Women in Professional and Managerial Occupations: An Overview

In spite of the last decade having witnessed a marginal decline in the global employment-to-population ratio,1 the number of women in paid employment has continued to increase worldwide (Beneria, 2003; Davidson and Burke, 2004;ILO, 2009;UNIFEM et al., 2005:13). Of the 3.3 billion people employed worldwide in 2012, 1.3 billion, or 39.9 per cent, were women (ILO, 2012). This overall increase in labour force participation rates for adult women can be attributed to a combination of factors, namely economic development, increasing education, declining fertility and other structural and institutional changes — all factors linked to reduced transaction costs and time constraints (Goldin, 2006; ILO, 2012). However, as the 2009 and 2012 ILO Global Employment Trends for Women Reports reconfirm, gender inequality remains persistent within labour markets globally, with women suffering numerous disadvantages in labour market access (ILO, 2009, 2012). According to the 2009 report, women “are too often trapped in insecure employment situations with low productivity and low earnings” (ILO, 2009:6). This employment trend, also referred to as feminisation, has seen the developed world in particular witness a gradual increase in the number of women entering formal paid work relative to men (Bradley and Healy, 2008). Compared to the 1970s, the number of working women with children and those opting to work full-time has increased. However, this increase in the number of women entering paid work does not necessarily translate into an equal proportion of the number of women entering professional jobs and managerial positions, nor has it paved the way for their entry into more senior executive positions.