A/HRC/44/51 Box 1 Key definitions This report takes an expansive view of the world of work, including formal and informal work, public and private spaces of work, the commute to and from work, work taking place online or work enabled through information and communications technology (ICT), and work-related trips and events. Women’s rights to work and at work are established by international human rights law. In particular, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights contain specific provisions guaranteeing the right to work, just and favourable conditions of work, freedom to form trade unions and the prohibition of discrimination based on sex. Furthermore, there are several International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions covering a range of areas in relation to work, such as equal remuneration and domestic workers, including, most recently, a convention on eliminating violence and harassment at work. Drawing on international norms and standards, realizing women’s rights to work includes removing legal and sociocultural barriers that prevent women from working, for example legal discrimination, harmful gender stereotypes and discriminatory social norms, and women’s disproportionate responsibility for unpaid care and domestic work. Realizing women’s rights to work also entails ensuring public policy support for care and the availability of decent work. It also includes securing decent conditions at work, including equal access to workplace entitlements and equal pay for work of equal value, dismantling the barriers to women’s equal progression and access to leadership positions, freedom from violence, discrimination and harassment, and enabling conditions for women’s collective organizing and voice in decision-making. B. Context 11. Women’s access to decent work and an independent income lifts them and their families out of poverty, improves their decision-making power in the household and society and ensures their economic independence, including in the event of a violent and abusive relationship. Yet, women’s experience in the world of work for many is marked by persistent and widespread discrimination, leading to stark inequalities in employment outcomes, pervasive harassment and violence, and exploitation. In 2018, less than half (48 per cent) of working age women globally were participating in the labour market, compared with 75 per cent of men, resulting in a gender gap of 27 per cent. 4 12. Globally, women remain concentrated in the lowest paid jobs, in vulnerable forms of employment, including in the informal sector. In low-income countries, 92 per cent of women are employed informally (as compared with 87.5 per cent of men), with little access to the raft of employment and social protection rights conferred on workers who have a formal employment contract.5 Particularly stark gender gaps can be seen in the proportion of those informally employed who work without any direct pay or remuneration, such as unpaid family workers in family farms and enterprises (28.1 per cent of women versus 8.7 per cent of men).6 The lack of investment by governments in time-saving infrastructure and public services, and persistent funding cuts (including due to the conditionalities imposed by international financial institutions), often have the harshest impacts on informal women workers. 13. Structural discrimination, including the persistence of gender stereotypes and gendered expectations, norms and attitudes, remains a significant barrier. Pregnancy 4 5 6 4 See www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/--publ/documents/publication/wcms_670542.pdf. ILO, Women and Men in the Informal Economy: A Statistical Picture, 3rd ed. (Geneva, 2018). Ibid.