International Women’s Day 2020

Promoting gender-responsive employment policies

Gender equality is essential for economies and communities to thrive. Economic policies can be a major force in support of a range of social objectives including social justice and gender equality.

Date issued: 03 March 2020 |
This year’s theme for International Women’s Day 2020 is “I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights.” The theme is aligned with UN Women’s new multigenerational campaign, Generation Equality that marks the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

Gender equality is essential for economies and communities to thrive. Economic policies can be a major force in support of a range of social objectives including social justice and gender equality. Working towards policies and practices that are more responsive to the needs of women can help accelerate progress towards more inclusive growth and human development while at the same time close gender gaps in the labour market.

How can macroeconomic policies can help close the gender gaps in the labour market and create more and better jobs for all? Anuradha Seth, Senior Advisor on Macro-economic Policies and Gender, on loan to the ILO/Geneva from UN Women/New York, responds below.



As economies shift the focus of their activities between and within economic sectors over time to improve productivity and improve their living conditions, this process of change may have different implications for women’s employment, depending on whether they can benefit from the new job opportunities that emerge and how exposed they are to employment losses.

How can employment policies further Sustainable Development Goal 8 on Decent Work and economic growth? What the ILO is doing to support policies that promote employment opportunities for both women and men? Valeria Esquivel, ILO Employment Policies and Gender Specialist, responds below.

 
Sustainable Development Goal 8 offers a framework for countries to implement a sustainable mixture of policies for decent work. Such a policy mix should include economic policies that pursue higher levels of productivity, including through a focus on high-value added and labour-intensive economic sectors; public policies encouraging formalization and growth of micro, small and medium enterprises through access to financial services; and, labour inclusive market policies that ensure equal pay for work of equal value. All these policy areas need to be carefully seen through a gender-lens to ensure that women profit equally.


Thanks to the ILO Centenary Declaration, we now have the powerful mandate to have a gender-responsive agenda in all our work, and that mandate will shape and hopefully bring about change in the years to come. - Valeria Esquivel, ILO Employment Policies and Gender Specialist