Inequalities Persist Even as Women's Employment Grows

MORE WOMEN EMPLOYED The East Asian subregion leads the world in women's employment

The East Asian subregion leads the world in women's employment, with female employment-to-population ratios—65.2% of all working-age women are employed—remaining the world’s highest in 2007.

The report Global Employment Trends for Women—March 2008, released by the International Labour Office on the occasion of International Women’s Day, says that the number of employed women grew by almost 200 million over the last decade to reach 1.2 billion in 2007, compared to 1.8 billion men. However, the number of unemployed women also grew from 70.2 to 81.6 million over the same period.

“Women continue to enter the world’s workforce in great numbers. This progress must not obscure the glaring inequities that still exist in workplaces throughout the world,” said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia in a press release.

In Southeast Asia and the Pacific, the report said that women are moving into wage and salaried jobs, but at a slow pace. Around 59% of working-age women in these subregions now participate in the labor market, compared to 82.8% of men.

In South Asia, however, “women continue to be an untapped potential.” Only 34% of working-age women actually worked in 2007, and the female employment-to-population ratio actually slightly decreased over the last 10 years. •