Prosperity depends on achieving gender equality

NAIROBI — Despite the progress made toward gender equality over the past century, women worldwide still lag behind men in pay and job quality. The global labor-force participation rate for women is  per cent, compared to 80 per cent for men. This is not due to a lack of will or effort. Childcare obligations, limited access to education, and poor workplace and public-safety measures often curtail women’s ability to secure “decent” work.

For this reason, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to achieve “full and productive employment and decent work for all” by 2030 (SDG 8). But this objective cannot be achieved as long as African women face significant barriers to equal pay and job opportunities.

According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), “decent” employment implies fair wages, safe and healthy working environments, job security, and equal opportunities and treatment. While several African countries have made efforts to improve women’s access to decent work opportunities, recent research by the Partnership for Economic Policy (PEP) underscores the challenges facing policymakers.

The study, which involved researchers in six countries, covered two African states: Kenya and Senegal. In Kenya, researchers found that while more than 75 per cent of women participate in the labor market, only 39 per cent are employed in the formal sector. In Senegal, the study revealed that 70 per cent of women have been engaged in vulnerable jobs over the past 30 years, with little to no improvement despite government interventions. Consequently, most women in both countries work in precarious jobs, mainly in agriculture, the informal sector, and domestic service, and often lack access to social benefits.

A separate study focusing on women’s integration into the labour market in eight Sub-Saharan countries, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, found that, with the exception of Sierra Leone, women are less likely to be employed than men. Moreover, women are primarily engaged in insecure, low-paying, and informal jobs. On average, eight out of ten women in these countries hold vulnerable jobs.

Unsurprisingly, motherhood and childcare-related duties significantly impede women’s ability to realise their full potential in the labor market, owing to regressive social norms that perpetuate gender inequality. To address these disparities, public policies must be thoughtfully designed and tailored to specific contexts. For example, PEP researchers recommended that governments offer affordable, high-quality, and safe public childcare services. This includes establishing daycare centers within public schools and subsidising private childcare services in countries like Kenya and Senegal.

A 2019 randomised control trial in Korogocho, an informal settlement in Nairobi, underscored the vital role of free childcare in boosting women’s participation in the labour market. The study pointed to cost as the main barrier to accessing childcare services, with nearly 25 per cent of local mothers unable to afford them. Childcare subsidies, in the form of vouchers for daycare centres, resulted in a 17 per cent increase in job opportunities for impoverished urban mothers with children aged one to three. Those who received these subsidies benefited from an average 24 per cent increase in their earnings.

A 2018 ILO report, based on data from more than 90 countries, also highlighted the role of caregiving work in advancing women’s economic empowerment. Globally, 19.3 per cent of women work in care jobs, compared to 6.6 per cent of men. Given that the number of people who need care is expected to grow to 2.3 billion by 2030 (from 2.1 billion in 2015), the report advocated doubling investment in the care economy to $18.4 trillion. The ILO projected that this would create 269 million new jobs by 2030 and enable countries to meet multiple SDGs, including universal health care, education for all, gender equality, and decent employment.

Drawing on insights from Kenya, the researchers outlined several steps that governments can take to recognise, reduce, and redistribute unpaid care work among different stakeholders. These include investing in high-quality, affordable childcare services, particularly for early childhood; enhancing the capacity of county-level government departments to oversee unpaid caregiving through adequate budgetary support and intra-governmental cooperation; aiding local entrepreneurs who serve low-income women through public and private investment; exploring community-based models or those tailored to pastoralist communities; and recognising long-term care for the elderly as an integral part of this work.

Jane Kabubo-Mariara is executive director of the Partnership for Economic Policy, professor of Economics at the University of Nairobi, President of the African Society for Ecological Economics, and a member of the Central Bank of Kenya’s Monetary Policy Committee and the Club of Rome’s Earth4All 21st Century Transformational Economics Commission. Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2024. www.project-syndicate.org