When all of women’s work is taken into account, their economic contribution increases dramatically and is generally greater than that of men. It is also clear that women work much longer hours than men. In developing countries, women’s work hours exceed men’s by 30 per cent.

• Nepali women account for an average of 27 per cent of household monetary income, but when the data are adjusted for non-paid work, the amount rises to 50 per cent.
  
• In the Philippines, when women’s home production is factored into their economic contribution to the household, it exceeds men’s by 10 per cent.

In addition, family wages are often under the control of the husband (or of other male family members) control.

• In Cameroon, employers in an agricultural development project gave both the husbands’ and wives’ share of wages to the husbands, who kept 50 per cent of their wives’ share for their own use.

In addition to their domination of the informal sector, women are also disproportionately represented in low-wage positions in the formal economy.

In addition, the use of part-time and temporary workers is becoming increasingly common, and up to 90 per cent of these workers are women. This has short-term benefits in that it increases the number of jobs that can be handled along with household responsibilities. It has long-term disadvantages, however, including reduced job security, retraining opportunities, and workplace benefits, such as pensions and health insurance.

Women work because they need to do so to support their families, whether or not they have a partner and whether or not he is making a contribution to the household. Male unemployment and underemployment have put even more pressure on women to take on the role of bread-winner. Men are increasingly unable to support their families alone.

• In Canada, France, Sweden, the United States, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, the percentage of prime working-age men without jobs has increased.

Working mothers, who must reconcile work out-side the home while retaining primary responsibilities for child care and other duties, shoulder a heavy burden, particularly as their families grow.

• Evidence from the Philippines shows that with each additional young child, a mother’s workload increases by an average of 8.4 hours per week.

And it is clear that economic empowerment is linked to family planning use. In Bangladesh, for example, membership in the Grameen Bank, an organization that provides credit to poor rural women, was found to have a strong impact on contraceptive use; contributing to family income was also associated with contraceptive use.

In many instances, a woman’s burden as both income provider and caregiver is increased because the father is absent either all or part of the time. The proportion of female-headed households is high and rising.

Various factors contribute to this phenomenon, including increasing levels of migration and high levels of marital dissolution, as well as the growing number of children born to single mothers. Excessive drug and alcohol use by males has also been linked to the increasing number of female-headed households. Multiple unions and polygamous households can add to the economic hardship faced by women, since men may not have sufficient resources to support multiple families.

• In Mali, married women report having about half as many children as men.

Because women are more likely to spend their earnings on their families’ basic needs, their income tends to have more positive effects on family well-being.

In Guatemala, it takes 15 times more spending to achieve a given improvement in child nutrition when the income is earned by the father.

A study in South India found that while women kept barely any income for their exclusive personal use, men kept up to 26 per cent.

There are many reasons why there should be more women in top decision-making positions, ranging from women’s equal entitlement to such positions, the growing proportion of women in the labour force, the increasing proportion of women among persons in technical, professional, and administrative and management occupations, as well as the advantages to the economy of drawing on the skills and abilities women derive from their experience.

Existing economic structures are dominated by men and pose major obstacles to women’s advancement. These structures include networks and achievement criteria based on perceptions and stereotypical expectations of men compared to women. The "glass ceiling," an invisible but impassable barrier that prevents women from rising professionally regardless of their education and experience, can still be impermeable today.

Bias against women in the workplace must be removed through a forward-looking economic policy. Women’s roles in the economy are critical to family survival and to economic development. Nevertheless, they are still being steered into and directed about the roles deemed appropriate for them.

Existing policies that place constraints on women must be changed. Women must have equal access to credit, property and markets, and should not require the consent of a male family member in order to secure this access. Policy changes must also be made, which place greater value on women’s roles within the family, household and informal economy and which ensure that men take equal responsibility for their children and household tasks.