African women remain undervalued: UN report

Women in Africa have yet to receive the financial recognition they deserve for the time and effort put into domestic and reproductive work, a UN report launched Friday concluded.

The place of women in statistics also needs to be sorted out on the African continent, where there are many gaps, the report said.

The 2009 African Women Report by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), launched in Gambia, warns that women remain a dominant force in the informal sector, particularly as unpaid family workers.

Financially, women come across very much as the second sex.

"In formal sector employment, they are segregated into the lowest echelons of employment, so that when taken together, women tend to have lower earnings than men," the report said.

The report is based on data from 12 African countries across the continent. It notes the improvement in women's representation in parliament in Mozambique, South Africa and Uganda, but says that on the whole there are far too few women in parliament.

Mozambique, South Africa and Uganda have achieved 30 percent representation, but the report notes that is largely due to the implementation of affirmative action policies by ruling parties.

"Nevertheless, for these countries and for the vast majority of countries, women's political representation remains abysmal on the whole as their presence dissipates at the levels of the judiciary, executive and even at community level", the report said.

The report, presented during the 8th African regional conference on women held in Banjul this week, urged African nations to improve their statistical systems and data collection methods to get a better view of gender inequality in Africa.