We continue with the Fridays Academy series where we left it, before the Summer break. As usual, this is based on Raj Nallari and Breda Griffith's lecture notes.
Measures to Assess Progress
Employment by sector and status of employment are two measures that allow us to gauge conditions of decent and productive employment and the progress made by women in the world of work. Regional data on status of employment have been made available for the first time in 2005 when the ILO published data of regional estimates on the status of employment for men and women.
At the global level, male and female sectoral shares of employment followed a regular pattern until very recently. Until 2005, the data suggested that women were predominantly employed in agriculture and services, figure below. The reversal of this trend that was apparent in 2005 carried through to 2006 indicating that agriculture was no longer the main sector of employment for women. Out of the total number of employed women in 2006, 40.4 per cent worked in agriculture and 42.4 per cent in services. Meanwhile, 17.2 per cent of all women working were in industry. Comparable male rates were 37.5 per cent in agriculture, 38.4 per cent in services and 24 per cent in industry, although males employed in agriculture also declined, while increasing marginally in industry and more significantly in services from 34.5 percent in 1996 to 38.4 percent in 2006.
Female and male sectoral employment shares as percentage of total employment, 1996-2006
