STUDY

Prepared For:
UN WOMEN
 STUDY GUIDE FOR MUNOVATION23 – UNWOMEN

CHAIRBOARD MEMBERS- ALİSA BESLER & EZGİ BAĞCIGİL

Table of Content:

Letter from President & Deputy Chair

-Introducing UN Woman
- What is UN Woman?
- Brief History
- Work and Priorities

1. Topic A: Gendering the Labor Market: Women’s Struggles in the

Global Labor Force

1.1 Introduction to the Topic

1.2 Persistent Challenges
1.3 A Historical Perspective on Women in the Labor Force
1.4 Current Situation
1.5 Smarter Solutions & What Can Be Done?
1.6 Conclusion
1.7 Guiding Questions

2. Topic B: Rural women confronting the global cost-of-living crisis and

education problem

2.1 Background for the Topic

2.2 Current Situation
2.3 Further Discussion
2.4 Conclusion
2.5 Guiding Questions
2.6 Ressources

Letter from President & Deputy Chair

Most distinguished participants,

It is the utmost pleasure to be welcoming you all to United Nations Woman

committee of MUNOVATION’23.
As your committee directors, we put strenuous effort and worked tremendously on
these study guides in the hope of shedding light upon your agenda items and
providing you with all the essential insight that you will require throughout the
duration of the committee. UN Woman will endeavor to cover two crucial agenda
items which are;

a) ”Gendering the Labor Market: Women’s Struggles in the Global Labor Force”
b)”Rural women confronting the global cost-of-living crisis and education problem”

With this study guide, we aspire to lead your personal research and essentially get
you ready for the sessions. After scanning the agenda item, we kindly request you to
skim through the highlighted links and build an idea regarding your country’s stance
on the issues.

We are looking forward to seeing you all at the conference!

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at

ezgibagcigil@gmail.com
alisabesler24@gmail.com

………………………………………………………..

What is UN Women?
The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the
Empowerment of Women, also known as UN Women, is a United
Nations entity working for gender equality and the empowerment
of women. UN Women is a United Nations Organization that reports
to the General Assembly. It is also a High- Level Political Forum on
Sustainable Development.

Brief History
For many years, the United Nations faced serious challenges in its
efforts to promote gender equality globally, including inadequate
funding and no single recognized driver to direct UN activities on
gender equality issues. In July 2010, the United Nations General
Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender
Equality and the Empowerment of Women, to address such
challenges. In doing so, UN Member States took an historic step in
accelerating the Organization’s goals on gender equality and the
empowerment of women. The creation of UN Women came about
as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and
mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the
important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system,
which focused exclusively on gender equality and women’s
empowerment:

● Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW)

● International Research and Training Institute for
the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW)
● Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues
and Advancement of Women (OSAGI)
● United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)
Work and Priorities
UN Women is the United Nations entity dedicated to gender
equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for
women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate
progress on meeting their needs worldwide.

UN Women supports UN Member States as they set global

standards for achieving gender equality, and works with
governments and civil society to design laws, policies,
programmes and services needed to ensure that the standards are
effectively implemented and truly benefit women and girls
worldwide. It works globally to make the vision of the Sustainable
Development Goals a reality for women and girls and stands
behind women’s equal participation in all aspects of life, focusing
on four strategic priorities:

● Women lead, participate in and benefit equally

from governance systems
● Women have income security, decent work and
economic autonomy
● All women and girls live a life free from all forms of violence
● Women and girls contribute to and have greater influence in
building sustainable peace and resilience, and benefit
equally from the prevention of natural disasters and conflicts
and humanitarian action

UN Women also coordinates and promotes the UN system’s work in

advancing gender equality, and in all deliberations and agreements
linked to the 2030 Agenda. The entity works to position gender
equality as fundamental to the Sustainable Development Goals,
and a more inclusive world.
1. Topic A: Gendering the Labor Market: Women’s Struggles in
the Global Labor Force

1.1 Introduction to the Topic

As we celebrate the progress that women have made through
history,we should also celebrate the major strides in the labor
market.Rising female labor force participation has been one of
the most remarkable economic developments of the last century.

