In 2014, G20 Leaders pledged in Brisbane to reduce the gap in labour force participation rates between men and women by 25% by 2025, with the aim of bringing 100 million women into the labour market, increasing global and inclusive growth, and reducing poverty and inequality.
In recent years, almost all G20 countries made progress in terms of equal opportunities, participation of women in the labour market and reduction of the gender pay gap. The process of reducing gender inequalities has slowed down due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy. The measures implemented by G20 countries helped to mitigate the employment and social impact of the COVID-19 crisis. Yet, evidence from many countries shows a disproportionate impact on women, especially those who are younger, low-skilled, or from ethnic minorities. Women are over-represented as frontline health workers, in the most vulnerable sectors of the informal economy, and they also continue to undertake the majority of unpaid work. Acknowledging the risk of increasing gender inequalities in our labour markets and societies, G20 Leaders at the Riyadh Summit called for a roadmap to achieve the Brisbane goal along with improving the quality of women’s employment.
In response to this call, we have developed the G20 Roadmap Towards and Beyond the Brisbane Target for achieving equal opportunities and outcomes for women and men in our labour markets as well as societies in general. This Roadmap builds upon the G20 Policy Priorities for Boosting Female Participation, Quality of Employment and Gender Equity (Australia, 2014) and the G20 Policy Recommendations to Reduce Gender Gaps in Labour Force Participation and Pay by Improving Women’s Job Quality (Germany, 2017).
We acknowledge that many factors continue to hinder the participation of women in the labour market and the improvement of the quality of their employment. Overcoming these barriers is key to achieving not only the Brisbane target and our previous commitments, but also aiming at full gender equality in the labour market and in our societies.
To achieve this goal, we should ensure that policy measures are informed, where relevant, by behavioural insights, based on data and evidence and adapted in accordance with national circumstances. Against this background, we agree on the G20 Roadmap Towards and Beyond the Brisbane Target as set out below:
Increasing the quantity and quality of women’s employment
· Promote, in cooperation with relevant Ministries, better tailored, effective and adaptive policies to boost and sustain job creation and support quality employment with a specific focus on decent work for women;
· Promote measures to increase the participation and representation of women in decision-making bodies, including in public organizations, private and public companies, relevant policy-making bodies and organizations of workers and employers;
· Strengthen gender mainstreaming in the labour market and social policy design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation to ensure the inclusion of women’s perspective and collective voice;
· Work towards adopting measures to prevent and eliminate all forms of violence and harassment and associated psycho-social risks in the world of work, including gender-based, racial and other discriminatory forms, taking into account the ILO Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (No. 190), recognizing the right of everyone to a work environment free of violence and harassment, and seek to ensure they are addressed in the management of workplace practices, such as occupational safety and health;
· Continue tackling informal work, including by women in domestic work, through a mix of policies such as incentives for formalization based on evidence of what works and enforcement of compliance with laws and regulations;
· Improve access of all women to comprehensive social protection benefits, for example parental leave, unemployment benefits, paid sick leave and pensions, taking into account relevant international labour standards, in particular the Social Protection Floors Reccomendation, 2012 (No. 202);
· Improve working conditions, including through social dialogue, in those sectors where women are overrepresented, particularly in the care sector. This includes advocating for adequate wages and limits on hours of work, allowing for more choice on work schedules, enhancing health and safety at work, increasing training and career opportunities and recognizing prior relevant learning, in accordance with the Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and taking into account the ILO Centenary Declaration of the Future of Work;
· Foster women’s labour mobility and promote decent work for migrant workers, especially women, and their access to social protection;
· Design active labour market policies with a gender lens to support women through work-life transitions such as school-to-work, care responsibilities, changing jobs and their integration/reintegration to highquality employment, reskilling and upskilling. Ensure that employment services take into account the 8 equality between men and women in the design and implementation of their measures, plans, operations and services;
· Promote greater participation of women at all levels of social dialogue, thus giving a greater presence and voice to women in tripartite consultation and decision-making spaces.
