Women Earn Less than Men in Mauritius

The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) said women are also far more likely to be unemployed than men, as the female unemployment rate stands at 12.5 per cent, twice the rate of men at 5.2 per cent.

According to the statistics, women are also under-represented politically: For every ten parliamentarians, two are women and for every ten ministers, the figure is one.

The main highlights of the 2011 Gender statistics indicate that life expectancy for women is seven years more than for men, a two-fold increase in the gender gap over the last 50 years.

In the education sector, girls perform better than boys in examinations at both primary and secondary levels, with girls having a pass rate of 74.9 per cent at the Certificate of Primary Education and 82.3 per cent at the Higher School Certificate, against 62.7 per cent and 75.3 per cent respectively for boys.

Since the 1990s, female employment has shifted from industrial to services sector, with seven out of ten employed women working in the services sector.

The statistics also show that while women are becoming more economically active (activity rate at 43.7 per cent in 2011 against 38.5 per cent in 2000), it remains lower than for men which stands at 75.5 per cent, and below world level which is 54 per cent.

The Director of Statistics, Li Fa Cheung Kai Suet, said though the CBS has a track record regarding sex disaggregated data, it stills needs to make progress in the fields of qualitative gender statistics and capacity building to better analyse gender issues.