Unpaid work. Sexual harassment. Violence. Low wages. The “motherhood penalty.” These are just some of the issues that millions of women continue to face at work in 2025.
Despite progress made towards global gender equality, men continue to hold the highest paid positions in industries worldwide, while many women still typically handle grunt work across companies and supply chains.
Meanwhile, many women around the world are still struggling to find work, with many holding precarious jobs or forced to hustle in the informal economy just to get by.
Overall, women continue to carry a disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work, underlining United Nations Secretary General António Guterres’ comments that global poverty “has a female face.”
“If the quantity and quality of employment are failing women, the impact is higher poverty risk,” said Sally Roever, formerly the international coordinator at Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO), a global network that aims to improve working conditions for women in the informal economy.
Labor experts say that the working world excludes, underpays, overlooks and exploits around half of its available force – and as such, work systems – in their current structures – are failing women.
