Women at Work:

A Global Situationer

'Women Own 1% of World Property': A Feminist Myth That Won't Die, The Atlantic, March 2013. Read more: http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/03/women-own-1-of-world-property-a-feminist-myth-that-wont-die/273840/The zombie statistic about women’s share of income and property, WSJ, March 2015. Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2015/03/03/the-zombie-statistic-about-womens-share-of-income-and-property/

The Copenhagen report contains a footnote to a 1978 edition of a Decade-for-Women-inspired journal published by the ILO, called Women at Work. Tweeted by @Oxfam on March 7, 2014 2,131 retweets

“If the average wage of women is so low, it can be assumed that they do not normally have any surplus to invest in reproducible or non-reproducible assets. In reality, the figure may be much lower.”Source? “Various UN Statistics.” - Krishna Ahooja-Patel

• There are no female chefs or apprentices at Sukiyabashi Jiro. In general, female sushi chefs in Japan are very rare. What do you think are the reasons for this?• "The reason is because women menstruate. To

be a professional means to have a steady taste in your food, but because of the menstrual cycle, women have an imbalance in their taste, and that’s why women can’t be sushi chefs.“ –Yoshikazu Ono (WSJ, 2015)• other prevailing myths: women's hands are

too small and warm to handle sushi, and that their makeup and perfume will ruin the taste of the fish

• Japan has declared him a National Treasure

• 10 seat bar in Ginza Station• 8 months waiting list• Three Michelin stars• $300 meal per person• Best sushi Obama has tasted

Why women can't be chefs at the famous restaurant from 'Jiro Dreams of Sushi‘, Business Insider, August 2015. Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-sushi-showdown-women-challenge-one-of-japans-male-bastions-2015-8#ixzz3kGdAOzQK

In this Aug 2015 photo, Yuki Chidui, sushi chef and manager at Nadeshico sushi restaurant, shows off a set of sushi she made at her all-women restaurant in Tokyo.

Sushi showdown: Women challenge one of Japan's male bastions, Associated Press, August 2015. Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/jiro-onos-son-says-women-cant-be-sushi-chefs-2015-8#ixzz3kGdlEl1N

Tokyo Sushi Academy offers two-month crash courses in sushi-dom, with about a fifth of the Japanese students being female. A third of the students from abroad are women.

• A Nobel English biochemist said to the World Conference of Science Journalists in Seoul, South Korea “Let me tell you about my trouble with girls… three things happen when they are in the lab… You fall in love with them, they fall in love with you and when you criticize them, they cry.” • Female scientists have taken to Twitter to

mock the scientist’s suggestion that science would benefit from “single-sex labs” by posting pictures of themselves at work using WHICH hashtag?• #distractinglysexy• Tim Hunt

Nobel scientist Tim Hunt: female scientists cause trouble for men in labs, The Guardian, June 2015. Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jun/10/nobel-scientist-tim-hunt-female-scientists-cause-trouble-for-men-in-labs

• Who is the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize?• She is the only person to receive Nobel

Prizes in two different sciences.• Nobel Prize in 1903, physics• Nobel Prize in 1911, chemistry• 1 of 4 in history to win the Nobel Prize

twice

Marie Curie the scientist. Read more: https://www.mariecurie.org.uk/who/our-history/marie-curie-the-scientist

• Gender gaps continue to persist in specific fields. What are these top four fields?

UIC 2012. Read morehttp://www.uis.unesco.org/FactSheets/Documents/sti-women-in-science-en.pdf: Education and Training of Women, UN Women Beijing 20, 2014. Read more: http://beijing20.unwomen.org/en/infographic/education-and-training

WOMEN IN SCIENCE ScienceTechnologyEngineeringMathematics

• In 1992, a toy with a computer chip that randomly selects 4 phrases out of 270 includes the line, “Math is tough” was criticized and pulled from the market. People were concerned about the message as kids who believe they are "bad at math" are going to be bad at math.• What toy was this?• One of the handful of phrases Teen Talk Barbie

could say was, “Math class is tough!” ‘proving’ the age-old stereotype that blondes are in fact the dumbest people on earth. The other thing she liked to say was “Do you have a crush on anyone?”• “You can do anything you set your mind to and I

bet if you try, you can be good at it.”COMPANY NEWS: Mattel Says It Erred; Teen Talk Barbie Turns Silent on Math, The New York Times, October 1992.http://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/21/business/company-news-mattel-says-it-erred-teen-talk-barbie-turns-silent-on-math.html

