{"id":88105,"date":"2017-03-06T12:00:16","date_gmt":"2017-03-06T12:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=88105"},"modified":"2017-03-05T13:38:08","modified_gmt":"2017-03-05T13:38:08","slug":"seven-scary-facts-about-widening-gender-gap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/03\/seven-scary-facts-about-widening-gender-gap\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven Scary Facts about Widening Gender Gap"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A resident of Rabaable village in Somalia fetches water with the help of her daughters. The villages well was recently rehabilitated by UNICEF.
Credit: UNICEF Somalia\/Sebastian Rich<\/p><\/div>\n

3 Mar 2017<\/em> – Women across the globe are facing new threats, which risk dismantling decades of hard-won rights and derailing the effort to end extreme poverty, an international confederation of civil society organisations has revealed ahead of International Women\u2019s Day on March 8.<\/p>\n

The renewal of the global gag rule restricting US funding for family planning services is the latest of a number of new threats that will have a huge effect on the world\u2019s poorest women, OXFAM<\/a> international on March 2 warned in its new report \u2018An economy that works for women<\/a>\u2018.<\/p>\n

It comes as progress towards women\u2019s equality risks going into reverse, something that will make it impossible for world leaders to end extreme poverty by 2030, it adds.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt current rates, the time it will take to close the 23 per cent global pay gap between men and women stands at 170 years \u2013 52 years longer than it would have done just a year ago. And, over the past five years, donor funding directly to women\u2019s rights organisations has more than halved. All of this risks putting women\u2019s rights in reverse.\u201c<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen still carry out between two to 10 times more unpaid care work than men,\u201d OECD<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

On this, the Head of Oxfam\u2019s Even It Up campaign, Deepak Xavier, said that across the world, many of the basic human rights women have secured over the last few decades are at risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone has a part to play in ensuring this rollback on women\u2019s rights does not happen. Recognizing that women and girls are equal to men and boys is crucial in the fight against poverty and inequality.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new Oxfam\u2019s report launched on March 2, \u2018An economy that works for women<\/a>\u2018, outlines the importance of paid work as a vital route out of poverty for women.<\/p>\n

Yet gender inequality in the economy is now back to where it stood in 2008 and millions of women around the world continue to face low wages, a lack of decent, secure jobs and a heavy and unequal responsibility for unpaid care work, such as housework and childcare, OXFAM reports.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven in countries where the distribution is the most equal, it is estimated that women still carry out at least twice as much unpaid care work than men with an estimated global value of 10 trillion dollars per year \u2013 more than the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of India, Japan and Brazil combined.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Rural women: a driving force against hunger, malnutrition and poverty.
Credit: FAO<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cStudies also show that inequality in economic terms costs women in developing countries 9 trillion dollars a year; a sum that would not only benefit women but would unlock new spending power for their families and produce a boost to the economy as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

This International Women\u2019s Day, OXFAM calls for people around the world to stand up for women\u2019s equal right to safe, decent, fairly paid work and a world free from the injustice of poverty.<\/p>\n

Seven Key Facts<\/strong><\/p>\n

The international aid confederation reports the following facts about the widening gender inequality:<\/p>\n

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  1. Up to 23 per cent global pay gap between men and women according to the International Labour Organization\u2019s \u2018Women at Work: Trends 2016<\/a>\u2019.<\/li>\n
  2. The World Economic Forum\u2019s Global Gender Gap Report 2016<\/a> estimates it will now take 170 years to close the 23 per cent global pay gap between men and women and gender inequality in the economy is now back to where it stood in 2008.<\/li>\n
  3. The global value of women\u2019s unpaid care work each year is estimated at 10 trillion dollars according to McKinsey Global Institute report 2015<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  4. The Global GDP in 2015 is estimated by the CIA World Factbook as 75.73 trillion dollars at the official exchange rate.<\/li>\n
  5. Up to 9 trillion dollars \u2013 annual cost of economic inequality to women in developing countries according to Action Aid\u2019s Close the gap! The cost of inequality in women\u2019s work report<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  6. The OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) estimates that women still carry out between two to 10 times more unpaid care work than men: OECD stat Employment: \u2018Time spent in paid and unpaid work, by sex<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  7. On average in Asia women earn between 70 to 90 per cent of what men earn and carry out around 2.5 times the amount of unpaid care work that men do.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Women still carry out at least twice as much unpaid care work than men, OXFAM reports, adding that the current broken economic model, which is undermining gender equality and causing extreme economic inequality, urges the need for an economy that works for women.<\/p>\n

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