A/HRC/44/51 new opportunities for women. However, the data also shows that women tend to occupy lower status and lower-paid positions, as they are more likely to be in administrative roles, rather than roles requiring science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills. 39. Beyond the growth of green jobs, the rapid acceleration and intensification of environmental crises is creating a growing sense of urgency around a new economic model based on environmental sustainability. A just transition is about ensuring that the transition from an extractive to an environmentally sustainable and regenerative economy does not create hardships for workers. Yet there has been little discussion of the gender dimensions of a just transition to date, and there has been a marked increase in reprisals against those who speak out against these crises and hardships. Marginalized women, particularly those in poor countries, are most affected by environmental degradation due to underlying structural discrimination, including women’s unequal access to land and natural resources, sustainable infrastructure and public services, which jeopardizes their income and food security, health, and livelihoods. Declining access to natural resources in the context of climate change will increase already intense and heavy unpaid care and domestic workloads for the poorest women and girls. 40. At the same time, women often play an important role, particularly in developing countries, in the conservation of the natural environment. Women’s participation makes forest conservation and climate interventions more effective and leads to a more equal sharing of benefits. In agriculture, women workers are already playing an important role in natural resource management, which is critical to adaptation to climate change. However, they frequently face exclusion from decision-making and lack access to decent work, and their expertise in local and traditional knowledge is often not recognized. In developing countries, women are already highly concentrated in informal work in waste collection and recycling. Their work collecting recyclables from city streets and keeping public spaces clean presents a minimal cost to public budgets, yet accounts for a significant portion of solid waste management, recycling and disposal. However, they are highly stigmatized as workers and suffer from harassment and poor wages and conditions. Furthermore, the increasing formalization of waste collection and recycling, including through the introduction of new technologies such as incinerators, is placing women’s work at risk if there are no available upskilling opportunities or strategies to integrate women waste pickers within formalized systems. 28 D. Building a world of work that starts with women’s human rights: now and for the future 41. Unless structural and systemic discrimination is specifically addressed, there is a significant risk that future work trends will deepen existing inequalities for women. The approach to date of adding women into the masculinist structure of work and the economy has failed in realizing women’s human rights and will continue to do so in the changing world of work. Creating a world of work where women benefit and contribute on an equal basis with men requires reimagining the structure of work and the economy, with women’s human rights placed at the centre. Looking into the future, women have strong expectations of job security, equal pay, decent work conditions, respect and freedom from violence and harassment in the workplace, access to the right skills and training, and support for their caring responsibilities.29 A world of work that realizes women’s human rights will not only benefit women but will lift all. 42. Ensuring that the future trends affecting the world of work do not exacerbate discrimination against women requires targeted action in five areas, as detailed below. 28 29 10 See www.worldurbancampaign.org/wiego-four-strategies-integrate-waste-pickers-future-cities. See www.sydney.edu.au/content/dam/corporate/documents/business-school/research/women-workleadership/women-and-the-future-of-work.pdf.