International Women’s Day – equality in the workplace

[8 March 2011 - 09h43]
[mis à jour le 9 March 2011 à 09h43]

For over 100 years, throughout the world, March 8 has been dedicated to women and to the support of women’s rights. Many events are held on every continent to highlight the battle for sexual equality … in every walk of life. This year, International Women’s Day is devoted to education and access to decent work.

As Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations explains, equality between the sexes and access to independence for women are both social and economic imperatives. Until such time as women are liberated from poverty and injustice, the realisation of all our objectives – peace, security and sustainable development – will remain uncertain.

Despite the UN’s involvement in the fight for equality between men and women, manifest inequalities persist in all countries. This is particularly true of access to education, employment, equal pay and political representation. To find out more, visit the new UN Women’s web portal at www.unwomen.org.

According to the United Nations, two thirds of the world’s 774 million adults who are unable to read and write are women. And this proportion has remained unchanged for 20 years, reflecting a total lack of any convincing improvement. Sub-Saharan Africa and south-east Asia remain the areas most affected by these inequalities. However, some developed countries continue to show significant and unacceptable disparities too. In France, for example, in 2007 barely 18.5% of elected deputies were women. A figure which is, of course, far from representative of the makeup of the population, although it does reflect some progress compared with the previous election where the figure was only 12%.

At European level, the pay gap between men and women – comparing equivalent jobs and skill levels – is 17.8%. In France, 82% of those working part-time are women and this part-time employment is, in at least 30% of cases, not by choice – they are simply unable to find full-time jobs.

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