Despite this progress, evidence suggests that many women still

remain unable to achieve their goals in the 21st century. The gap in
earnings between women and men, although smaller than it was
years ago, is still significant. Women continue to be
underrepresented in certain industries and occupations; and too
many women struggle to combine aspirations for work and family.
Further advancement has been hampered by barriers to equal
opportunity and workplace rules and norms that fail to support a
reasonable work-life balance. If these obstacles persist, we will
squander the potential of many of our citizens and incur a
substantial loss to the productive capacity of our economy at a
time when the aging of the population and weak productivity
growth are already weighing on economic growth.

1.2 Persistent Challenges

Gender inequality in the economy has many dimensions, involving
inequality of opportunities (capacity to earn income) as well as
outcomes. These dimensions may be expressed in terms of:

● Employment opportunities – opportunities to participate

in the labor market in all sectors (horizontal distribution of
activities) and all occupations (vertical distribution of
activities in a profession);
● Returns from labor (wage equality);
● Conditions of work and quality of employment;
● Access to basic services (such as health and education);
● Access to resources (such as land, credit and
business services);
● Empowerment (participation in decision-making); and
• Distribution of income inside
and outside the household (or poverty levels).
● Empowerment (participation in decision-making); and
● Distribution of income inside and outside the household
(or poverty levels).
● Lack of safe transport
● Lack of affordable care

Delegates are expected to debate upon these given problems and

find proper solutions.

1.3 A Historical Perspective on Women in the Labor Force

In the early 20th century, most women did not work outside the
home, and those who did were primarily young and unmarried. In
that era, just 20 percent of all women were “gainful workers,” as
the Census Bureau then categorized labor force participation
outside the home, and only 5 percent of those married were
categorized as such. Of course, these statistics somewhat
understate the contributions of married women to the economy
beyond housekeeping and childrearing, since women’s work in the
home often included work in family businesses and the home
production
of goods, such as agricultural products, for sale. Also, the
aggregate statistics obscure the differential experience of women
by race. African American women were about twice as likely to
participate in the labor force as were white women at the time,
largely because they were more likely to remain in the labor force
after marriage.

The fact that many women left work upon marriage reflected
cultural norms, the nature of the work available to them, and legal
strictures. The occupational choices of those young women who
did work were severely circumscribed. Most women lacked
significant education—and women with little education mostly
toiled as piece workers in factories or as domestic workers, jobs
that were dirty and often unsafe. Educated women were scarce.
Fewer than 2 percent of all 18- to 24-year-olds were enrolled in an
institution of higher education, and just one-third of those were
women. Such women did not have to perform manual labor, but
their choices were likewise constrained.

Despite the widespread sentiment against women, particularly

married women, working outside the home and with the limited
opportunities available to them, women did enter the labor force in
greater numbers over this period, with participation rates reaching
nearly 50 percent for single women by 1930 and nearly 12 percent
for married women. This rise suggests that while the incentive—
and in many cases the imperative—remained for women to drop
out of the labor market at marriage when they could rely on their
husband’s income, mores were changing. Indeed, these years
overlapped with the so-called first wave of the women’s movement,
when women came together to agitate for change on a variety of
social issues, including suffrage and temperance, and which later
guaranteed them their right to vote.
Between the 1930s and mid-1970s, women’s participation in the
economy continued to rise, with the gains primarily owing to an
increase in work among married women. By 1970, 50 percent of
single women and 40 percent of married women were participating
in the labor force. Several factors contributed to this rise. First, with
the advent of mass high school education, graduation rates rose
substantially. At the same time, new technologies contributed to an
increased demand for clerical workers, and these jobs were
increasingly taken on by women. Moreover, because these jobs
tended to be cleaner and safer, the stigma attached to work for a
married woman diminished. And while there were still marriage
bars that forced women out of the labor force, these formal
barriers were gradually removed over the period following World
War II.

Over the decades from 1930 to 1970, increasing opportunities also

arose for highly educated women. That said, early in that period,
most women still expected to have short careers, and women
were still largely viewed as secondary earners whose husbands’
careers came first.

As time progressed, attitudes about women working and their

employment prospects changed. As women gained experience in
the labor force, they increasingly saw that they could balance work
and family. A new model of the two-income family emerged. Some
women began to attend college and graduate school with the
expectation of working, whether or not they planned to marry and
have families.

