Women are still less paid than men in all countries throughout the world, according to the ILO, and the salary disparity has only slightly decreased over the previous decade. By the year 2000 women in most nations, as compared to one-third in 1990, constitute a minimum of one-half of the workforce. A comparable improvement in women’s living or working conditions rarely has matched their mass entering active economic life, the ILO states. Inequality in treatment marks almost every element of the professional life of women, starting with wages and prospects for jobs and access to decision-making and executive roles. The main focus of women’s jobs is a small number of sectors (especially services, where access to jobs is easier but wages are often lower and job security minimal). Even in such areas, women are grouped in the lower stages.
The informal sector employs a particularly high proportion of women in underdeveloped nations. These positions do not provide the full-time benefits of official employment, including stable salaries, suitable conditions of work health and safety, safety at work, and social protection. There is little evidence that the situation will soon improve in the absence of governmental measures for improving women’s profit and job opportunities. Men hold the highest position in companies and institutions worldwide. The ILO predicts that it would take 475 years to reach parity between men and women at the high level of management worldwide at this time. The segregation of jobs is a key factor in the pay gender divide. 75% of women work in historically low-paying, service-sector jobs in the developed countries; 15% to 20% work in manufacturing; and approximately 5% in agriculture. 80% of the workforce is female in many areas where export processing in industrialized countries is labor-intensive, low-cost production. There’s a global epidemic of sexual harassment. In polls carried out in industrialized countries, 15 to 30 percent of working women questioned have been frequently and severely harassed – undesired sexual abuse, punching, ugly statements, and unsolicited sexual favor demand. These degrading and offensive situations can lead to emotional and physical stress and associated diseases that reduce morale and productivity.