Gender Differences

Gender Differences
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In Greece, women constitute 50.5 percent of the total population. However, whereas women are more in numbers, they are underrepresented in development indicators. For instance, UNECE research data for 2009 indicates that women constituted 41 percent of the workforce and there is a 22 percent gap in hourly pay between men and women. The statistics also indicate that out of the total women in the workforce, only ten percent are not in full time employment. Women are also more inclined to pursue occupations such as clerks and common professions. Men on the other hand have more representation in occupations requiring technical knowledge such as trade, machine related work, and managerial and political occupations. In the political realm, women constitute a meager sixteen percent of ministerial positions, a mere seventeen percent of legislative positions and had zero representation in judge positions. In terms of computer literacy and use, women are generally less literate across different age groups (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, 2011).
Women constitute 50.6 percent of the population in Israel according to a UNECE survey conducted in 2008. In 2007, they constituted forty-seven percent of the workforce and the income gap between males and females was at thirty seven percent and 21 percent for the month and hour rate respectively. The population in Greece and Israel is proportionately similar with only a 0.1 difference. The rate of women in the workforce is higher in Israel by six percent while the income gap on an hourly basis is also lower for Israel by 4 percent. The tertiary education enrollment in Israel is also higher than Greece’s by six percent. In terms of occupation, there are more women taking clerk positions in Israel and fewer women in professional occupations than in Greece. The other occupations such as management, legislators and technical occupations have a slightly higher representation of women in Israel than in Greece. As opposed to the lack of women representation in Judge positions in Greece, Israel enjoys a fifty one percent representation in court Judges. However, it has lower representations in other political positions such as in ministerial and legislative positions (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, 2011). Comparatively, although Israel and Greece have significant differences in women representation in specific occupations such as legislators, minsters and judges it has better tertiary education and representation in the workforce opportunities for women than Greece.
In Switzerland, women constitute 50.9 percent of the population, which is higher than the women population in Greece and Israel. Women in the workforce constitute forty six percent of the total workforce which is one percent lower than Israel and 5 percent higher than in Greece. The income gap is for the hourly rate between men and women is lower by 4 percent than Greece and higher by one percent than in Israel. These statistics indicate that women have a better chance of entering the labor-force and enjoying a lower income gap in Israel and Switzerland than in Greece. Israel has the highest tertiary education rate for women, followed by Greece and then Switzerland albeit there is only a one percent difference between Greece and Switzerland. It is also noteworthy that Switzerland has the highest rate of part time employment record for women at 59 percent compared to Greece’s 10 percent. The representation of women in clerk occupations is almost uniform across the three countries with Greece having the least percentage. Switzerland has the highest percentage of women in the trade related occupations at 14 percent and the least of women in professional occupations at 36 percent. It also has the highest representation of women ministers, legislators at 43 and 29 percent respectively (United Nations Economic ...