This is not a complete sentence, so it cannot be accurately translated. Please provide a complete sentence for translation.
Goddess Amani

In a sudden leap of love.

Rising from hatred.

The remaining remnants have been mixed together.

To a fiery and volcanic mass.

Jushan and mysterious have been transformed.

A part of the poem by Ernst Fischer – First of May.

The first month of May 2018 is approaching. This day commemorates the bloody clash between the Chicago police and workers who were protesting in the aftermath of the 1886 strike, which resulted in the deaths of 4 protesters, 7 police officers, and numerous injuries. Workers, citizens, and organizations that support the dignity of labor, economic justice, and respect for human and workers’ rights, honor this day with large gatherings and demonstrations, emphasizing the human rights of individuals to work and the fight against exploitation, which is deeply ingrained in the power dynamics between labor and capital.

Women, as half of the human society, are increasingly present in the workforce of various communities. They not only face class oppression, but also sexual and gender-based oppression in the grip of labor and capital, militarism, and religious conservatism. On this day, they come to the public space all over the world to continue their struggles not only for gender equality, but also for liberation from all layers of oppression.

The reality is that when women have a larger share in the workforce, the economy will experience even greater growth. Gender equality and women’s economic participation have a mutually reinforcing and dialectical relationship. Gender equality provides a broader platform for economic participation and not only leads to women’s economic independence, but also strengthens their capability and belief in their human rights and dignity.

In a study conducted by the McKinsey organization among 219 countries in the world in 2015, it was found that if women’s participation in the formal workforce becomes equal to men’s, the global GDP will increase by $28 trillion or 26%.

The increase in women’s education is also another important factor and indicator in economic empowerment, health, and social development. In a study conducted by the United Nations in 219 countries during the years 2009-1979, it was concluded that for every year of education for young women (from adolescence to adulthood), there is a 9.5% decrease in child mortality. Women’s education can have significant results in women’s economic empowerment and sustainable development. Although the gender gap in education is generally closed during primary school, it still exists during secondary school and has a slower rate of growth.

On a global level, the number of women entering the workforce is generally increasing. This trend is not only prevalent in Western European and North American countries, where it has risen from 33% in 1970 to 42% in 1990 and then slightly decreased to 39.2% in 2017, but it is also noticeable in Middle Eastern and North African countries, which have the lowest rates of female economic participation. For example, the female economic participation rate in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman) was 26.9% in 2016. This is almost half of the estimated global female economic participation rate of 51.7%. It is worth noting that 80% of these women are employed in the private sector. Even in these countries with lower female workforce participation, 1.5 million women entered the workforce during the 2001-2010 decade, bringing the total number

Women’s workforce is generally considered the cheapest labor force in the world from an economic standpoint. As a result, many multinational companies and large economic institutions, with the intention of maximizing profits, transfer their production lines to countries with cheaper labor.

Gender pay gap.

In addition to women’s work in the formal job market, a significant portion of women’s work is “unpaid work” which is only considered as “consumption value” economically and does not contribute to the gross national product. The gender pay gap includes household chores, childcare, caring for the elderly and sick, voluntary social work, and so on, and varies in different countries. On average, in a study of 83 countries in the world – which includes 52% of the world’s population – in 2015, the rate of women’s unpaid work was three times that of men.

For example, in Uganda, women perform 18% more unpaid work than men, while in India, women perform 10 times more unpaid work than men. In Middle Eastern and North African countries, the gender gap in unpaid work is significant, with women spending an average of 5 hours per day compared to 1 hour for men.

Working without pay is one of the reasons and challenges of women’s lack of economic participation around the world, including in European countries and North America. In a comprehensive study in European countries, 25% of women have cited their lack of employment due to their responsibilities at home and caring for children, compared to only 3% of men.

Gender gap, job market, and formal and informal economy.

One of the prevailing trends in the world in terms of women’s employment is that the majority of women in the world are engaged in informal economy. In South Asia, 80% of non-agricultural jobs for women are in the informal sector of the economy. While in Latin America and the Caribbean, approximately 54% of women are employed in the informal economy.

Working in the informal sector of the economy includes working in small economic units, workshops that provide services and goods for sale, women who have self-employment, work from home, street vendors, and those who take care of children and elderly and have jobs such as house cleaning. If we also consider women working in the agricultural sector in the informal economy, the gender gap in the formal and informal labor market will be even wider.