• Which country has the highest number of women parliamentarians worldwide? • 4 African nations are among the 10

countries with the highest number of women in their parliaments. • Rwanda heads that list, 64% • Seychelles is fifth, 44%• Senegal comes seventh, 43% • South Africa is ninth, 42%

Inter-Parliamentary Union and UN Women, “Women in Politics: 2015". Read more: http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/leadership-and-political-participation/facts-and-figures#notesip-and-political-participation/facts-and-figures#notes

• Which country became the first in the world to offer fathers the statutory right of taking paid leave from work to be with their families after childbirth and adoption? • In 1974, Sweden becomes the first

country in the world to replace maternity leave with parental leave.• 16-month parental leave, 2 months of

that set aside for dads• And soon, a third month of paid parental

leave for fathers???

Gender Equality in Sweden, May 2015. Read more: https://sweden.se/society/gender-equality-in-sweden/Swedish fathers to get third month of paid paternity leave, The Guardian, May 2015. Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/28/swedish-fathers-paid-paternity-parental-leave

• On July 7, a Doctor Who themed bar only charged a certain discount on women’s bar tabs to bring prices in line with their lower wages. Where is this bar located?• 77%, The Way Station, NY

• Which government plans to institute a measure requiring companies with more than 250 employees to publicly disclose information on the average pay of their male and female workers? • The British PM, David Cameron, wrote these thoughts

in a column of The Times (July 14, 2015).• Should we name and shame companies that pay

women less?Did You Know That Women Are Still Paid Less Than Men? Read more: https://www.whitehouse.gov/equal-pay/myth#topNew York bar charges women 77 per cent for drinks to tackle gender pay gap, The Telegraph, July 2015. Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-business/11728507/New-York-bar-fights-gender-pay-gap-by-charging-women-less-for-drinks.htmlExposing Companies That Pay Women Less Than Men, The Atlantic, July 2015. Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-leadership/wp/2015/07/15/should-we-name-and-shame-companies-that-pay-women-less/

• Only __ percent of all national parliamentarians were female as of January 2015, a slow increase from 11.3 per cent in 1995 (Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2015). [11%, 22%, 33%, 44%]

Inter-Parliamentary Union and UN Women, “Women in Politics: 2015". Read more: http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/leadership-and-political-participation/facts-and-figures#notesip-and-political-participation/facts-and-figures#notes

• There are still about 781 million illiterate adults (EFA Global Monitoring Report, 2015). What are the underlying factors that exacerbate gender gaps in education?• Poverty, customs that favor

the education of boys over girls, distance to travel to school, child marriage, sanitation

Assessing progress towards achieving Education for All Goals, April 2015. Read more: http://www.globalpartnership.org/blog/assessing-progress-towards-achieving-education-all-goalsEducation and Training of Women, UN Women Beijing 20, 2014. Read more: http://beijing20.unwomen.org/en/infographic/education-and-training

• 14 million girls under the age of 18 marry each year or around one girl every two seconds (UNPFA, 2012).• The education a girl receives is the strongest

predictor of the age she will marry, according to ICRW analysis (2006) in 18 of the 20 countries with the highest prevalence of child marriage. Name any of these 20 countries.

Child Marriage and Education, ICRW. Read more: http://www.icrw.org/files/images/Child-Marriage-Fact-Sheet-Education.pdfChild Marriage and Education, ICRW. Read more: http://www.icrw.org/files/images/Child-Marriage-Fact-Sheet-Around-the-World.pdfEarly and forced marriage - facts, figures and what you can do. Read more: http://planuk.lamplightdev.com/early-and-forced-marriage/

• The average life expectancy for women is 82 years in high-income countries and 63.1 years in low-income countries (WHO, 2014). Women of which country have the highest life expectancy in the world?• Japan (87 years)• followed by:• Spain• Switzerland• Singapore

• Men is at 80 years:• Iceland• Switzerland• Australia

Invest in Girls’ Equality. Read more: http://www.womendeliver.org/knowledge-center/facts-figures/gender-equity/WHO Statistics 2014. Read more: http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/112739/1/WHO_HIS_HSI_14.1_eng.pdf

• If you take a flight to this country, the chances of the pilot being a woman are much higher than anywhere else in the world. What destination is this?• India currently has 5,100 pilots, of which 600 (11.7%) are women, according

to ministry of civil aviation data. There are a total 130,000 pilots in the world, of which 4,000 (3%), are women, according to the International Society of Women Airline Pilots.

