Women & Work
Economic independence is the ability to earn, keep and decide over money. It rests on paid work, but also on unpaid care, access to banking and credit, inheritance rules and legal capacity — which in many countries are still unequal by law.
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In short
What is it?
Whether women can earn, keep and decide over their own money.
What do the numbers show?
Women earn roughly 20% less than men globally, and do around three times more unpaid care work.
Where is it happening?
Every country reports a pay gap; its size and the legal rights behind it differ sharply.
Who is affected?
Working women, and especially mothers, informal workers and unpaid carers.
Why does it matter?
Without your own income it is harder to study, to move, or to leave an unsafe situation.
What is it?
The gender pay gap measures the difference in average earnings between women and men; it is not the same as unequal pay for identical work, though both are documented.
Unpaid care work — childcare, elder care, housework — is the single largest explanation for differences in paid working hours.
Legal rights differ: rules on employment, pay, marriage, parenthood, entrepreneurship, assets and pensions are not equal in most economies.
Why does it matter?
- Financial dependence limits the ability to leave unsafe situations, to study, to migrate or to take risks.
- Pension systems built around continuous full-time employment reproduce earlier gaps into old age.
- Care work is economically productive but usually invisible in national statistics.
The Numbers
≈20%
Global gender pay gap: how much less women earn than men on average
2.5×
How much more unpaid care and domestic work women do than men
64%
Share of the legal rights that men have which women also have
Labour force participation rate, aged 15+
Global modelled estimates; the gap has narrowed only slightly over two decades.
- Men72%
- Women47%
Unit: % of population. Source: International Labour Organization, ILOSTAT modelled estimates, 2023
Figures on this page are reproduced from the publications listed under Sources. Linha de Fala summarises and explains them; it does not recalculate or estimate them.
Around the World
- Brazil
- Informal employment is central to income security for young women, and leaves them outside most contributory protections.Source: ILO, 2024
- Mexico
- Women's labour force participation is rising while unpaid care hours remain heavily concentrated among women.Source: OECD / ILO
- Nigeria
- Entrepreneurship rates among women are high; access to formal credit is the documented constraint.Source: World Bank, Women, Business and the Law
Young Voices
The Global Youth Contributors Program is one international program. There are no country-specific teams or applications — everyone joins the same program by sending a DM on Instagram.
Are you writing about this issue where you live? Join the Global Youth Contributors Program.
What Governments Are Doing
- Pay transparencyRequirements for employers above a size threshold to publish pay data disaggregated by sex, now EU-wide under the 2023 Pay Transparency Directive.Source: European Union, Directive (EU) 2023/970
- Non-transferable parental leaveLeave reserved for the second parent, designed to redistribute care time rather than extend total leave.Source: OECD Family Database
- Public childcareEarly childhood care treated as labour market policy, with measured effects on maternal employment.Source: OECD
Data & Sources
Statistics on this page come from reliable international organisations and official datasets. Each statistic includes its original year and source so readers can verify the information themselves.
- Source
- International Labour Organization
- Year
- 2024
- Indicator
- Global Wage Report 2024–25
- Source
- World Bank
- Year
- 2024
- Indicator
- Women, Business and the Law 2024
- Source
- International Labour Organization
- Year
- 2023
- Indicator
- ILOSTAT labour force participation estimates
- Source
- International Labour Organization
- Year
- 2018
- Indicator
- Care work and care jobs for the future of decent work