In Droganda, women make up 94.51% of the formal job market, while in Greece, women hold 30.64% of this sector of the economy.

Gender pay gap versus equal work.

In the majority of countries around the world, women receive lower wages compared to men for the same work, with women’s wages averaging 75-60% of men’s wages. However, this general statistic reflects the gender pay gap for equal work. Discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, physical ability, etc. are all additional layers that contribute to unequal pay. Although the Equal Pay Act was passed in the United States in 1963 and has always been a demand of the women’s movement, this equality has still not been achieved significantly – especially for women of color.

During the years 2015-1980 (35 years), the gender pay gap in this field has decreased by 22 cents for white women. This means that in 1980, white women received 60 cents for every dollar a white man earned, and this amount increased to 82 cents in 2015. However, during the same time period, the pay gap for black women only increased by 9 cents, from 56 cents to 65 cents. For Latin American women, this change is estimated to be only 5 cents; meaning their wages increased from 53 cents to 58 cents for every dollar a white man earned in 1980 and 2015, respectively.

Gender Gap in Job Security.

Women are more engaged in part-time and contract jobs, with low wages, without the support of labor unions, and without job security. In a 2013 global study, 49.1% of working women did not have job security, compared to 46.1% of men. 33.2% of this figure belongs to Middle Eastern women, compared to 23.7% of men.

Gender gap in employment restrictions.

In a study of 143 countries, 90% of countries had at least one legal restriction on equal job opportunities for women. Out of this number, in 79 countries, women do not have equal job opportunities in all fields that men are employed in, and in 15 countries, husbands and male family members can deprive women of their “right to work”.

Reasons and challenges of women’s economic participation.

While working women face numerous challenges in society, the reasons for the lack of active participation of women in the global job market are also worth considering.

1- The absence of gender equality, a woman’s right to her own body, the decision-making regarding the number of children and fertility, which directly affects the quantity of hours worked without pay for women.

2- The lack of social opportunities for working women, which they can rely on to engage in “unpaid work” that has “exchange value” and is economically valuable, to have rights, benefits, retirement, and other direct and indirect employment processes.

Childcare and caregiving institutions, after-school care for elementary school children, elderly care, and welfare facilities, if available at low cost or for free, can provide a more conducive environment for women’s economic participation. However, even in European and American countries where such centers and institutions exist, their cost is often not feasible with women’s wages and salaries – especially in freelance jobs or jobs with minimum wages.

3- Modern amenities and appliances such as electric and automatic devices like washing machines, vacuum cleaners, and dishwashers can reduce women’s “unpaid work” hours and provide better conditions for their presence in the job market.

4- Cultural factors, values, and social beliefs – especially in Middle Eastern and North African countries – are one of the prominent barriers to women’s economic participation. Gender roles, limiting public spaces for women, traditional cultural codes of behavior, mental perceptions such as “woman at home and man outside,” gender segregation of public and private spaces, and imposed policies on society to confine women to the private space of the home under the guise of “community health,” tradition, religion, and culture, all act as deterrents to women’s presence in the labor market.

5- Discriminatory laws and regulations for women’s employment, government’s failure to address sexual-gender discrimination, lack of accountability of the private sector by the government, discrimination experienced by women in the workplace, lack of follow-up and enforcement of justice in cases of sexual-gender harassment in the workplace, particularly the private sector’s lack of accountability in this matter, gender engineering of the workforce and anti-women policies to limit the presence of single women in the formal economy and create incentives for women not to return to work after maternity leave, can be considered as efforts to reduce women’s presence in the job market.

Women and labor rights.

In addition to international documents and labor laws set by the International Labor Organization (ILO), the final document of the Beijing Conference, as well as regional conventions such as the American Convention on Human Rights in 1969, specifically emphasize women’s labor rights and gender equality in the workplace.

Goal number 5 of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals has focused on the challenges of gender equality and women’s empowerment in the direction of “unpaid work” by women. Article 4 of this goal and global action plan states that member states of the United Nations must recognize and value women’s unpaid work, and take steps to support social protection and encourage a culture of men’s involvement in unpaid family work.

Iran, Women and Work.

