Rédaction Africa Links 24 with ALM
Published on 2024-03-08 11:19:36
The High Commission for Planning (HCP) reveals, on the occasion of International Women’s Day, that the proportion of women in the urban salaried population, aged 18 to 60, is 32.2%, remaining below that of men, which stands at 67.8%.
“In 2019, the proportion of women in the urban salaried population, aged 18 to 60, is 32.2%, remaining below that of men, which stands at 67.8%. This gap is reflected in a parity index of 2.1. In other words, out of thirty-one employees, ten are women and twenty-one are men,” the HCP said in an informational note published on this day celebrated under the theme “Investing in Women: Accelerating the Pace.”
In order to promote gender equality, particularly the economic empowerment of women, the statistical concept of parity aims to assess to what extent both sexes are equally represented in the labor market, explains the same source, specifying that the parity index, also known as the “male advantage” index, is used to evaluate this representation in terms of feminization rates, which correspond to the ratio between the number of male employees and female employees.
The HCP also notes that this parity in the labor market varies significantly with age, moving from 1.8 for the 18-29 age group to 2.4 for the 30-44 age group, and settling at 2.1 for the 45-60 age group.
“The under-representation of women among employees reflects their low participation in the labor force. Not only is the women’s labor force participation rate significantly lower than that of men, but it continues to decline over the years, dropping from 30.4% in 1999 to 21.5% in 2019,” it notes.
Furthermore, long-term unemployment, twelve months or more, affects unemployed women more than their male counterparts, with respective proportions of 76.3% and 63.8%, due in particular to the contraction of job opportunities and its corollary, the worsening of unemployment in urban areas.
In terms of human capital endowment, the level of education among employees remains limited, with over half of them (56.7%) having no education or not having pursued secondary education.
Men, with a proportion of 59.2%, outnumber women (51.5%) in this category of employees. This relatively low level of qualification is explained, in particular, by generational effects and the difficulties young graduates face when entering the labor force.
In this context, with an average of 11 years of education, female employees aged 18 to 29 are better equipped in terms of educational capital than men in the same age group, who have an average of 9.5 years of education.
This cognitive advantage of young women tends to diminish as generations progress, marked by a slight male advantage in terms of education. This trend is also supported by the median duration of education.
Conversely, in terms of work experience duration, the gender difference shows a clear advantage for men and increases with age. At the beginning of their careers, this difference averages 0.4 years among employees aged 18 to 29, then increases to 2 years among those in the 30 to 40 age group, and eventually settles at 2.5 years among employees aged 45 to 60.
In terms of parity, at equivalent education levels, male employees still dominate the scene, although their dominance decreases significantly with improved educational levels.
For instance, the parity ratio, while remaining significantly above unity, tends to decrease from 3.4 for employees with primary education to 1.5 for those with higher education.
Furthermore, the HCP indicates that the examination of the gender-employment-profession relationship reveals well-established parity differences among professional groups.
Indeed, men are significantly more represented than women among “Senior Executives and Hierarchical Managers,” with a parity index of 1.7, as well as among “Middle Managers and Employees” (1.5).
This professional segregation is even more pronounced among “Skilled Craftsmen and Workers,” with a parity index of 3.4, and among “Non-Agricultural Laborers,” with an index of 2.
Analyzing the gender-salary-profession distribution, parity in employment appears more tangible among the 20% of the lowest paid employees, with a parity index of 1.1. Beyond this salary range, there are significant disparities in the parity index, reaching 2.3 for employees in the lower second quintile of the salary distribution, then 2.6 for those in the upper quintile, and peaking at the fourth quintile with a parity index of 2.9.
“In summary, it appears that gender inequality in the face of employment is a reality deeply rooted in the labor market. The sources of this inequality show to what extent women’s individual attributes determine their position in the labor market, fueling wage gaps between the two sexes,” concludes the HCP.
Read the original article(French) on Aujourdhui.ma
