EC Social Agenda and ECE work

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ECONOMIC DIMENSION
OF GENDER EQUALITY IN MDG CONTEXT
Dr. Ewa Ruminska-Zimny Director, Gender and
Economy Programme, UNECE The Challenges of
Engendering Economics
Way towards Social Justice and Equal
Opportunities Tbilisi, 1 April 2008
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Role of women in economic growth

• Gender equality as a human right, but also a key
  factor behind economic growth and efficient
  allocation of resources
• Women are a major source of new labour in the
  context of ageing.
• They are also well educated and bring new ideas,
  priorities and tastes in developing new products
  and services to compete on global markets.

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Womens share in labour force (age 15 )
Source UNECE Gender Statistics Databases, 2005
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Womens entrepreneurial potential
Own-account workers, employed selected
countries
Source UNECE Gender Statistics Databases, 2005
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Improving innovation and competitiveness

• Over 50 share in total tertiary education in
  most ECE countries also high-share of employment
  in service sector
• Ford Womens Network (since 1999) inclusion of
  women into design teams for new cars pushed up
  sales and is now standard human resource policy
• The Global Banking Alliance For Women (among
  members Bank of Scotland, Bank of America, RBC
  Royal Bank) increased market share as a result
  of better understanding of needs of female
  customers

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Female Share of Researchers ()
Source UNECE Gender Statistics Databases, 2005
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Womens economic potential still
remain untapped

• Jobs are clustered at the lower end of the labour
  market
• High level of education is not reflected in
  womens professional position on a labour market
• Wage gap still exists

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Education vs. Occupation in selected UNECE
Countries, 2005
Source UNECE Gender Statistics Databases,
2005 Armenia data for 2004 (education) and 1995
(occupation)
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Gender pay gap2005-2006

Source UNECE Gender Statistics Databases and
Eurostat
Difference between average gross earnings of
male paid employees and of female paid employees
as a percentage of average gross earnings of male
paid employees
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Policy challenges

• Raising awareness of governments, private sector
  and civil society that gender equality is smart
  economics
• Identifying good practices of mainstreaming
  gender into employment, tax, budgetary policies
• Supporting the arguments for smart economics
  approach by gender-disaggregated data

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Policies matter

• Gender-sensitive legislative and institutional
  framework for SMEs
• US -- Equal Credit Opportunity Act (1974),
  office for womens busines at SME Administration,
  Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act (1994),
  support centers and targeted programmes
• In 1997-2004 number of women run businesses grew
  by 42 (23 all firms) now about 40 of
  privately held US businesses
• Partnership between government, private sector
  and civl society (business associations) gender
  budgets as a tool

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UNECE part of UN framework

• One of five UN regional commissions 56 member
  countries (US, Canada, Western Eastern Europe,
  Central Asia, Caucasus)
• A regional forum for dialogue and exchange of
  good practices among governments, but also
  private sector and civil society
• Raises the awareness on issues, develops norms
  and standards, recommends policies
• Collects data, initiates studies, prepares
  publications

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UNECE role in promotion of gender equality

• Promoting regional dialogue on economics of
  gender as a key factor for sustainable growth
  ECE 60th Annual Anniversary Session
• Gender analysis of economic aspects of NDS/MDG
  Strategies (stocktaking study)
• Development of a gender disaggregated data
  gender Statistics Website (http//www.unece.org/st
  ats/gender/welcome1.htm)
• Knowledge hub on gender and economy (forthcoming)
• Assessment of business environment for women
  entrepreneurs in rural and urban areas (joint
  project with ILO)
• Preparation of manual on gender budgets (joint
  project with the Council of Europe)

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Thank you ewa.zimny_at_unece.org http//www.unece.org
/oes/gender/Welcome.html