ONLY 37 per cent of women in Fiji are engaged in waged employment, a study by the International Finance Corporation has found. While speaking at the BSP Life Fiji Human Resources Institute Convention in Nadi over the weekend, IFC East Asia Pacific gender specialist Amy Lunistra said this was a huge loss to the economy.
“The single most important indicator of employment of women in Fiji is this one which is only 37 per cent of women are engaged in waged employment compared with double of that of men” she said.
“This is despite the fact that women have high education attainment in Fiji.
“Women have a higher per cent probability of attaining a university degree than men and yet they are not represented as much in the labour force.”
She said globally, progressing on gender equality could create $US12 trillion ($F26t) with mostly increased labour force participation.
“Fiji is not estimated but gaps are bigger so the economic gain in closing them is great.”
She said the IFC had worked with several companies in the country to determine the reasons for there being fewer women in the workforce.
“We did a study with several companies to find out some of the causes and there were two main causes that we found.
“They were family care responsibilities and gender-based violence.”