· Lift discriminatory statutory provisions and policies or practices to ensure that women workers are not disadvantaged;
· Promote equal opportunities in educational and vocational pathways and increase the participation of women in high-wage, high-growth fields, including by strengthening educational, vocational, labour market and career guidance. Encourage evidence-based practices to promote the hiring of women in those sectors where women are underrepresented, notably in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and ICT;
· Ensure equal opportunities to access lifelong learning, reskilling, upskilling, and workplace training, especially for low-skilled female workers that are more likely to suffer the impact of employment changes; provide enabling environments for women to take control of their lives in a world of rapid economic and technological change, giving opportunities to enter, maintain and progress in employment;
· Increase the provision of digital skills training for all women, especially young women and those returning to work after a prolonged break, and other relevant measures to bridge the gender digital divide;
· Promote, in coordination with other Ministries, women entrepreneurship by taking measures to eliminate legal, policy, procedural, and regulatory barriers and practices that impede women entrepreneurs access to digital services, financial services, venture capital, and promote transparency measures to help identify gender investment gaps;
· Recognise skills gained through care work, both paid and unpaid;
· Promote financial inclusion of women, and in particular, foster female access to credit, including through financial literacy training and women-oriented credit mechanisms;
· Combat inequality in employment between women and men in rural areas, where it is even more pronounced than in urban areas; According to national circumstances, make efforts, in cooperation with other Ministries, to ensure that taxes and benefits systems do not discourage women who wish to enter, re-enter, and remain in the labour market.
Promoting a more even distribution of women and men across sectors and occupations
· Seek to eliminate all laws, regulations, practices, and provisions that directly or indirectly discourage or even restrict either women or men from working in specific occupations or forms of employment as appropriate;
· Promote policy measures aimed at achieving fair and transparent processes of career progression, including in the criteria for the selection of managers and other senior positions, such as regular and voluntary reporting by companies on gender gaps in promotions, recruitment and managerial positions.
Tackling the gender pay gap
· Work towards addressing all the causes of the gender pay gap, including the unequal distribution of invisible and unpaid work, the higher use of part-time work and more frequent career breaks among women, as well as vertical and horizontal segregation based on gender;
· In consultation with the Social Partners, consider introducing or regularly reviewing minimum wages to prevent the risk of in-work poverty faced by low-paid workers, who are often female;
· Continue promoting equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between women and men, including by promoting wage transparency, such as allowing employees to request information on average pay levels or regular employer reporting on wage structures;
· Consider reviewing pay, career advancement and promotion policies to identify and eliminate implicit gender disparities;
· Address the higher incidence of old-age poverty among women, also because of inequalities at work and at home, including by exploring possible measures to reduce the gender gap in benefits and entitlements for pensioners and elderlies.
Promoting a more balanced distribution of paid and unpaid work between women and men
· Promote and incentivize the use of shared parental and care leave between men and women, including via non-transferable periods of leave, extend their duration and address pay levels when needed, and increase their take-up rate, including through awareness-raising campaigns for workers and employers;
· Encourage employers to post their parental leave and pay and flexible working policies on their websites;
· Discourage long working hours and consider expanding flexible working arrangements designed to promote better work-life balance for women and men, including by reinforcing the right for workers to request them;
· Support increased investment in and access to affordable and good quality services, including early childhood education and care and long-term care services, paying particular attention to low-income families and young women.
Addressing discrimination and gender stereotypes in the labour market
· Promote initiatives to address discriminatory social and cultural norms preventing the achievement of gender equality in education and in the world of work;
· Promote respectful, inclusive, and non-discriminatory language in job advertisements and descriptions as well as in the workplace;
· Reinforce and strengthen, as appropriate, measures to tackle all forms of discrimination in employment;
· Combat stereotyped representations of women and men of their role in paid and unpaid work.
We ask the ILO and the OECD, based on G20 countries self-reports, to continue their annual reporting to G20 Leaders on the progress made towards the Brisbane goal and in reducing gender gaps in job quality. Taking into account the diverse local and national labour market situations women face in the G20 member economies, such a report can make use of a range of available auxiliary indicators as listed below, that can contribute to increase the visibility of our policy efforts and provide insights into remaining challenges to address. This report should also highlight differences in the level and degree of progress achieved by women and men in each dimension, where relevant, so that we can monitor whether working conditions for women have actually improved. In addition to reporting against the indicators, we ask the ILO and OECD to provide case studies that highlight successful policies and programs implemented by member countries.
Measuring and monitoring developments in gender gaps in job quality is important for designing policy to tackle gender inequalities in labour markets Therefore, we will seek to improve, where appropriate to national circumstances, our monitoring systems, in cooperation with our national statistical authorities, to better inform our policy action in implementing this Roadmap
