Equal Work, Equal Rights, Equal Pay
The gender pay gap and workplace discrimination against women
Despite the improvement of MENA women in education at the tertiary level, infant mortality and life expectancy rates, only about only 25% of women in MENA participate in the labour force as against 50% of other developing countries. The gender pay gap suppresses women’s efforts to financial independence and maintain good quality of life.
Globally, no country has succeeded in closing the difference between women’s and men’s average weekly full-time equivalent earning. The Middle East and North Africa region remains the region with the highest gender-pay gap and workplace discrimination. With the lowest female labor force participation of 26%, women have limited presence on boards of directors in the Middle East. In countries like Bahrain, Japan, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates women’s at the top leadership positions is less than 2%.
According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO),women’s work is an important factor in reducing poverty in developing countries. Greater earnings by women could lead to higher school enrollment for children and access to better healthcare.
Gender discrimination against women in the workplace is broadly exhibited in biased work regulations and limited infrastructure, different access to labour, credit, land and networks, social norms on care and market work; and households’ differential allocation of time and resources.
Female labour force participation in 21% in Saudi Arabia, the country with the second-largest gap in expectations.
Gender discrimination exists in differences between employment for men and women across sectors, industries, occupations and firms. Most jobs in the extractive and manufacturing industries are deemed fit for men while some others like agriculture ad service industry are deemed suitable for women. A lot of women work in unpaid care and menial labour sectors.
Females in top organizational roles experience less discrimination than lower placed female workers, a situation known as the sticky floor effect.
Patriarchy is a key factor affecting female labour force participation and workplace discrimination. Given the traditional belief of women being responsible for care work, females are more inclined to be excluded from the labour force or operate home-based businesses. Women are more likely to take up jobs with flexible working hours and take career breaks more frequently than men.
In Egypt, one of the Middle East’s most versatile economies, the wage gap which is attributed to discrimination against women between males and females is estimated to be 25%. Recently, donors and specialised NGOs have started implementing programmes directed at the economic integration of women through providing credit and financial literacy, as well as self-defence and character development.
Women’s dependence on men (fathers and/or husbands) as their providers, the societal consideration of women’s income as secondary to that of men, non-recognition of unpaid care work in the national output, career breaks of women for maternity reasons, lack of information and awareness about their rights are other factors affecting female labour force participation and workplace discrimination.
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) is one of the organisations working to end workplace discrimination and close the gender-pay gap. To this end, it launched the ITUC’s “Decent Work — Decent Life for Women campaign” on 8 March 2008 to work at the global level to ensure equality for working women.
In order to remove the obstacles facing women’s participation in the labour force, pressure must be mounted on the governments and parliaments that are yet to pass into law and implement the ILO Equal Pay for Men and Women agreement to act; and effectively too. Thereafter, consultations with civil society and labour organizations on the adoption of legislation limiting wage discrimination against women must be made to take affirmative action for closing the gender-pay gap. Labour unions and civil society organizations should work with governments to review the restrictions in the employment of women for night work and areas of work available to women.
Advocating for men to share in the responsibilities of care work such as child care to free up more time for women’s economic activities, introduction of the Women Empowerment Principles (WEPs) to governments and private companies, getting and analyzing data to monitor progress on female representation and pay-gap per industry and level with a view to improving the career experience of females are other steps that can be taken to close the gender pay gap and end discrimination against women.
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