By the 1970s, a dramatic change in women’s work lives was under

way. In the period after World War II, many women had not
expected that they would spend as much of their adult lives
working as turned out to be the case. By contrast, in the 1970s
young women more commonly expected that they would spend a
substantial portion of their lives in the labor force, and they
prepared for it, increasing their educational attainment and taking
courses and college majors that better equipped them for careers
as opposed to just jobs.

These changes in attitudes and expectations were supported by

other changes under way in society. Workplace protections were
enhanced and the recognition of sexual harassment in the
workplace. Access to birth control increased, which allowed
married couples greater control over the size of their families and
young women the ability to delay marriage and to plan children
around their educational and work choices.

By the early 1990s, the labor force participation rate of prime

working-age women—those between the ages of 25 and 54—
reached just over 74 percent, compared with roughly 93 percent
for prime working-age men. By then, the share of women going
into the traditional fields of teaching, nursing, social work, and
clerical work declined, and more women were becoming doctors,
lawyers, managers, and professors. As women increased their
education and joined industries and occupations formerly
dominated by men, the gap in earnings between women and men
began to close significantly.

1.4 Current Situation

-Women’s Empowerment in the Labour Market

It has been proven that when women are participating

economically it affects development in a posi-tive way, a fact that is
commonly used by international organizations to promote this
idea. Those are some of the reasons why organs such as the World
Bank have been supporting Gender Equality and the Sustainable
Development Goal 5. These organs state that by supporting an
enabling environment for women’s participation in the labor force
“[they] can add billions to the global economy [...] and make
countries more competitive.”

The gap in earnings between men and women has narrowed

substantially, but progress has slowed lately, and women working full
time still earn significantly less than men, on average, each week. A
study by the International Labour Organization has discovered that
the labor force participation rate is higher than before for women in
all regions of the world except the Middle East, North Africa and
South Asia.Nonetheless, the male labor force participation still
overwhelms the female participation by a large margin.
Even when we compare men and women in the same or similar
occupations who appear nearly identical in background and
experience, a huge gap typically remains. As such, we cannot rule out
that gender-related impediments hold back women, including outright
discrimination, attitudes that reduce women’s success in the
workplace, and an absence of mentors.

Recent research has shown that although women now enter

professional schools in numbers nearly equal to men, they are still
substantially less likely to reach the highest echelons of their
professions. This lack of success in climbing the professional ladder
would seem to explain why the wage gap actually remains largest for
those at the top of the earnings distribution.

One of the primary factors contributing to the failure of these highly

skilled women to reach the tops of their professions and earn equal
pay is that top jobs in fields such as law and business require longer
workweeks and penalize taking time off. This would have a
disproportionately large effect on women who continue to bear the
lion’s share of domestic and child-rearing responsibilities.

But it can be difficult for women to meet the demands in these fields
once they have children. The very fact that these types of jobs
require such long hours likely discourages some women—as well as
men—from pursuing these career tracks. Advances in technology
have facilitated greater work-sharing and flexibility in scheduling, and
there are further opportunities in this direction. Economic models
also suggest that while it can be difficult for any one employer to
move to a model with shorter hours, if many firms were to change
their model, they and their workers could all be better off.

The basic matters that should also be addressed are women’s needs
to make proper family planning and healthy choices, so called
Reproductive Rights. According to an outline made by the Center for
Reproductive Rights (CPP), it is essential that women have access to
contraception methods and affordable, safe and legal abortions, if
this is their choice. It is also necessary to allow access to obstetric
and prenatal services to maintain a healthy pregnancy, which can be
achieved by providing direct funding for reproductive healthcare in
terms of infrastructure.This type of investment by governments is
especially valuable to women who have little to no financial
resources.

Most women are not employed in fields that require such long hours
or that impose such severe penalties for taking time off. But the
difficulty of balancing work and family is a widespread problem. In
fact, the recent trend in many occupations is to demand complete
scheduling flexibility, which can result in too few hours of work for
those with family demands and can make it difficult to schedule
childcare. Reforms that encourage companies to provide some
predictability in schedules, cross-train workers to perform different
tasks, or require a minimum guaranteed number of hours in exchange
for flexibility could improve the lives of workers holding such jobs.
Another problem is that childcare is affordable for fewer than half of
all families. And just 5 percent of workers with wages in the bottom
quarter of the wage distribution have jobs that provide them with paid
family leave. This circumstance puts many women in the position of
having to choose between caring for a sick family member and
keeping their jobs.

