Publication: Not Just More, but Better: Fostering Quality of Employment for Women
Date
2017-01
ISSN
Published
2017-01
Author(s)
Datta, Namita
Kotikula, Aphichoke
Abstract
Despite progress on women’s labor force
participation in the past few decades, there remain
persistent gender gaps across multiple dimensions of job
quality. Women generally earn less than men. Gaps are
particularly acute in the Middle East and North Africa but
also persist in high income Organization for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Women tend to
be concentrated in less productive jobs, run enterprises in
less productive sectors, and are more likely to do part-time
and temporary jobs with fewer avenues for advancement, than
men. Women are particularly concentrated into the more
invisible activities, such as domestic labor and unpaid work
or work in the informal sector in jobs that lack security
and are not covered by labor laws. In other words, there are
persistent gender gaps not only in labor force participation
rates or the quantity of jobs, but perhaps more importantly,
in the quality or types of jobs that men and women do.
Having access to quality jobs which are stable, decent,
secure, and productive is even more important from a gender
perspective because women are more likely than men to be
over represented in low paying, part time, informal, and low
productivity jobs. This paper explores the multiple
dimensions of women’s access to good quality jobs, factors
contributing to gender gaps, and possible solutions or
actions that have worked in different countries.
Citation
“Datta, Namita; Kotikula, Aphichoke. 2017. Not Just More, but Better: Fostering Quality of Employment for Women. Jobs Working Paper;No. 1. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/26274 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”