June
01
Living With Economic Insecurity: Women In Precarious Work. International Trade Union Confederation
Women Work Trackbacks (0)CONTENTS
The initial impact of the global economic crisis on employment, which has left at least 27 million people without jobs, as been well documented. This report analyses recent international research from a range of sources, highlighting a second wave of employment impacts which affects women in particular, and which is poorly reflected in official statistics and government policies. The pre-existing long-term trend towards precarious employment arrangements and increasing informalisation of the labour market has been markedly accelerated by the crisis, leaving more and more women without employment and income security, and further driving their wages down.
This report looks at women’s economic insecurity focussing on the precariousness of their employment situation. It analyses global trends in the world of work from a gender perspective including the devastating impact of the 2008 global economic recession. It stresses that there is a second wave impact of the crisis on women which is insufficiently recognized. The report underlines the boom of precarious and informal work in virtually all countries. The 2008 economic crisis has Only accelerated an already rapid process of informalisation of work. It finds that women are most affected by these labour market trends and highlights how the overrepresentation of women in insecure forms of work undermines women’s rights, perpetuates gender inequalities in societies and dampens the prospects for sustainable economic progress.
The report challenges the blanket assumption that the increased participation of women in the labour market has provided them with the sufficient means to build economic security. It makes an urgent call to governments to shine the light on the poor quality of the jobs many women hold.
The report maintains that standard indicators and data used to measure developments on labour markets fail to capture the extent to which women are being driven into increasing economic insecurity. Over the last decades, millions of women have been pushed into financial vulnerability making their present and their future unstable. Too often, data on the particular situation of women is lacking.
Finally in the concluding section of the report, governments and trade unions are urged to take action in four key areas:
- l Shifting policy to focus on the creation of quality jobs
- l Implementing gender equality measures on the labour market
- l Providing universal access to social security through the implementation of a social protection floor for all workers regardless of their employment situation
- l Taking up the challenge of organising workers in insecure forms of work.
Implementing these recommendations would be a major step in helping women to move out of informal and precarious
jobs, and increase their access to decent work. For a decent life!
jobs, and increase their access to decent work. For a decent life!
1. Living with economic insecurity 7
1.1 The effects of the global economic crisis 72. Living with insecure employment 11
1.2 A gendered perspective of the global economic crisis 7
2.1 Precarious work 113. Living with low wages 21
2.2 The informal economy and informal employment 18
2.3 Vulnerable work and female working poor 19
3.1 Economic crisis cuts global wage growth by half 21
3.2 Wage inequality, low pay and gender 21
3.3 Unequal Pay for Women in Industrialised Economies: the case of part-time workers 22
Recommendations 23