This possibility should inform our own thinking about policies to

make it easier for women and men to combine their family and career
aspirations. For instance, improving access to affordable and good
quality childcare would appear to fit the bill, as it has been shown to
support full-time employment. Recently, there also seems to be some
momentum for providing families with paid leave at the time of
childbirth. The experience in Europe suggests picking policies that
do not narrowly target childbirth, but instead can be used to meet a
variety of health and caregiving responsibilities.

1.5 Smarter Solutions & What Can Be Done?

The data is clear: women want to be in paid employment, but a

persistent set of socio-economic barriers keep them out of the

workforce. Identifying and quantifying these barriers allows us to

develop smarter policy responses for eliminating them.Ultimately,

closing gender gaps in the labor force is not just good for women

and their households, but for the global economy as a whole.

1.6 Conclusion

Nations face a number of longer-term economic challenges,

including the aging of the population and the low growth rate of
productivity. One recent study estimates that increasing the female
participation rate to that of men would raise the gross domestic
product by 5 percent. Workplaces and families, as well as women
themselves, would benefit from continued progress. However, a
number of factors appear to be holding women back, including the
difficulty women currently have in trying to combine their careers
with other aspects of their lives, including caregiving. In looking to
solutions, we should consider improvements to work environments
and policies that benefit not only women, but all workers. Pursuing
such a strategy would be in keeping with the story of the rise in
women’s involvement in the workforce, which has contributed not
only to their own well-being but more broadly to the welfare and
prosperity of the whole world.

1.7 Guiding Questions

-What kind of regulation has your country regarding women’s right for
labor and equal payment? Can women contribute equally to the
economic policies, laws, and programmes in your country?
-What is the percentage of women contributing to the economy and
labor in your country? Is it getting higher with years?

-Is any form of discrimination against women seen in the area of

rights for equal payment, if so how can it be prevented?

2. Topic B: Rural women confronting the global cost-of-

living crisis and education problem

2.1 Introduction to the Topic

The cost-of-living crisis facing the world is putting women’s

livelihoods, health and wellbeing at risk and jeopardizing
progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. Propelled by
disruptions in supplies of oil, gas and staple food
commodities because of the war in Ukraine and the
intensifying climate emergency, food, fuel and fertilizer prices
have skyrocketed. Women and girls face energy poverty,
malnutrition and food insecurity as well as related
gender-based violence such as sexual exploitation and
trafficking, and early, child, and forced marriage.

For the millions of rural women around the world who play

essential roles in food systems, the cost-of-living crisis is

deepening gender inequalities. Women’s contributions to these

vital systems range from cultivation and production, to

processing, preparation and distribution of food. Despite this

contribution, women globally have less food security than men,

and the gap has grown. In 2021, more than 126 million more

women than men went hungry.

Without equal access to land and other productive resources,

women are not able to accumulate comparable assets, income

and savings, and these gaps are widening also. This is

especially acute where social protection is lacking and where

rural women and girls face other forms of discrimination,

including older and indigenous women, women of African

descent, gender-diverse persons and persons with disabilities.

The cost-of-living crisis is also reversing progress on access to

modern energy as household incomes decline. This has led to a

return to use of unhealthy biomass for fuel for cooking and

heating, putting rural women and girls at greater risk of death by

household air pollution.

This is why there is an urgent need to rethink and reshape global

energy and food systems from the bottom up. UN Women has

made recommendations for how to do this, in collaboration with

the UN Global Crisis Response Group, to achieve a sustainable

energy transition and diverse and healthy food production.

Through the Generation Equality Forum, UN Women is working

with multiple stakeholders to address some of the root causes

and conditions that perpetuate women’s food insecurity. The

Feminist Action for Climate Justice Action Coalition brings

together diverse actors to build resilience including through

cooperative models and women’s land rights and tenure

security. The Economic Justice and Rights Action Coalition is

working to increase women’s access to and control over

productive resources, such as finance, services, and market

information which are key for promoting food security and

nutrition for all.

