All around the world, women want to work,
and get paid for it.
And the majority of men agree.
But there's a gap between women's aspirations
and the realities of the labour market.
Women are less likely to participate in the labour market.
They face lower chances of finding a job.
They are paid less than men,
more likely to be in involuntary part-time work
and they are subject to discrimination in the workplace.
Traditional gender roles are slow to change.
In every country,
women do at least twice as much housework
and care work at home than men... unpaid.
When paid and unpaid work is combined,
women work longer days than men.
Around the world, women and men agree:
balancing work and family responsibilities,
including lack of access to affordable care services
is the major challenge to women at work.
The opportunity?
Recognizing, rewarding, reducing and redistributing care work
and creating more decent care jobs for women and men.
More than one of every three women worldwide
has experienced physical or sexual violence.
Violence against women does not have only have
physical, emotional and psychological costs:
it has a significant impact on national economies.
Violence, harassment and discrimination
can prevent women from entering and staying in the job market,
particularly in male-dominated fields.
The global pay gap between men and women
is estimated at 23%...
in some countries women earn just 60%
of what men earn for an hour of the same work.
Differences in education, experience, age and career breaks
cannot entirely explain why.
The significant difference is discrimination against women,
direct or indirect.
The Women at Work Centenary
and the Future of Work Centenary Initiatives
provide an opportunity not only to make the obstacles
to decent work for women visible,
but to also spell out the action needed to overcome them.
The deliberate and bold choices we make
will ensure a future of work with gender equality at its heart.
Major pathways toward achieving gender equality and decent work include:
Expanding the provision of accessible and high-quality care services
and creating decent jobs in the care economy.
Laws and mechanisms
to ensure equal pay for work of equal value
and extend social protection coverage.
Ending violence and harassment in the world of work
and macroeconomic policies that foster job-rich growth
and address structural gender inequalities.
This transformation is essential
if we want to see gender equality
at the heart of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda
and make decent work for women and men a reality.