The Status of Women’s Work in the Culture Sector

In most countries, more women than men are employed in the cultural sector but they need to supplement with more than one job, according to a new fact sheet published by the UIS. Entitled “Precarious Situation for Women Working in the Field of Culture”, the report presents data to help monitor Sustainable Development Goal 8 (SDG 8), which calls for decent work and equal pay.

But studies show that a person who has more than one job most likely does not earn enough income for basic needs with the main employment. The newly-published data show that 10% of women in cultural employment hold more than one job, compared to 7% of women with jobs outside of the culture sector. Furthermore, as shown in Figure 5, in 85% of countries with data, the number of women working part-time in cultural occupations is higher than the number of men, especially in North America, Europe and Latin America.

Percentage of people employed in cultural occupations who work part-time by sex, 2015 or latest year available

Surprisingly, workers in culture tend to have higher levels of education than in other non-cultural jobs. In 90% of countries with data, more people in cultural occupations hold a university degree than those in other sectors.