Despite some modest gains in some regions in the world, millions of women are losing ground in their quest for equality in the world of work, states a report.

According to a report entitled Women at Work: Trends 2016 published by International Labour Organisation (ILO), in the global level, the employment gender gap has closed by only 0.6 percentage points since 1995, with an employment-to-population ratio of 46 percent for women and almost 72 percent for men in 2015.

The report highlights the enormous challenges women continue to face in finding and keeping decent jobs around the world. 

Our actions must be immediate, effective and far-reaching. There is no time to waste. The 2030 Agenda is an opportunity to pool our efforts and develop coherent, mutually supporting policies for gender equality,” said ILO Director General Guy Ryder.

The report examined data for up to 178 countries and concludes that inequality between women and men persists across a wide spectrum of the global labour market. What’s more, the report shows that over the last two decades, significant progress made by women in education hasn’t translated into comparable improvements in their position at work.

Last year, 586 million women were working as own-account and contributing family workers across the world. As globally, the share of those who work in a family enterprise (contributing family workers) has decreased significantly among women (by 17.0 percentage points over the last 20 years) and to a lesser extent among men (by 8.1 percentage points), the global gender gap in contributing family work is reduced to 11 percentage points. 

Although 52.1 percent of women and 51.2 percent of men in the labour market are wage and salaried workers, this in itself constitutes no guarantee of higher job quality. Globally, 38 percent of women and 36 percent of men in wage employment do not contribute to social protection. The proportions for women reach 63.2 percent in sub-Saharan Africa and 74.2 per cent in Southern Asia where informal employment is the dominant form of employment.

Similarly, the report also states women continue to work longer hours per day than men in both paid and unpaid work. In both high and lower income countries, on average, women carry out at least two and a half times more unpaid household and care work than men. In developed economies, employed women (either in self-employment or wage and salaried employment) work 8 hours and 9 minutes in paid and unpaid work, compared to 7 hours and 36 minutes worked by men. 

“In developing economies, women in employment spend 9 hours and 20 minutes in paid and unpaid work, whereas men spend 8 hours and 7 minutes in such work. The unbalanced share of unpaid work limits women’s capacity to increase their hours in paid, formal and wage and salaried work,” read the statement issued by ILO. As a result, across the world, women, who represent less than 40 percent of total employment, make up 57 percent of those working shorter hours and on a part-time basis.