INTERNATIONAL Women’s Day, celebrated globally under the theme ‘Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow’, brings into sharp focus inequality in employment and retirement.

How much is the society aware of the implications of gender inequality during the employment years and the impact it will have during the retirement years? What contributes to gender inequality? Global data show that women and men continue to work in dissimilar occupations, and this tendency lends itself to gender inequalities. Research also revealed that men generally earn more than women. Some women are wealthy in retirement but an increasing number remain in poverty — women who worked at low-income jobs and aren’t able to save for retirement, and are thus likely to experience poverty once they leave the world of work. And with women having a longer life expectancy in retirement and many having little or no pension, women account for the majority of persons living in poverty while in retirement.

A recent report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) showed that more than four million women from Latin America and the Caribbean have not returned to work since the novel coronavirus pandemic in 2020, and this has worsened gender equality for women. Whereas women lost 23.6 million jobs at the peak of the pandemic, men lost 26 million but have already recovered nearly all jobs that were lost.

In marking International Women’s Day, ILO’s director for Latin America and the Caribbean said the “region needs to redouble its effort to recover lost ground and generate more and better job opportunities for women”.

Female employment was affected by the closure of educational and childcare facilities. The situation was made worse by the closure of labour-intensive industries, such as hotels and restaurants, which predominantly have a female workforce.

An important point to note is that these industries have many low-income employees.

The major disadvantage for women is that they are primarily employed in service-oriented industries while men are dominant in the manufacturing and agriculture sectors. Studies, meanwhile, showed that women face greater risk of unemployment and low wages when compared to men, based on education and age. Men are more likely to be employed in high-risk, innovative and physical jobs, while more women are found in low-skilled jobs than men. However, women are also shown to be dominant among the professionals and highly skilled workers.

Jamaican women have managed to excel academically, resulting in women holding the highest proportion of management positions, not just locally but globally. But despite this progressive trend, when compared with male counterparts in terms of age and education, women still earn less — and in some instances the wage gap is significant. This therefore has a negative impact on retirement savings for women. In the meantime, one study showed that only one in five businesses in Jamaica is owned by a woman. With women being more risk-averse, earning, saving and investing less, the potential for increased poverty in retirement is a persistent threat as women are at risk of outliving their money in retirement.

In addition, women are less financial literate and tend to have more caregiving responsibilities than men. So, it is indeed very important that government policies be implemented to narrow the gender gap that now exists.

The gender pension gap describes the percentage difference in pension income of female pensioners relative to male pensioners. A gender pension gap is created in retirement due to women earning less over a lifetime than men, which results in pension contributions being lower than men. Low income equals low pension contribution, and ultimately low pension payout at retirement. Therefore, government policies and programmes should seek to address the working years by way of initiatives that support financial education, business ownership and flexible employment for women.

It is my view that with women already dominant in the services industry, the gender gap could be significantly narrowed and a reduction in female poverty realised if more women are not only employed in the care services sector but become owners of long-term care services and other businesses.

– Grace G McLean is financial advisor at BPM Financial Limited. Contact her gmclean@bpmfinancial and visit the website: www.bpmfinancial.com. She is also a podcaster for Living Above Self. Email her at livingaboveself@gmail.com