This report provides a review of policy frameworks for gender-equity and/or employment, including social protection measures related to social safety nets. It highlights good practices, drawing on examples from around the world and on Asia and the Pacific in particular.
The review’s intended audience is policy makers who may be charged, as part of their duties, to design and implement policies to promote gender equality in the labour market for more inclusive growth or who are seeking an introduction to the issues.
Key findings:
- Gender equality in the labour market is important in its own right, and progress toward greater equality contributes to inclusive growth. Gender equality in the labour market requires that men and women have equal opportunity, remuneration, and treatment in their working lives.
- Although many international development agencies and national governments have recognised the need for gender equality in the labour market, there has been limited progress, and, in some situations, gender inequality has been accentuated. This report highlights good policies and practices to promote gender equality in the labour market and, specifically, to increase women’s productive and decent work.
- Gender-equity strategies need to recognize and reduce the constraints women face in the labour market. The constraints arise from women’s domestic and care roles and limited access to resources (including time, education, training, finance, and land). These constraints, along with stereotypes and norms, as well as some rules and regulations, limit women’s opportunities and productivity. Therefore, women’s domestic and care burdens need to be reduced and unpaid labour time shared more equally between women and men. At the same time, it is necessary to enhance women’s access to, and control over, resources.
- Good practices adopt specific gender-aware design features to ensure that women access and benefit from programs and policies. Specific gender-aware features include gender mainstreaming and gender-specific strategies, and tools such as quotas for women, gender budgets, gender audits, and monitoring and accountability mechanisms.
- To attain gender equality in the labour market and promote inclusive growth, it is necessary to reorient macroeconomic development strategies, making them employment-intensive and gender-inclusive. Macroeconomic policies can be designed to promote gender-equal employment.
- Fiscal policy, particularly through expenditure, provides a clear opportunity to promote gender equality in the labour market, through direct and indirect employment, and, importantly, by reducing the domestic and care burden which primarily falls on women.
- Gender biases in taxation need to be removed, and trade and investment policies need to be designed and implemented in gender equal and employment-intensive ways. National employment policies and plans provide a mechanism to address structural inequalities and constraints to women’s employment. They can also link the initiatives of different government departments and connect with the private sector.
- Rebalancing the labour market for gender equality requires a variety of interventions related to entrepreneurship, transitions from school to decent work, and social protection, as reviewed in this report.
