in an alternative best-in-region scenario, in which all countries match the improvement rate of the fastest-improving country in their region, it could add up to USD 12 trillion, or 11 percent to global annual GDP by 2025. The study also established a clear link between gender equality in society and gender equality in the workplace and mentioned that no country has achieved gender equality in the workforce without first narrowing gender gaps in society.

Thus, one of the main inequalities between men and women at work is the inequality of wages received. Globally, the gender wage gap is estimated to be 23 percent, i.e., women earn 77 percent of what men earn. Though some progress has been made in reducing these gender wage gaps, these improvements are small. ILO’s Global Wage Report (2015) highlighted that worldwide women’s average wages are between 4 and 36 percent less than those of men, and identified the underlying factors which cause such inequality, viz., an undervaluation of women’s work, workplace characteristics, occupational segregation channeling women into low value-added jobs, the overall wage setting mechanism in each country, the view of women as economic dependents, the likelihood that women are in unorganized sectors or not represented in unions and the multiple roles women are required to play, especially within the family.

Moreover, the ILO (2016) report also highlighted that between 1995 and 2015, the global female labor force participation rate decreased from 52.4 to 49.6 percent, while the corresponding figures for men are 79.9 and 76.1 percent, respectively. Thus, the chances for women to participate in the labor market remain almost 27 percentage points less than those for men. Also, in South Asia and East Asia, the gap has grown even wider. The report also emphasizes that sectoral and occupational segregation contributes significantly to gender gaps both in terms of the number and the quality of jobs, since women in employment have been overrepresented in a narrow range of sectors and occupations. In upper-middle-income countries, around 33.9 percent of women are employed in wholesale and retail trade services and 12.4 percent in the manufacturing sector. In high-income countries, the major source of employment for women is the health and education sector, which employs almost one-third of the women in the labor market (30.6 percent). Agriculture remains the most important source of employment for women in low-income and lower-middle-income countries. In Southern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, over 60 percent of all working women remain in agriculture, in which jobs are labor-intensive and unpaid or poorly remunerated.

Furthermore, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has reaffirmed the universal consent on the key importance of gender equality and its contribution to the achievement of the 17 SDGs. More jobs and quality jobs for women, universal social protection and measures to recognize, reduce and redistribute unpaid care and household work are indispensable to delivering on the new transformative sustainable development agenda. The 2030 agenda, which aims to reduce poverty and inequalities, to achieve gender equality and to promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all, has also emphasized the use of trade as an important tool to achieve gender equality and women’s economic empowerment. Since trade as an 5