It will take over 190 years for gender parity in employment: ILO report

Global report by ILO reveals slow progress in gender equality at work, with women facing wage gaps and unequal care responsibilities.

Women hold just 30% of managerial positions globally, with only a modest improvement over the past two decades, according to ‘Women and the Economy: 30 Years after the Beijing Declaration’, a new brief released in Geneva by the International Labour Organization (ILO) on the occasion of International Women’s Day. Cautioning that, at this pace, achieving gender parity in employment rates globally will take over 190 years, the report found that women continue to be overrepresented in low-paid sectors like nursing and childcare, while men dominate fields like transport and mechanics.

“They also continue to face lower average earnings and fewer paid working hours globally and are overrepresented in informal employment in low- and lower-middle-income countries,” the report added.

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The ILO said though progress towards equality has occurred over the past 30 years but has been modest and uneven. “Crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, have interrupted that progress,” the ILO said in the brief.

In 2024, 46.4% of working-age women were employed, compared to 69.5% of men. “In over 30 years, the gender employment gap has narrowed by only 4 percentage points, with high-income and lower-middle income countries exhibiting the largest reduction. At this pace of progress, achieving gender parity in employment rates globally will take over 190 years,” the report noted.

Between 2004 and 2024, the brief said, progress has been made in reducing gender inequalities in annual earnings per worker, across all country income groups, particularly in low-income countries.

“However, employed women globally still earn significantly less on average than men, work fewer paid hours, and are overrepresented in informal employment in low- and lower-middle income countries,” it said.