News Leak Centre

No Fear No Favour

You won’t believe!Labour laws in 104 countries reserve some jobs for men only!

EVEN as rich countries seek to rid workplaces of subtle gender bias, in many developing ones discrimination remains overt. According to the World Bank, women are barred from certain jobs in 104 countries.

“Gender equality in labour law is associated with more women working and earning more relative to men,” says Sarah Iqbal of the Bank. Yet some countries publish lists of jobs deemed too dangerous for women (Russia’s 456 include driving a train or steering a ship). Others stop women from working in entire sectors, at night or in “morally inappropriate” jobs (in Kazakhstan women cannot bleed or stun cattle, pigs or small ruminants). In four countries women cannot register a business. In 18 a husband can stop his wife working.

Some sex-specific restrictions are called for, says the ILO, particularly in the case of pregnant and breast-feeding women, for example when working with chemicals. (Such temporary and specific precautions are not counted in the World Bank’s study.)

But, concludes the ILO, blanket protective prohibitions are “increasingly obsolete”.

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