Making women count : Unequal economics of women's work

As wealth is increasingly concentrated in the hands of the few, so too is the power to drive economic policies that increase the gap between the 1% and the rest. [...] Yet jobs and wages are essential to the economic security of the vast majority of people and the ability of governments to generate revenue and provide for the well-being of citizens. [...] Key among them are the distribution of unpaid work, the undervaluing of work in predominantly female fields, the concentration of men and women in different fields of work, and the often unspoken social norms that see men offered higher wages and rates of promotion than women from the very beginning of their working lives.4 Analysts at international financial institutions are paying increasing att [...] The imbalance between those with economic power and those without is evident in the gross inequalities between the salaries of CEOs (most of whom are men) and the employees working at the bottom of their supply chains in the developing world (most of whom are women). [...] The casualization of farm labour makes it one of the most disenfranchised and exploited sectors in the world today.51 2. SOLUTIONS FOR CLOSING THE GENDER GAP AND MAKING WOMEN COUNT A vibrant economy can only be built by understanding the diversity of the population, the contributions we all can make, and the barriers faced by many.