EMPLOYMENT Gender

Work is central to people’s well-being. In addition to providing income, work can pave the way for broader social and economic advancement, and strengthen individuals, their families and communities. Such progress, however, requires work that is decent. Decent Work for ALL sums up the aspirations of people in their working lives. The ILO is devoted to advancing opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity. Its main aims are to promote rights at work, encourage employment opportunities, enhance social protection and strengthen social dialogue.

For many women, however, access to rights, employment, social protection and social dialogue despite significant achievements, remains elusive. We therefore continue to seek and advocate regional solutions to address gender equality and the advancement of women in our societies throughout the region. Women in Arab States continue to enter the region’s workforce in great numbers. In the past decade, the region has experienced a 7.7 per cent increase in the number of women in the labour force, the highest positive change compared with any other region of the world. However, this positive change has not been sufficient to bring the countries of the region at par with those at similar levels of economic development. Women make up only 29.5 per cent of the labour force, which is lower than any other region of the world.

Unemployment among women also continues to increase, where one in every six women in the Arab region is likely to be without work compared to one in every 10 men. Difficulty of finding work is even more pressing for young women, where one in every three young women is unemployed compared to one in every four young men. Despite all the investments in girls’ and boys’ education in our region, the formula of “more education equals better jobs” is not being confirmed by the labour market realities faced by young people, especially young women. Even when women are employed, the majority are still working as contributing family workers in agriculture. When involved in paid work, they are often found in traditional care taking jobs like teachers, nurses, social workers, with low returns to their labour. Or they are in home-based work, domestic work and other informal and often invisible employment lacking in benefits and social protection. Due to social patterns of gender roles and responsibilities, women must also reconcile the double-burden of unpaid care work. Sometimes, they face additional discrimination, e.g. the firing of women by employers to avoid paying maternity benefits.

The ILO continues to strive for gender equality and respect for the rights of individuals in the world of work. The ILO is committed to working with governments, employers and workers towards the goal of promoting decent work for women and men alike to address these decent work deficits in the region using a gender equality and workers' rights perspective.