How India's women pilots are breaking the gender barrier to soar high, The Economic Times, July 2015. Read more: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-07-06/news/64143205_1_air-india-female-pilot-centIn Afghanistan, Death Threats Shatter Dream of First Female Pilot, The Wall Street Journal, August 2015. Read more: http://www.wsj.com/articles/in-afghanistan-death-threats-shatter-dream-of-first-female-pilot-1438738716

• The number of Fortune 500 companies led by women is at an ‘all-time high.’ How many are they?• 5% (24)• In 1998, just one woman led a Fortune 500

company. By 2009, the figure had risen to 15, but then it fell to 12 in 2011 before doubling to 24 in 2014.

The number of Fortune 500 companies led by women is at an all-time high: 5 percent, The Washington Post, June 2015. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/06/04/the-number-of-fortune-500-companies-led-by-women-is-at-an-all-time-high-5-percent/Women in S&P 500 Companies, April 2015. Read more: http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/women-sp-500-companies

Women at work have to contend with the impact of new technology and increasing global competition which have led to more intense exploitation and marginalization.

• In 2007, National Labor Commission in Jordan exposed D.K. Garments, a sweatshop supplying Victoria’s Secret. How many minutes should a worker sew a $14 Victoria's Secret women's bikini and how much will they earn per piece?• [5.2 minutes, $2]• [13.6 minutes, $5.5]• [3.3 minutes, $0.04]• [8.4 minutes, $1.33] • 3.3 minutes, 4 cents for every $14

Victoria's Secret, Slave Labor And So-Called "Free Trade", Huffington Post, November 2007. Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-tasini/victorias-secret-slave-la_b_74261.html

• Companies like Facebook, Apple, Citigroup and JP Morgan have acknowledged that they are covering the cost of this “great equalizer” company perk (up to $20,000) to help level the playing field for women. What is this company benefit specific to women?• They are willing to pay for elective egg freezing for female employees, a

process by which women surgically preserve healthy eggs on ice until they’re ready to become parents, at which point they begin the process of IVF.

Company-Paid Egg Freezing Will Be the Great Equalizer, Time, October 2014. Read more: http://time.com/3509930/company-paid-egg-freezing-will-be-the-great-equalizer/

YAY!• More women have joined the labor force• Women's life expectancy increased by 15-20 years in developing

countries• With few exceptions, female education levels improved considerably• The last half of the 20th century saw great improvements in the

absolute status of women in most developing countries

BOO!• Women are concentrated in the least skilled and the lowest paying

jobs• Occupy a low percentage in top management positions• Usually have higher unemployment rates than men and take longer

to find new jobs• Work in part-time jobs than men and thus often not eligible to

benefits• Generally earn 1/2 to 3/4 quarters of men's wages• Last ones hired, first ones fired

• Statistics vary according to which part of the world. There are differences in women's situation, depending on where they are, what kind of politico-economic system is obtaining there, and the specific cultural context to which they belong.• Women are more likely than men to work in informal employment. In

South Asia, over 80% of women in non-agricultural jobs are in informal employment, in sub-Saharan Africa, 74 %, and in Latin America and the Caribbean, 54%.• Women make an essential contribution to agriculture across the

developing world but women farmers control less land than do men, and also have limited access to inputs, seeds, credits, and extension services. Less than 20% of landholders are women.

Facts and Figures: Economic Empowerment, UN Women. Read more: http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/economic-empowerment/facts-and-figures#notes

• When more women work, economies grow. An increase in female labor force participation results in faster economic growth.• Women bear disproportionate responsibility for unpaid care work.

Women devote 1 to 3 hours more a day to housework than men and 2 to 10 times the amount of time a day to care.• When paid and unpaid work are combined, women in developing

countries work more than men, with less time for education, leisure and political participation.

Facts and Figures: Economic Empowerment, UN Women. Read more: http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/economic-empowerment/facts-and-figures#notes

• Gender-sensitive labor market policies and programmes• Enforcement of mechanisms• Advocacy and sensitization• Empowerment of women• Generation of updated • sex-disaggregated data

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