Prime Time 7/8, Writing, Arbeitsheft

17 70 17 Intercultural and social aspects | Social groups and minorities 17.1 Text input Equal pay for men and women Across the world, women still get paid 23 per cent less than men. The global gender pay gap is an example of persistent inequalities between men and women in our societies and in our places of work. Social and cultural norms broadly cast men’s roles as decision-makers and women’s roles as carers. They play a significant part in terms of the type of paid work into which women are channelled and in terms of how that work is valued and paid. When women enter the formal labour market, their paid work and their role as workers is often seen as subsidiary or supplementary to their principal role of “homemakers”. This in turn impacts how women are paid. Even where women have equivalent or better qualifications than men, their skills are not valued the same and their career progression is slower. The main underlying reason, however, for the gender pay gap is that women tend to be concentrated in different jobs to those of men; and jobs tend to be valued along gender lines. In order to ensure “equal pay for work of equal value”, we need to address the fact that a job in the male-dominated construction sector, for example, may be of the same or similar objective value as a job in the female dominated child-care sector – in terms of skill, effort, responsibility and working conditions. The way we value different types of jobs has to change – and this has been internationally recognised since 1951. In high and upper-middle income countries, the female work force is concentrated in teaching, nursing, healthcare, office and administrative work, and sales and service industries. These sectors are the ones that tend to be undervalued and underpaid, precisely because of the high numbers of women present. Women are also overrepresented in the low-paid, insecure and often unsafe jobs within global supply chains, particularly in agriculture and textile industries. In fact, the majority of the world’s women – up to 80 per cent in some parts of the world – work in the informal economy, where they not only lack decent wages, safe working conditions and social protection like healthcare, maternity protection or paid leave, but women also earn less than men within this sector. Racial and other inequalities also play a role in widening the wage gap for women of colour or from marginalised groups. The world of work as we know it is still generally structured around the male “breadwinner” model, with long and rigid working hour arrangements. As women become mothers, they bear the “motherhood penalty”; in order to balance family responsibilities and paid work, women accept part-time, casual or underpaid jobs, or work in the informal economy. In pregnancy, they may also face discrimination, which can lead to them being dismissed, harassed out of the workforce, or demoted on their return. Taking time out to care for children also slows women’s career progression. Failure to address discrimination and inequality in the labour market including the gender pay gap adds to the already unacceptably high number of working poor women and translates to more women retiring into poverty. One of the long-term effects of the gender pay gap over a woman’s working life is an immense pension gap. Evidence shows that around the world the number of elderly women living in extreme poverty is climbing. Closing the gender pay gap requires a package of measures, central to which is decent work. One of the most effective and quickest ways to narrow gender pay gaps is through minimum living wages and universal social protection. Minimum living wages benefit all low-paid workers. Since women are starkly overrepresented in low-paid work, it would usually benefit women more. The package of measures to close the gender pay gap must also include the provision of quality public childcare, elderly care services and family friendly work-place policies. Policy measures that encourage men to share care responsibilities – for instance paternity leave – have proven useful to changing the social norms that drive the gender wage gap. Transparency within companies in criteria and decisions concerning pay can also help prevent gender bias. (Chidi King, www.unwomen.org , 24 February 2017; adapted and abridged) 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv