A growing proportion of global workforce are women. As workers, entrepreneurs, and service providers, women contribute actively to economic and social advancement.
Women have been disregarded economically and in terms of their human rights. They tend to be unemployed more than men, are generally in less secure positions in the informal sector; occupy part-time formal jobs more than their male counterparts in the majority of high-income countries; outside of the workplace they take on a greater proportion of unpaid housework worldwide; have lower levels of productivity and get paid less for similar tasks as men. The financial and economic downturn, along with other problems such as unstable food prices, the energy crisis and international agricultural exports have had a powerful effect on women workers in rural and urban areas. Women should have an equal chance with men to impact economic decisions being made at all levels. Furthermore, these decisions must take into account a gender perspective both when creating response plans and assessing their effects.
It is a moral imperative to empower women economically and to place them at the center of solutions. A growing body of research has shown that enhancing women’s economic participation improves national economies, increases household productivity and living standards, enhances the well-being of children with positive long-term impacts, and can increase women’s agency and empowerment overall.
Action is Now Required
In light of this, the following measures could be taken to increase jobs, promote decent work, and empower women economically:
1. Identify the distributional consequences of economic growth strategies and macroeconomic policies underpinning them; conduct a gender-based impact assessment of the same, specifically addressing the financial and economic crisis.
2. Develop and improve the use of sex-disaggregated data and gender statistics on women's economic empowerment; strengthen data collection instruments, such as household surveys, labour force surveys, time-use surveys, to fully reflect gender equality issues and women's economic empowerment, including employment, work, and entrepreneurship.
3. Develop policies and programs to create more jobs and ensure decent work for women, especially in the informal sector.
4. Incorporate women's leadership into public and corporate economic decision-making, as well as in employers' and workers' organizations
5. In both paid and unpaid care work, promote equality and shared responsibility between men and women
6. Make adequate investments in gender equality and women's economic empowerment, particularly in the world of work, and monitor and evaluate policies and programs, making appropriate revisions.
Outputs of Women Involvement Investments
If women’s paid employment rates were raised to the same level as men’s, GDP would rise 9% in the US, 13% in the Eurozone and 16% in Japan.2 By contrast, an ESCAP report found that restricting job opportunities for women, where 45% of women remain outside the labor market, costs the Asia-Pacific region up to USD 42-46 billion per year.
Evidence from a range of countries shows that the share of household income controlled by women either through their own earnings, including as migrant remittances or via cash transfers is spent to benefit children.
In Ghana, the share of assets and land owned by women is positively associated with higher food expenditures.
In China, increasing adult female income by 10% of the average household income increased the fraction of surviving girls by a percentage point and increased the years of schooling for both boys and girls.
In Brazil and Mexico, cash transfers directed at women have resulted in higher nutrition and educations levels for children, especially girls, decreases in child labor and better employment for young women.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that if female farmers had the same access to productive resources as male farmers, they could increase yields on their farms by 20 to 30%, raising total agricultural output in developing countries by 2.5 to 4 per cent, thereby contributing to both food security and economic growth.
The Women’s Entrepreneurship Accelerator (WEA) is a multi-stakeholder partnership convening six United Nations agencies: International Labour Organization (ILO), International Trade Centre (ITC) International Telecommunication Union (ITU), UN Development Programme (UNDP), UN Global Compact (UNGC), UN Women and Mary Kay to maximize the development impact of women entrepreneurship in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by creating an enabling ecosystem for women entrepreneurs around the world.
WEA has committed to empower 5 million women entrepreneurs by 2030 and Yıldız Holding became strategic partner of this programme within ECA region.
WEA exemplifies the transformational power of a multi-partnership of unique magnitude to harness the potential of women entrepreneurs. In accordance with its global values of inclusion and diversity, Yıldız Holding continues to take many important steps especially in terms of ensuring equal opportunities. Aiming to take these initiatives led by Yıldız Holding Women’s Platform to a global level, the Holding has recently become a partner to “Women’s Entrepreneurship Accelerator (WEA)” initiative, a multi-stakeholder partnership aiming to create an enabling ecosystem for women entrepreneurs around the world convened by the United Nations and housed by UN Women.
Source: https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2012/8/decent-work-and-women-s-economic-empowerment-good-policy-and-practice