting greater participation of mothers in employment. There are also indications that children have better development outcomes, as they benefit from interaction and stimulation from both parents rather than just one. Despite this, the average duration of paternity leave is 9 days, compared to 18 weeks for maternity leave. This surmounts to a global “gender leave gap” of 16.7 weeks, stunting the more equal sharing of family responsibilities between mothers and fathers. 🛡️Social protection access - Women often do not have access to social protection. When they do, their entitlements are lower, due to low pay, shorter contribution periods and higher incidences of informal work. This problem is particularly acute when it comes to pensions: on average, the proportion of women above retirement age receiving a pension is 12.4 percentage points lower than that of men. Let’s work together to close the gender gaps in the labour force.