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IMF-GENDER-WAGE
IMF chief Georgieva tells women: Don’t accept less!
WASHINGTON, Oct 16, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Women around the world take on far
more unpaid work than men but what they should never do is agree to a lower
wage in the workplace, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said Tuesday.
She recounted her experience early in her career during the Soviet era,
saying she did not know at the time she could bargain for better conditions.
To women of today she said: “Do not accept to be less paid than your
colleague men, ever!”
The International Monetary Fund released a report on Tuesday which found
that unpaid work “is a substantial part of economic activity that goes
unmeasured and is shouldered disproportionally by women.”
In fact, women do two hours more of unpaid work than men every day and
even “in the most egalitarian countries in the world, women do at least 20
percent more unpaid work than men,” notably chores around the home, the
report said.
To address that issue, governments must invest in infrastructure, to
provide water and electricity and internet access, but also provide services
such as childcare and elder care, and improve education opportunities, to
help women “replace unpaid work with paid work.”
In more advanced economies, that means “implementing family-friendly
policies such as parental leave and taxation of secondary earners, enhancing
the efficiency of labor markets, and promoting flexible work arrangements.”
But asked by one young woman how to achieve professional success,
Georgieva offered no easy solutions:
“You have to be competent and to be more confident.”
She also said quotas for hiring women in private firms were not a perfect
solution “but it’s pragmatic” since it could provide a faster path to gender
equity in the workplace. Otherwise it will take a “very, very long time.”
BSS/AFP/HR/0940