“What are the changing working conditions and how women had to face the situation” (part 2)"

Since women have entered the workforce to replace the lost male earning power as a result of two world wars, the number of women in the workforce has increased significantly during the past 60 years. Feminist movements, equal opportunity laws, the growth of the service and knowledge economies, rising living costs, and improved educational access are only a few of the complex social movements that have contributed to this transition. Women are now working in a considerably wider range of vocations as a result of the increase in their numbers, ranging from traditionally loving and supporting fields like teaching and nursing to all areas of business and industry. As a result, women are now present in professions, fields, and roles that were once thought to be exclusively the domain of men.

The economic empowerment of women as independent consumers has been significantly impacted by this variation in female employment patterns since the 1940s, but possibly even more critically, there has been a fundamental shift in their overall contribution to macro value generation indices. For instance, research suggests that businesses with more female board members do financially better than those with fewer women. According to economists, increasing the proportion of women in the workforce can increase a nation’s GDP by up to 21%. Female entrepreneurs and business owners are also on the rise, albeit frequently in lower revenue-generating industries.

The environment in which we live and work is changing as a result of several causes, including globalisation, technological advancement, and climate change. These changes present both possibilities and difficulties for women to achieve their economic potential and build a better future.

Labour force

Even though globalisation has enabled millions more women to work for pay, the proportion of women in the workforce is still far lower than that of men. Women are disproportionately placed at the bottom of the global value chain due to gender disparities; they hold the lowest paying positions, in piece-rate, subcontracted work, and precarious forms of self-employment, and have limited or no access to good employment and social security. Half of the world’s potential is held by women, and to realise that potential, women must have access to decent, well-paying jobs and gender-sensitive laws and policies that support flexible work schedules and adequate maternity leaves.

Unemployment

Globally, women are more likely than men to be unemployed, with significant geographical differences. Particularly troubling are the long-term negative implications of youth unemployment, which include loss of livelihood, poverty, and psychosocial effects. The youth unemployment rate in 2015 was 13.1%, which was significantly higher than the global unemployment rate of 5.8%. There is still a severe gender gap in places like Northern Africa and the Arab States, where the female youth unemployment rate is about twice as high as young men’s, coming in at about 44%, even if young women in these regions are getting more schooling. This shows that structural impediments in the labour market cannot be eliminated by education alone.

Occupation segregation

Women are disproportionately underrepresented in decision-making positions in fields like science and technology, as well as lower-paying, lower-skill jobs with greater job insecurity. A majority of women work in the services industry, which employs half of the world’s working population. Women are disproportionately represented in the health, education, wholesaling, and retail sectors in high-income nations, whereas they are disproportionately represented in agricultural labour in low-income and lower-middle-income nations. Sectoral and occupational segregation is a result of structural impediments and gender-based discrimination, including, among other factors, poverty, rigid work schedules, little to no access to inexpensive, high-quality daycare, inadequate maternity leave regulations, and social views. To protect fundamental labour rights and ensure decent work, women’s leadership and inclusion in corporate boards, worker and employer organisations, and trade unions are essential.

Wage gap

The wage gap will not close looking at the current rate, for 70 years. When it comes to this divide, labour policies play a crucial role. Women, for instance, experience more difficulties juggling paid work with obligations to their families. Women’s ability to move up the corporate ladder and avoid being forced into part-time work might be hampered by restrictive rules like rigid working hours and little parental; leave. This exposes them to further injustices like restricted access to social security, especially old-age benefits. The maternity penalty, often known as these injustices, affects women with children more than other women.

Unpaid work

Women around the world perform a disproportionate amount of unpaid work, whether it be caring for children and the elderly, collecting water and firewood, or cleaning and cooking. The economy is supported by unpaid labour, which frequently makes up for a lack of official spending on social services and infrastructure. In actuality, the value of unpaid domestic and care labour is estimated to be 10 and 39 % of GDP, respectively. It can therefore have a greater economic impact than the manufacturing business, or transportation sectors. In addition to men doing a small amount of the work, policies that reduce and redistribute unpaid work performed by women and girls, increase paid jobs in the care sector, and offer social protection and basic infrastructure like access to clean water, are necessary for women to enter and remain in the paid labour force and reach their full economic potential.

Parental leave

Parental leave and childcare services can assist families in allocating care responsibilities while meeting work priorities. This can, in turn, enable women to enter and stay in the labour market if they choose to do so. Almost every nation in the work has passed some kind of maternity protection law, but only 63 of them meet the minimum requirements of at least 14 weeks of paid maternity leave put forth by the International Labour Organization. Even if countries with laws requiring it, only 26% of working women get to take paid maternity leave, according to data. A crucial aspect of safeguarding the economic and personal wellness of women, families, and society is the implementation of parental leave policies that allow both partners to share childcare responsibilities.

Informal work

All around the world, women, and migrant women, in particular, are overrepresented in the informal sector. The informal sector is where most women find jobs in developing nations. Both waged employees engaged in domestic or seasonal agricultural work and self-employed individuals, such as street vendors, petty goods traders, and subsistence farmers, can be classified as performing informal employment. Contributing family labour is one of the most susceptible types of informal employment. The informal sector often referred to as the grey sector, is exempt from labour laws, leaving many people vulnerable to low pay, hazardous working conditions, and a lack of social benefits including pensions, sick pay, and health insurance. Labour discrimination, sexism, racism and xenophobia are made worse by poor working conditions in the informal economy.

Conclusion

The progress made has been really remarkable, but the situation is still complicated, despite the progress. Even if pay discrepancies are closing, income inequality remains a deplorable reality. Women are nevertheless less likely than men to be linked with leadership positions in fields like politics and business; despite being in a strong or stronger position to lead, change, and shape the economic, social, and political landscape. Equally shameful as issues of racial or religious discrimination, gender discrimination in the workplace must be eradicated to protect basic human rights and advance productive and efficient business operations.