Female economic activity is a common measure of gender equality in an economy. It is one of the numbers used by the UNDP in the calculation of the Human Development Index, but the numbers themselves are gathered by the International Labour Organization. It is a measure of women over the age of fifteen who are working or able to work as a percent of males. It is one of less accurate statistics gathered and is highly variable with regions and year to year within individual countries.
In general female economic activity is lowest in the Middle East and South Asia and highest in developed nations and sub-Saharan Africa.
In the United States, women's involvement in the economy has shifted from the 1890s to the 1970s. Women used to work in what were called "pink collar" jobs, such as teachers, librarians, and secretaries, but now have careers involving investment like lawyers, doctors, and corporate workers. Compared to men who have always been at a constant high level of employment rates, women are now increasing their numbers in the economy.
Abbreviated as FEAR, it is a proportion of female population aged fifteen years and above who furnish or are available to furnish, the supply of labor for production of goods and services in accordance with System of National Accounts(SNA).
Famous quotes containing the words female, economic and/or activity:
“Here falling houses thunder on your head,
And here a female atheist talks you dead.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“If in the earlier part of the century, middle-class children suffered from overattentive mothers, from being “mother’s only accomplishment,” today’s children may suffer from an underestimation of their needs. Our idea of what a child needs in each case reflects what parents need. The child’s needs are thus a cultural football in an economic and marital game.”
—Arlie Hochschild (20th century)
“The teacher must derive not only the capacity, but the desire, to observe natural phenomena. In our system, she must become a passive, much more than an active, influence, and her passivity shall be composed of anxious scientific curiosity and of absolute respect for the phenomenon which she wishes to observe. The teacher must understand and feel her position of observer: the activity must lie in the phenomenon.”
—Maria Montessori (1870–1952)