Women's share of waged non-agricultural employment – which brings significant benefits in terms of women's capacity to control income and decision-making – has increased in the last decade, but only by three per cent since 1990, to a total of 39 per cent in 2005 (Figure MDG 3.3). At the regional level, in the Middle East and North Africa and in South Asia, only one woman for every four men has a non-agricultural paid job. In sub-Saharan Africa, the proportion is slightly higher: one woman for every three men.
Women's share in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector has increased across all regions. Globally, women now account for almost 40% of the total employment in this sector. Despite improvements, women's share of waged non-agricultural employment is still low in sub-Saharan Africa, at around 30%, and in South Asia and the Middle East and North Africa, at less than 20%.
Gender equality in primary and secondary education is a goal within reach by 2015 (Figure MDG3.4). Parity in primary schooling has already been reached in Latin America and the Caribbean, East Asia and the Pacific and CEE/CIS. Parity will be more challenging but is achievable in secondary and higher education, where the positive impact of female education has been widely demonstrated (see Figure MDG 3.5). Tertiary education – essential for women's leadership roles in politics, the economy, and administration – presents a different picture, with ratios of 0.6 and 0.7 in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, respectively. Combined with the finding that the brain drain of professionals from developing countries is now increasingly female (see Chapter 4), this has implications for building up a pool of women leaders nationally.
Despite progress, differences between female and male enrolment rates persist in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia for levels of education beyond the primary level. In Latin America and the Caribbean and in Developed Regions, female enrolment tends to be higher than male enrolment especially at the tertiary level.
