Oxfam: Gender inequality in economy costs women $9 trillion a year in developing countries
Progress in making women equal to men in the economy is painfully slow, and women are still more likely than men to live in poverty, says the report , entitled “An Economy that Works for Women” published by Oxfam.
According to the source, globally, the average gender pay gap is 23 percent and 700 million fewer women than men are in paid work. The compiled data reveal that women carry out between two and 10 times more unpaid care work than men, which is worth $10 trillion to the global economy each year, equivalent to over an eighth of the world’s entire GDP,
“Women’s disproportionate responsibility for the work squeezes the amount of time that they have to go to school and earn a living. Recent research showed that globally, 57 million unpaid workers are filling in the gaps caused by inadequate healthcare provision,” read the document.
The report also refers to the data of the World Economic Forum, saying instead of improving in 2016, gender inequality in the economy reverted to where it stood in 2008. At the current rate of progress, it will take 170 years for women and men to be employed at the same rates, paid the same for equal work, and have the same levels of seniority.
The authors pf the report suggest that women’s economic empowerment could reduce poverty for everyone. In order to achieve it, the authors call for fixing the current broken economic model which is undermining gender equality and causing extreme economic inequality,
This International Women's Day, Oxfam is calling for people around the world to stand up for women's equal right to safe, decent, fairly paid work and a world free from the injustice of poverty.