What the whole world wants but women rarely get: a good job

“…we may have already found the single most searing, clarifying, helpful, world-altering fact… all leaders - policy and law makers, presidents and prime ministers, parents, judges, priests, pastors, imams, teachers, managers, and CEOs - need to consider it every day in everything they do. What the whole world wants is a good job.” Gallup World Poll

Because, of course, a good job is the key to all the other things human beings want and need; independence, dignity, food, shelter, security, health, education for our children….

More women than ever are joining the labour force, but sadly, having a job is not the same as having a good job, especially if you are a woman. The ETI Base Code stipulates there should be no discrimination based on gender. But across every Base Code issue – wages, working hours, health and safety, harsh treatment, regular work, child labour and freedom of association – women workers are more vulnerable than men.

The Bangladesh garment industry has made millions of Bangladeshis better off

Henry Kissinger once famously described Bangladesh as “the basket case of Asia”. It is still a relatively poor country, but its garment industry has made millions of Bangladeshis better off. Eighty per cent of the workforce powering this thriving industry are women. According to The Economist, this has led to a disproportionately positive impact on Bangladesh’s social indicators, because: “Women are much more likely than men to spend money on their family’s health, education and meals…”.

Yet those same women who have boosted the country’s economy and their families’ wellbeing are too often paid poverty wages, rarely become supervisors or managers, and are bullied and sexually harassed at work.

A particularly shocking illustration of their reality was when managers ordered workers into the Rana Plaza building in 2012 immediately prior to its collapse, even though workers were expressing concerns about the appearance of cracks in the factory complex’s walls. The majority of workers are women and managers almost exclusively men: in a society where women are expected to unquestioningly obey men this, as we now know, had deadly results.

And when the women churning out the world’s garments get home from their long shifts, they face another mountain of domestic work, caring for children and the elderly - the workers and consumers of tomorrow and yesterday - and for other members of their households who may be contributing to the economy today. And for this work women are, of course, not paid at all.

Nevertheless, the women garment workers of Bangladesh are the lucky ones. They have formal jobs. Globally, much of the gender income gap can be explained by the fact that most women work in the informal sector or have insecure, part-time, unskilled jobs. Not to mention the global army of domestic workers – again mostly women – who are often deprived of the protections and recognition that other workers get.

But even when they are paid, women get on average 23 per cent less than men for jobs of the same value. The good news is that this gap is closing. The bad news is that at the present rate of narrowing, women and men’s pay will not be equal for another 118 years.

No wonder the proportion of women in the labour force has remained stagnant at 27 per cent for the last twenty years. This is not just bad news for women, it is bad news for everyone.

Exclusion of women from the work force is a potent driver of growing global income inequality

A recent IMF report found that, “the exclusion of women from the work force in large parts of the world and their lower pay in those countries where they do work” was a potent driver of growing global income inequality.

Many of the countries where these inequalities persist have ratified ILO conventions[1] committing to ending discrimination, unequal pay and violence against women and should be held to account when they or employers in their jurisdiction fail to live up to these commitments 

So men will have to take a pay cut so that women can earn more? Not at all.

McKinsey reports that if women were to play an identical role in labor markets to that of men, “as much as $28 trillion… could be added to global annual GDP by 2025.” In other words, the whole pie will be bigger and there will be more to go round.

But let’s hope it won’t still be the women who are stuck with washing up the pie dish. 

Find out more about how ETI members are working to improve gender outcomes in their supply chains either individually or through ETI supply chain programmes on our Empowering Women Workers issues page.

[1] CEDAW, C100 Equal Remuneration, C111 Discrimination (Employment and Occupation)