A new push for women's economic independence

For UN Women, investing in women's economic empowerment is the most powerful booster of gender equality, poverty eradication, and inclusive economic growth. Women account for 48.5% of the working population, a figure that covers very different realities depending on the country and the status given to women in the economy. However, they are often less recognized, less paid, and in insecure and low-value jobs, or even exploited and subject to abuse and various risks.

To ensure that their rights are respected, countries are encouraged to recognize the considerable contribution made by women in all sectors of the economy, within companies, on farms, as entrepreneurs or employees, or through their unpaid work within the family or in caring for loved ones. Another universal issue is gender discrimination, which leads to the massive under-representation of women in decision-making positions.

Unequivocally, the majority of the world's poor are women: discrimination, particularly in the job market can include :

- Low incomes: throughout the world, women are the cheapest source of labor. On average, they earn 24% less than men, and this gap remains at 9% in France.

- Jobs in the informal economy, with no access to rights or social protection. Nearly 600 million women work in conditions of insecurity and precariousness.

- Unpaid work. Women do at least twice as much domestic work, and sometimes up to ten times as much.

- Longer working hours: when paid and unpaid jobs are combined, women work an average of four years longer than men.

According to the World Bank's 2022 report "Women, Business and the Law", some 2.4 billion women of working age do not enjoy equal economic opportunities, and 178 countries maintain legal barriers that prevent their full participation in economic life. The report lists eight areas that impact women's economic participation: mobility, work, remuneration, marriage, parenthood, entrepreneurship, assets, and retirement. These data provide objective, measurable benchmarks of global progress in gender equality, and show that only 12 countries, all members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), have achieved legal gender parity.

Yet gender equality has a powerful development-accelerating effect. If women had equal access to productive resources, this would translate into a global production gain of 20-30%. In the global framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), access to economic resources and women's full participation in the workforce are central. Women's economic independence is the main bulwark against poverty and plays a major role in promoting social autonomy. To achieve this, we need to fight sexist stereotypes, increase women's and girls' access to education and to the professions of the future, particularly in the technology sector, and ensure that a fair legislative framework is created and enforced, offering conditions that are favorable to parents' careers and family life. Finally, ensuring that women everywhere have access to financing for their productive activities, through entrepreneurship and access to capital and property, is another essential condition for deploying women's immense potential in working life.

How does it change in practice ?

Women's economic independence is the result of a combination of the following actions.

- Access to education and training.

- Women's access to economic resources, including equal access to property, inheritance, financial services, credit and investment.

- Full participation in political, economic and social leadership and decision-making.

- Valuing domestic and care work and promoting an equitable sharing of responsibilities.

- Increased access for women and girls to information technologies, the Web and digital tools.

- The abolition of all forms of violence and exploitation of women and girls, and forced marriages.

On this #InternationalWomensDay2024 let's hope for a significant upheaval and recognition of the incredible economic contribution of women around the world.