More than 11% of the Iranian workforce is made up of women. Despite the fact that the majority of educated individuals in Iranian society are women and 62% of university students are women, there is a significant gender gap (which may be the highest in the world) in terms of women’s employment. The Tasnim News Agency reports, citing the CEO of the Women and Youth Entrepreneurship Foundation, that the participation rate of women in the economy in Iran is less than 16%. The 46% gap between educated women’s employment is, in fact, a failure of society to utilize a potential force that can play a significant role in sustainable economic growth and development. He emphasizes that “there is no need to make women and men when the limitations and serious cultural barriers and lack of self-confidence in women are removed.”

These statements ignore the government’s lack of will in removing barriers to women’s economic participation and the overall policies of gender engineering in the job market.

Women in Iran who are working in workshops and factories face various forms of discrimination compared to men. According to World Bank statistics in 2017, only 32.5% of the Iranian population was employed in industries. Additionally, women make up the majority of the informal workforce. Temporary jobs without job security are also mainly done by women in Iran. During the period of 2005-2016, the rate of temporary jobs increased from 6% to 10.3%. Unemployment rates among educated youth and women, especially in western provinces of Iran, are very high. The unemployment rate among young people in this region is estimated to be 63-50%, and for educated women, it is estimated to be 78-63%.

In 2017-2016, out of 3.2 million unemployed individuals, 1.3 million or 42% had a university degree. Many women are forced to work due to economic pressures, with very low wages – even one third of men – being the norm. Women’s economic participation in Iran is one of the lowest in the world.

In 2014, only in 6 countries, women’s economic participation was estimated to be lower than Iran. However, even these six countries, including Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Algeria, and Afghanistan, do not have the potential and social desire to actively participate in society and have the courage and bravery to demand their rights like Iranian women. Palestine, Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan are countries that have been in war and naturally, the economy of these countries has been affected by various processes resulting from the war, such as political and economic insecurity.

The challenges faced by working women and those who lack job opportunities in Iran are similar to other countries where the current neoliberal policies of the West have cast a shadow over their economic well-being. Privatization of government institutions, resilient economy, and targeted subsidies are among the strategies offered by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to countries around the world, and Iran has followed the same patterns. Today, Iran is experiencing severe consequences, such as deepening the gap between poverty and wealth, polarization of the urban middle class, and a decrease in purchasing power for the majority of citizens, bringing them closer to the poverty line.

The significant growth of women as heads of households and the fact that the majority of them do not have suitable jobs is another aspect of the feminization of poverty and economic challenges for women in Iran. In September of last year, IRNA news agency reported that more than 70% of women heads of households do not have suitable jobs. According to the 2016 census, there are a total of 21 million households in Iran, with men as the head of the household in 88% and women in 12%. The number of women heads of households is close to 3 million. Women are mostly employed in the informal sector of the economy. They have much less job security than men, and are the first to lose their jobs when production and service units close down. They do not receive equal pay for equal work; however, 3 million of these women who face such challenges are also heads of households.

Gender engineering policies in the field of women’s employment, job restrictions for single women, reduction of working hours for women, early retirement and increased maternity leave without guaranteed return to work have limited the targeted presence of women in the workforce and social activities. In addition, Iranian women make up the majority of the workforce in the “informal” gray sector, which has no government oversight or protection.

The call for the March 8th Women’s Assembly in front of the Ministry of Labor correctly pointed out that:

More than half of women are employed without contracts or with temporary contracts and very low wages, and are deprived of minimum legal wages. A large portion of these informal workers are migrants who are vulnerable to exploitative labor relations. Women in the formal sector also face job insecurity, strict monitoring of their appearance and behavior, limited access to public services such as childcare after pregnancy, and significant obstacles to career advancement.

This call also refers to the rate of double unemployment among women compared to men. It has been mentioned in this call that “the path to liberation of women from male domination, capitalism, and various other forms of domination is very long.”

Yes, this has been a long and challenging path filled with small victories and major obstacles for women in our society. But those who strive for equality, those who take steps towards human rights, social justice, and gender equality, continue to stand strong and steady on their path, in order to bring a better future, brighter days, and liberation from male dominance, capitalism, and other forms of oppression.

Notes:

• Hindi, Rana, women’s economic participation in the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

  Qatar University.

  , May 19, 2016.

• Espina, Esteban, and Teztucoba, Sandra, Women’s Work: Key Facts and Trends in Women’s Economic Participation.

  Our website is in statistics.

  October 16, 2016.

• Statistics and Figures: Economic Empowerment.

  “United Nations Commission on Women’s website”

• Salyr, Kristin, the racial wage gap has not changed in 35 years.

  Time Magazine.

  July 1, 2016.