The International Labour Organization (ILO), a UN agency soon to celebrate its centenary, and Gallup launched their joint Global Women at Work Project on Tuesday.
Under the agreement, the two organizations will work together to get new insights on gender equality and the world of work through the Gallup World Poll.
Using rigorous, standardized methodology for collecting data worldwide and covering countries that are home to more than 99% of the world's population, the Gallup World Poll data represent the largest globally comparable data set. It covers a representative sample of women and men aged 15 and older, in all regions, and across urban/rural, education and income divides, and by migration status.
The new questions in the World Poll are intended to find out what women want in the world of work, what is helping or stopping them from getting it, and the support of or the negotiations with men that are essential to achieving this. ILO and Gallup will include survey items designed to elicit women's and men's views on complex gender issues.
"We are proud to launch this new partnership between Gallup and the ILO on the Global Women at Work Project. I am confident that it will not only bring to the ILO's tripartite constituents fresh insights on the needs and aspirations of women in the world of work, but also help our organization to deliver on the promise of decent work for women around the globe," ILO Director-General Guy Ryder said before the launch.
"What the whole world wants, both women and men, is a good job. This is one of the most important findings Gallup has made. At the very least, it needs to be considered in every policy, every law and every social initiative," said Jon Clifton, Gallup's Managing Director of Global Analytics.
The World Poll will be conducted between January and October 2016. Its findings will feed into a joint Gallup-ILO report to be launched on International Women's Day in March 2017. The report is expected to help shape future ILO action in the context of its centenary initiative focused on women at work. The ILO initiative, one of seven centenary initiatives, was launched in 2013 with the objective of taking stock of the status and conditions of women in the world of work and to engage in concrete action to achieve full and lasting gender equality and nondiscrimination.
