Supporting participation of women in work force

Supporting policies and measures leading to greater contribution by women in the labour force, providing women with training opportunities and encouraging them to undertake different types of employment to meet the present and future needs of economic and social development.

The rising female participation in the paid workforce has derived from a combination of social and economic changes which during the past twenty years have increased the rewards of participation and reduced the costs. Smaller families and improvements in technology to manage household tasks (cleaning, cooking, etc.) were matched by an improvement in women's education, diminishing the gap between male and female wages and, perhaps until recently, offering better access to jobs. Most women, in particular of the younger generation, now not only need paid employment for a variety of reasons, including changing family patterns and increased material expectations and lifestyle aspirations, but are also more often interested in pursuing a professional career of their own. Fewer women are now putting their careers on hold to get married or have children. The changing participation pattern according to age, which is similar to that of men in a growing number of countries, would tend to indicate that fertility no longer prevents or interrupts women's work in the formal sector as it once did.

This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities. Agenda 21 recommends programmes to support and strengthen equal employment opportunities and equitable remuneration for women in the formal and informal sectors with adequate economic, political and social support systems and services, including child care, particularly day-care facilities and parental leave, and equal access to credit, land and other natural resources.