New Report Says Women Work 39 Days a Year More Than Men

Women around the world work an average of 39 days per year more than men do, which equates to a full 50 minutes more per day, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2016.

The gap in economic opportunity, the WEF says, is now larger than at any point since 2008.
Close to a quarter of a billion women have entered the global workforce over the past decade, the report says.
Although men do 34% more paid work than women, women still spend more of their time on unpaid work such as housework, childcare and care for older people.
When this is factored in, the WEF calculates women work more than a month more than men per year.

Women also currently have access to only 59 percent of the economic advantages enjoyed by men, the new research said. This figure is at its lowest level since 2008 and current trends suggest it will take another 170 years before there is global equality of the sexes, the report’s authors have found.

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Some economists suggest that investing in the currently unpaid workers who constitute the caring economy could contribute to economic growth.
The International Trade Union Confederation estimates that if 2% of a country’s GDP was invested in its care sector, employment would increase from 2.4% to 6.1%, depending on the country.

The report’s conclusions from an economic perspective are all the more disappointing given a stronger educational picture, with women in 95 countries representing at least as many of the university student population as men.

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