NEW DELHI: More women than ever before are in work but a persistent gender gap in status, job security, wages and education contributes to "feminisation of working poverty," according to a new report by the International Labour Office (ILO) issued on the occasion of International Women's Day.

According to "Global employment trends for women brief - 2007," the number of women in the labour market — either in work or looking actively for work — is at its highest. In 2006, the ILO estimated that 1.2 billion of the 2.9 billion workers in the world were women.

Still the number of women remaining unemployed is higher than before (81.8 million), and more than ever before they are stuck in low productivity jobs in agriculture and services or receiving less money for doing the same jobs men do. The share of working-age women who work or are seeking work actually stopped growing or declined in some regions, partially because more young women are pursuing education rather than work. The report says women must be given the chance to work themselves and their families out of poverty through creation of opportunities that help them secure productive and remunerative work in conditions of freedom, security and human dignity. Otherwise, the process of feminisation of poverty will continue and be passed on to the next generation.

The report shows that today more women are in wage and salaried employment (47.9 per cent) than 10 years ago (42.9 per cent). However, the poorer the region, the more likely that women work as unpaid contributing family members or low-income own-account workers, in a higher proportion than men.

From an unpaid contributing family worker or low-paid own-account worker to wage and salaried employment is a major step toward freedom and self-determination, says the ILO. However, in the poorest regions of the world the share of female contributing family workers in total employment is still much higher than men, with women less likely to be wage and salaried workers.

In sub-Saharan Africa as well as South East Asia, four out of 10 working women are classified as contributing family workers compared with two out of 10 men. In South Asia, six out of 10 working women are classified as contributing family workers, but again only two out of 10 working men have this status. In the Middle East and North Africa, the figures are three out of 10 women and one out of 10 men.

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