Originally published: United Nations (2020)
Introduction
In the time of COVID-19 pandemic, UN’s latest report titled The World’s Women 2020 exhaustively covers the latest trends and statistics that aim to reveal the state of gender equality all over the world. It categorises its findings into 100 distinct data stories that are represented on an interactive platform underscore how far we are in gaining equal representation and rights for women worldwide in domestic as well as professional spaces. Women still struggle to reach powerful positions as managers but the pressure of unpaid housework has increased for them due to COVID-19. Seeing gender parity through an economic lens, one section of the comprehensive report extrapolates a comparative analysis of the employment of women and men in the economic sector.
Key Highlights
1. Service sector emerged as the biggest employer, giving work to 59 percent women and 45 percent men. The gap of 14 percentage point was the largest since 1995.
2. Employment in the agricultural sector plummeted, employing 25 percent women and 27 percent men. But it remained a major employer (50%) of women in Southern Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania (excluding Australia and New Zealand).
3. In 2019, women dominated the services sector compared to men who worked in the industrial sector of the economy. Women’s employment decreased in the industry sector to 16%, proliferating for men to 28% while widening the gender gap.
4. In the services sector, women were seen in large numbers in sub-sectors of human health and social work; education; private households; and accommodation and food service activities while men were the majority in transport, storage and communications; public administration and defence; compulsory social security; real estate; and business and administrative activities.
5. The health sector holds 70% female employees who are more prone to health risks and infections.
6. Women had the command over the paid domestic worker sector but their participation decreased from 83% in 2015 to 79% in 2019.
Read more: https://undesa.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=16cf3ba269944620b610ef7f80671fd3
Author: Richa Kohli, PILOT at Pratham
