Employment:
Gender issues

Many governments claim that there is no gender discrimination in the public service and indeed the public sector is the largest employer of women. The fact that the public service has often offered more and better employment opportunities to women than the private sector has at the same time made women particularly vulnerable to spending cuts in the public service. Women may at the same time have unequal access to compensatory programmes such as retraining and job placement. On the other hand, in many countries, the trend towards decentralization may be of advantage to women, who tend to be more numerous in local than in central governments.

The ILO’s most recent statistics in the public sector employment database (PSEDB), updated in 2006, includes an indicator of “Total and public employment by economic activity” disaggregated by sex.

Public emergency services (PESs) have been male-dominated, and the workforces are still heavily oriented towards men throughout the world. A very slow growth in the numbers of women personnel in these services may be observed, but they are mostly in administrative and support positions. In most countries there is no legal restriction on their entry to these professions, but cultural biases against such employment are still strong. Restricting equal employment opportunity for women based on the unsubstantiated notion that the occupation is dangerous is contrary to the principle of the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111). The ILO encourages the active promotion of women’s employment to overcome cultural biases with specific measures, such as providing separate facilities in a fire station and other steps.