A new Gallup study shows women in the global workforce are not faring all that well. Full-time employment worldwide (at least 30 hours per week) sits at 26 percent, but women lag far behind men in most regions of the world.
Gallup’s World Poll 2012, conducted in 150 countries, reports that the gender gap in full-time employment rates of those in the workforce is 8 percent worldwide. Globally, 45 percent of men and 37 percent of women are employed full-time.
Interestingly, the two regions of the world where the gender gap is most pronounced are non-European Union Europe (Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and others) and North America. In non-EU Europe, the gender gap is over three times the global average, 26 percent. In those countries, 74 percent of men are employed, but only 48 percent of women. In North America, 69 percent of men are employed and 53 percent of women, a gap of 16 percent.
Even though women’s full-time employment trails men’s most in North America and in non-EU European countries, those two regions are among the top three regions of the world where women are most likely to be in the workforce.
The gap in both Latin American countries and the European Union is 12 percent. Women in the Latin American workforce number 42 percent, while women in the EU represent 53 percent of the workforce.
A gender deficit does not exist at all in the Commonwealth of Independent States, which includes Russia and eight other countries. In that region, 59 percent of both men and women are employed full-time.
The regions where the participation of women in the workforce is low are the same regions where overall full-time work participation is low. In Southeast Asia, only 35 percent of men and 25 percent of women hold full-time jobs. The region with the lowest percentages of full-time workers is Sub-Saharan Africa. There, just 19 percent of men and 13 percent of women hold full-time jobs.
Gallup also points out that gender gaps are influenced by economic conditions within the region, as well as cultural differences. In some societies, cultural norms dictate that women stay home.
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