Experience of successful approaches to build rural women’s

resilience to cascading crises is available in the Joint

Programme on Rural Women’s Economic Empowerment,

implemented by FAO, IFAD, UN Women, and WFP, which brought

an 82 percent average increase in production, along with gains

in diet and nutrition in Ethiopia, Guatemala, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia,

Nepal, Niger and Rwanda. Together, this Joint Programme has

started its second phase in Nepal, Niger, Pacific Islands,

Tanzania and Tunisia with the UN Women's Executive Director

highlighting the launch of Phase II in person in Zanzibar ahead

of International Rural Women’s Day. Agriculturalists, seaweed

farmers and women’s cooperatives and entrepreneurs of

Tanzania will be supported by the programme to realize their

rights, become empowered and build resilience to shocks such

as the global food crisis and climate change.

 2.2 Possible Solutions

The whole world is experiencing a real cost of living crisis with

inflation rising faster than average wages. The cost of living

crisis is driven by higher transport costs, and energy and food

prices, and this is forecast to continue to worsen especially in

European countries as a result of the war in Ukraine.

Governments are bringing in measures designed to ease the

impact of inflation, including tax cuts, free train travel, energy
subsidies and cash transfers.However, the UNDP report warns
that not all policies will be equally effective and some may
disproportionately benefit wealthier people.

Encouraging nations to lower taxes on electricity and petrollium

might be one one of the solutions to look up for.This would

reduce prices for consumers and help reduce some of the

temporary inflation. Delegates might look for both advantages

and disadvantages of this matter.

2.3 Further Discussions

-Global gendered impacts of the Ukraine crisis on energy

access and food security and nutrition
The war in Ukraine has had a devastating impact on women and
girls worldwide, widening gender gaps, and increasing rates of
food insecurity, malnutrition and energy poverty.

The ensuing cost-of-living crisis has acutely threatened women’s

livelihoods, health, and wellbeing and stymied progress on the
Sustainable Development Goals. It has been propelled by the war’s
disruptions of oil and gas supplies and staple food commodities,
including wheat, corn, and sunflower oil, alongside the
skyrocketing food, fuel, and fertilizer prices. Alarming increases in
gender-based violence, transactional sex for food and survival,
child marriage (with girls forced to leave school), and women’s and
girls’ unpaid care and domestic workloads are further endangering
women’s and girls’ physical and mental health.

This policy paper reviews the available evidence, recommending

urgent attention to its consequences for women and girls. It is
complementary to the publications produced by the UN
Secretary-General’s Global Crisis Response Group on the
consequences of the war in Ukraine and the global response and
recovery.

Its findings underline the global impacts on gender equality and

women’s rights that have been compounded by climate change,
environmental degradation, and the COVID-19 pandemic. The
brief concludes with recommendations for essential measures to
achieve the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals,
by promoting women’s participation, leadership, and
decision-making and ensuring food availability and energy
access for women and girls and their communities everywhere.

2.4 Conclusion

As we gathered together for this conference, let us act together

to end hunger, ensure food security and nutrition, and protect

 and promote the right to an adequate standard of living and food

for all. All nations should take immediate actions to assist for

better educational conditions. We must ensure that the impacts

of and the role of rural women in confronting the global food and

education crisis remain high on the agenda.

2.5 Guiding Questions

-What is worthwhile to be included in new strategies preventing

cost of living crisis for rural women to make them more
successful?

-Is your country considered as one of the least developed countries

and therefore needs international help on the topic, or is it more
developed and could help with good practice to other countries?

-Can UN volunteers be used to implement existing programs? If so,

how?

-How can UNWomen better respond to discrimination regarding

education crisis?

2.6 References

https://www.un.org/en/observances/rural-women-day

https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2022/09/po
licy-paper-global-gendered-impacts-of-the-ukraine-crisis

https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/--
-ilo_aids/documents/publication/wcms_619691.pdf
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.TLF.TOTL.FE.ZS

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.TLF.CACT.FE.ZS?locations=
IN

https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/about-un-women

https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/policies/justice-a
nd-fundamental-rights/gender-equality/women-labour-market-work-
life-balance/womens-situation-labour-market_en

https://www.ilo.org/infostories/en-GB/Stories/Employment/barriers-
women#smarter-solutions

https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/yellen20170505
a.htm

https://ourworldindata.org/female-labor-supply#labor-force-particip
ation