Efforts to be redoubled to combat gender inequality in the economy by APEC

To promote women’s empowerment and make a gender-neutral economy, the PEC members are making continuous efforts to address and remove the barriers that put a hindrance in women and girls from being a part of the economy and benefiting it. They held a meeting in Palm Springs from February 22 to 24.

In the meeting, the APEC Policy Partnership on Women and the economy (PPWE) had a conversation on 'unpaid care' and 'domestic work' between women and men. They looked at the effects of the outcomes for women both in social and Ecom aspects which includes their job opportunities, workforce, and gender pay gaps.

According to the statement released by APEC Policy Partnership on Women and the Economy, members who were present at the meeting also considered the various strategies that need to be reformed as gender-responsive budgeting, to handle the imbalanced unpaid care.

The chairperson of the group, Chantelle Stratford stated that the pandemic has significantly hit the employment sectors which are run by women, like the care economy.  Women are mostly less paid and face informal employment in the hardest hit sectors which are among the most severely impacted.

She urged the importance and need of the hour to speed up efforts to advance gender equality and empower women in the economy by looking at the rapid growth of inequality faced by women in the Asia-Pacific region.

According to a report by the APEC Policy Support Unit, women work three times more in comparison to men like caretaking and looking after all domestic work.

There are pieces of evidence showing that women-owned businesses are more fruitful for the global economy and are directly responsible for millions of job opportunities, the APEC members mention the lack of funding and resources for innovation and entrepreneurship for females to build up their careers.

The members present in the meeting also proposed an idea of a budgetary tool that aims to organize policy action aimed at advancing gender equality objectives.

Ms. Chantelle also emphasized the importance of gender mainstreaming across the APEC fora. She said about the making of changes that lead to strengthening her organization.

The APEC Women and the Economy Forum will be hosted by the United States in Seattle in August this year. It will bring ministers that will look into women and gender equality as well as ministers for social and economic growth.