The Effects of Gender Inequality on Women’s Employment in Lwakhakha Town Council Namisindwa District

Abstract

Globally, for each dollar of labour income men earn, women earned only 35 cents. There are significant differences between regions. In low and lower-middle income countries, the gender disparity in labour income is much worse, with women earning 22 cents and 19 cents on the dollar respectively. Women have worked at agricultural tasks since ancient times, and continue to do so around the world (Onyango et al., 2019). The Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and early 19th centuries changed the nature of work in Europe and other countries of the Western world. Working for a wage, and eventually a salary, became part of urban life. During the 19th century, an increasing number of women in Western countries took jobs in factories, such as textile mills, or on assembly lines for machinery or other goods. Women also worked as "hawkers" of produce, flowers, and other market goods, and bred small animals in the working-class areas of London. Piecework, which involved needlework (weaving, embroidery, winding wool or silk) that paid by the piece completed, was the most common employment for women in 19th century Great Britain (Gordon et al., 2019). It was poorly paid, and involved long hours, up to 14 hours per day to earn enough wages to survive. Working-class women were usually involved in some form of paid employment, as it provided some insurance against the possibility that their husband might become too ill or injured to support the family. During the era before workers' compensation for disability or illness, Mwiti (2018) asserts that the loss of a husband's wages could result in the entire family being sent to a Victorian workhouse to pay debts. Women make up half the world‟s population, but, in most places, they don‟t make up half its workforce. It‟s not because they don‟t want to work or have career aspirations of their own; it‟s because gender discrimination and inequality continue to hold women back, keeping them