WUNRN
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Release - ILO Report on Action Needed to Provide Jobs & Social Protection
for Growing & Ageing Populations - Older Women
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UN SPECIAL
RAPPORTEUR ON HUMAN RIGHTS & EXTREME POVERTY REPORT
Role of Non-Contributory Pensions or
Social Pensions in Reducing Extreme Poverty and Contributing to the Realization
of Human Rights of Older Persons
Direct Link to Full 22-Page Report:
II Poverty and Old Age
C. Poverty Among Older
Women
19.
Older women are disproportionately disadvantaged: They are marginalized due
to their age and tend to be poorer than men. Because of gendered discrimination
patterns throughout their life, women are often in a situation where they have
accumulated lesser wealth than men. Cultural practices of early marriage and
women's longer life expectancy than men worldwide, lead to a situation where
women
are more likely to be widows than men, and being widowed puts older
women at higher risk of being poor. In many countries, women have limited
access
to land and other assets.......
20.
Most older women are excluded from formal social security and health insurance
schemes as these are linked to paid, formal-sector employment. In developing
countries, the great majority of women work all their lives in the informal
sector
or
in unpaid activities. In developed countries too, older women are more likely
than men to be poor at old age......Women are less likely to receive a large
contributory
pension since they are more likely to have stopped work at some
point over their lifetime to take on the burden of child rearing and are also
more
likely to have received lesser wages for their work than men.
21.
Older women are not only more likely to be poorer than men, but they are also
likely
to be burdened with caregiving responsibilities for other family members,
especially their grandchildren. In some countries, accusations of witchcraft
against poor older women are common, revcealing worrying discriminative
patterns.
V. Expanding Social
Security in Old Age in the Context of a Human Rights Framework
I. Ensuring Gender Equality
95. Non-contributory pensions are the most efficient means of ensuring the
right
to social security for older women and compensating them for their years
of unpaid or inadequately paid work. However, to ensure equal access by
women to a social pension, special measures must be implemented to
overcome possible barriers to older women caused by structural discrimination,
such
as lack of access to adequate documentation and identification,
difficulties to approach administrations, or lack of gender sensitive social
services......
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ILO - International Labour
Organization
EMPLOYMENT & SOCIAL PROTECTION
IN THE NEW DEMOGRAPHIC CONTEXT - WOMEN'S LIFE CYCLE MAJOR ISSUES
A report
prepared for the ILO/ILC presented the scale of the challenge, in
a context in which the world’s population will surpass 9 billion by 2050 and
the number of people aged 60 years and over will have tripled.
Three-quarters
of older persons will be living in what are now developing countries and the
majority will be women.
In addition, by 2050 there will be only four people of working age for every
person over 65, compared to nine in the year 2000. This new demographic
context, the report warns, has profound implications for labour markets, social
security systems, employment and economic development.
Direct Link to Full 124-Page ILO
2013 Report:
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