Some women

* According to the CBS, Dutch women between 25 and 30 have recently started to earn more, per hour, than men of the same age.

* According to Eurostat, 40% of young EU women had completed tertiary education compared with 32% of men

* Via Marginal Revolution: legalizing pimping in Germany turned out to be not exactly the same thing as empowering prostitutes. But it answers the Coasian question ‘why do companies pimps exist?’. ‘To shift the effective supply of cheap labour to the right, stupid!’.  Troika labour-disempowerment policies and the crisis are a big help, of course.

* Via the ILO: two women (much more including audio-interviews with these women behind the link and in case you wondered: as far as I know the USA is the only country next to New Guinea without paid maternity leave).

Breaking the glass ceiling

Vinita Bali is an example of a woman who has successfully broken through the ‘glass ceiling’ that limits women’s access to top decision-making posts. She is managing director of Britannia Industries in India.

“In my case I was lucky enough to have a renaissance father, renaissance parents actually, who gave me the freedom to do exactly what I wanted to do,” she explains.

“I would say that you’ve got to believe in yourself. You’ve got to have confidence. You don’t need to be deflected by what other people are saying. If women are given an opportunity, the world is going to be a better place,” she adds. However, despite successes like Bali’s, problems persist for many women in the workplace. The lack of maternity protection, for instance, is a challenge faced by millions of working women – despite the fact that many countries have adopted ILO conventions relating to this issue. This is true for developed and developing countries.

Unpaid maternity leave

Marie Holmes, who teaches at a high- school in New York, has had to take unpaid leave following the birth of her second child because she used up all her allocated sick leave and vacation days for her first child.

“I was not eligible for any paid maternity leave, so we had to figure out how we were going to live on one income,” she says.

“I think it is essential for working women to have access to maternity benefits so that they don’t have to make the choice between having children and having a career or a job when they need income to provide for their family.” Other key issues relating to women at work also need to be addressed. According to ILO research, while many more women have entered the labour market, their share has stagnated over the last two decades. In addition, occupational sex segregation and gender pay gaps persist.

Women are overrepresented in the informal economy, in precarious work and in low-paid jobs. They are also often the targets of direct and indirect discrimination.

Since its founding, the ILO has developed landmark international standards on gender equality, equal pay, discrimination, workers with family responsibilities and maternity protection. As the organization approaches its 100th anniversary, it will be launching a Centenary Initiative on Women at Work, which will involve a major assessment of the progress and gaps in achieving gender equality in the workplace