“Women's economic development is an engine of growth,” said Christina McAnea, General Secretary of UNISON, a PSI affiliate, during the side event “Advancing Women's Economic Empowerment: Facilitating Business-Led Solutions to Achieving Gender Equality,” organized by the UK government as part of the 69th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69).

In her remarks, McAnea addressed the structural challenges faced by women workers in the public sector and the need for governments globally to adopt concrete policies to ensure their employment and economic stability. She emphasized that while the private sector plays a role in job creation, it is public services that have proven essential to women's economic empowerment. "PSI is working with governments and, where possible, with businesses, to change the status of those who provide essential public services. These people are, for the most part, women. And one of the reasons we are pushing for this change is because we know that women's economic development drives growth," she stated.

McAnea stressed the importance of guaranteeing decent employment for public sector workers, ensuring they have stability and fair wages. “If you empower low-wage women by providing them with decent employment, stability in their work environment, and a living wage, you leave behind the precariousness of zero-hour contracts. And if you give them that stability, then they become an engine for the local economy,” she explained.

According to the UNISON general secretary, investing in decent working conditions for working women is not only a matter of social justice, but also a smart economic strategy. “For low-income women workers, between 60 and 70% of their wages are spent in their communities. They shop in local shops, take their children to nearby services, and access goods and services in their immediate surroundings. This stability boosts the local economy and generates sustainable growth,” she emphasized.

The Failure of Voluntary Corporate Responsibility

Another key point of McAnea's intervention was the lack of effectiveness of voluntary commitments by the private sector in promoting gender equality. “There needs to be a global recognition that relying on voluntary agreements isn't working well, and I think we've seen that clearly,” she said.

PSI has denounced that corporate social responsibility, when not backed by binding regulations, has failed to substantially transform women's living and working conditions. “Voluntary corporate responsibility, for the most part, has failed. And when we look at what has happened to women and girls in terms of their work environment, we must recognize that we need the UK government and others to push for some kind of binding international treaty on businesses to uphold their responsibility to human rights,” she argued.

For McAnea, the only way to ensure that companies meet their commitments to gender equality and labor rights is through adequate structural, regulatory, and financing mechanisms. “If we want to build true corporate responsibility and ensure its compliance, the only way to do that is by ensuring that there are sufficient financial resources to sustain it. And that inevitably brings us to the issue of taxation,” she explained.

In this regard, she warned of the need for governments to demand greater contributions from large corporations to fund public policies that benefit working women. “If you're trying to integrate corporate responsibility into the system and make it governable in some way, the only way to achieve that is if you have the resources to implement it. And that brings us directly to the issue of taxes. Without a fair tax structure, we cannot sustain quality public services or guarantee decent jobs for women,” she emphasized.

Public Services as Key to Economic Equality

McAnea was emphatic in stating that the only way to guarantee women's economic equality is through strengthening public services and creating stable, well-paying jobs. "The only way to address the fundamental problems of women's economic growth is to ensure that good public services exist and that good jobs are available to them," she noted.

PSI has promoted a global agenda that promotes investment in health, education, childcare, and other essential services as a key strategy to reduce gender inequalities. McAnea reiterated that governments must take an active role in protecting women's labor rights and generating economic opportunities that enable their development. "Much of this depends on governments investing in strong public services. We cannot expect the market alone to solve these problems. We need states to assume their responsibility and guarantee decent working conditions for women," she stated.

The event, which featured Mary Macleod, former Member of the UK Parliament; Gillian Unsworth, Deputy Director of the Women's Equality Division in England; and Harriet Harman, Special Envoy for Women and Girls, highlighted the urgency of adopting effective public policies to close gender gaps in the workplace and the economy.