Current Status of and Future Directions for Statistics on Women, Work and Poverty

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Current Status of and Future Directions for
Statistics on Women, Work and Poverty

• Joann Vanek
• Director of Statistics
• Women in Informal Employment Globalising and
  Organising (WIEGO)

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Key findings on women, work and poverty from
WIEGOs analysis of data for several countries
for UNIFEM/ UNDP/ILO Progress of the Worlds
Women 2005
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Key findings - 1

• There are multiple dimensions of gender
  inequality in terms of both segmentation,
  average earnings, and poverty risk - among
  workers including
• between formal/informal employment
• across employment statuses
• within given employment statuses

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Key findings - 2

• Women are concentrated in the more precarious
  forms of employment with low earnings

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Key findings - 3

• But poverty rates are also often lower among
  women, compared to men, within a particular
  employment category - this is because the
  poverty rate (i.e., likelihood of being from a
  poor household) depends on whether the woman is a
  secondary, primary, or single earner.

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Key findings - 4

• Understanding employment/poverty linkages
  requires analysis of individual employment status
  and earnings, household income and
  intra-household dynamics

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Future Directions for Gender Statistics

• Employment map the labour force by
  formal/informal, status in employment,
  agriculture/non-agriculture and sex
• Earnings develop statistics on earnings of the
  self-employed as well as wage-employed
• Poverty go beyond female-headed households to
  look at the poverty risk (i.e. likelihood of
  being from a poor household) associated with
  different categories of employment by sex
• Time use provide a comprehensive view of all
  forms of work - both market and non-market - to
  shed light on the linkages between the two and
  the family division of labour