‘The patriarchy runs deep’: women still getting a raw deal in the workplace as equality remains a dream

A girl working at a brick factory near Baghdad, Iraq. The Middle East has one of the largest gender gaps in working hours and employment rates globally. Photograph: Murtaja Lateef/EPA

“Gender inequality is one of the most entrenched and significant problems of our time,” says Jocelyn Chu, a programme director at UN Women, responding to the stark figures contained in this year’s World Inequality report, which labels gender inequality a “defining and persistent feature of the global economy”.

Women work longer and earn just a third – 32% – of what men get per hour, when paid and unpaid labour, such as domestic work, are taken into account. Even when unpaid domestic labour is not included, women only earn 61% of what men make, according to the report.