European leaders have vowed to rearm the continent at historic emergency talks held after the United States threatened to rip up 80 years of security guarantees over the trajectory of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Since taking office in January, US President Donald Trump has fundamentally changed transatlantic relations, suspended all military aid and intelligence sharing to Kyiv and again cast doubt that the US would defend its NATO allies if attacked.

With Russia posing what French President Emmanual Macron called an “existential threat” to Europe, the continent is now scrambling to prepare for the once-unthinkable prospect of defending itself in a potential future conflict without the help of America.

And as the European Union leaders push for Ukraine and Europe to heard in peace talks, they were joined by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Brussels on Thursday.

Zelensky announced he will visit Saudi Arabia next week to present an initial ceasefire plan ahead of talks between Kyiv and Washington, following his unprecedented televised argument with Trump in the White House last week.

Here’s what to know:

Billions in defense spending

At an extraordinary meeting of the European Council in Brussels, the EU leaders agreed to plans that could free up billions of euros to ensure Europe’s security, boost defense spending, and shore up support for Kyiv.

The EU’s executive arm presented leaders with a proposal that could mobilize up to 800 billion euros ($862 billion) to bolster defense on the continent.

Part of the rearmament plan would provide countries with loans totaling up to 150 billion euros ($162 billion).

European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen called it a “watershed moment” for Europe and said detailed legal proposals will be studied ahead of another meeting at the end of the month.

Macron also announced the EU will give Ukraine more than $33 billion in assistance, taken from Russians sanctioned by Europe. “In 2025, the EU will provide Ukraine with 30.6 billion euros, financed by Russian assets,” Macron said.

The leaders said that Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine constituted an “existential challenge for the European Union,” and that Europe must become “more sovereign, more responsible for its own defense and better equipped to act and deal autonomously with immediate and future challenges and threats.”

Alarm over Article 5

A joint declaration from the NATO leaders’ summit in Washinton, DC last year, stated that “Russia remains the most significant and direct threat to NATO security.” In the eyes of his allies, Trump is throwing that central theme to the wind.

On Thursday, Trump again suggested the US may abandon its commitments to the security alliance – a key bedrock of Western security against the risk of a Russian attack – saying that member countries were not spending enough on defense.

“I think it’s common sense. If they don’t pay, I’m not going to defend them,” Trump said.

At the core of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and enshrined in Article 5 of the treaty is the promise of collective defense — that an attack on one member nation is an attack on all.

Trump has long complained about the amount NATO members spend on defense compared with the US.

But his comments could raise alarm around the world, coming as the US changes its position on the Ukraine war, and amid accusations the Trump administration is aligning with Russia over its allies.

“We see now the White House takes steps towards the Kremlin, trying to meet them half way, so the next target of Russia could be Europe,” Kyiv’s ambassador to the United Kingdom Valerii Zaluzhnyi said Thursday. He added that the US is “destroying” the current world order.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Thursday emphasized the importance of the US’ commitment to NATO, saying, “Let me be clear, the Transatlantic relationship and the Transatlantic partnership remains the bedrock of our Alliance.”

A peace deal with Europe’s involvement

As European leaders voiced near-unanimous support for Ukraine, European Commission President Von der Leyen warned that negotiations for peace would only be possible with Europe’s support.

Of the 27 EU leaders present in Brussels, all but one signed a text calling for a peace deal that respects “Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity,” while including Ukraine in the negotiations. Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban abstained.

France’s Macron had outlined a plan for a one-month “air, sea and energy infrastructure” ceasefire in Ukraine, which could pave the way for a more lasting peace deal.

But he warned that allies “must avoid a ceasefire that is discussed in haste.”

And Ukraine withdrawing its NATO bid without a security guarantee as a condition of any ceasefire is “obviously unacceptable,” he added.

Zelensky said he is “preparing practical proposals” to end the war with European leaders. The first step would be for Russia to stop airstrikes on energy and civilian infrastructure and halt “all military operations in the Black Sea,” Zelensky posted on X.

The Ukrainian president will meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia next week, and his team will stay in the country “to work with our American partners,” he said.

The UK and Turkey, two NATO allies and key backers of Ukraine – but not EU members – were not present at the summit. Britain’s leader Keir Starmer has said he is ready to put boots on the ground in Ukraine to help keep any truce agreed between Kyiv and Moscow.

Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for Russia’s foreign ministry, rejected the one-month ceasefire proposal, and said the idea of European peacekeeping troops being deployed in Ukraine would be “unacceptable.”

The ministry said the “normalization” of the Russia-US relationship is “causing panic” in Europe.

Meanwhile, China’s special envoy for European Affairs Lu Shaye said he hopes Europe can be stirred by the “Trump administration’s aggressive and domineering policies toward Europe” to “at least reflect on some of their past policies toward China.”

Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has granted preemptive pardons for police and military personnel responding to an armed attack that killed at least 22 in the southern city of Guayaquil yesterday.

“We need you to act decisively and without fear of reprisal,” Noboa wrote in a post on X on Friday morning. “Defend the country, I will defend you.”

It’s not the first time the increasingly hardline Noboa has offered pardons to security officers fighting crime in Ecuador, even before they have been deployed or accused of wrongdoing.

“Among the deceased and injured, several have a history of robbery, drug trafficking, and weapons possession,” police wrote.

Ecuadorean authorities raided “several homes” overnight and early in the morning after the attack, arresting 14 individuals and seizing weapons and ammunition, Ecuador’s Ministry of Defense announced in a post on X on Friday.

Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city, has suffered grievously in the country’s ongoing drug-fueled violence epidemic. In 2024, the city recorded nearly 2,000 homicides, government statistics show.

Noboa has sought to crack down on Ecuador’s spiraling security crisis since becoming president in 2023, declaring several states of emergency and designating 22 criminal organizations as terrorist groups, moves that have prompted criticism from some rights groups domestically and abroad.

Instability in Ecuador, fueled by the international drug trade, has been the backdrop of Noboa’s campaign for a second term this year. He fell short of securing an outright majority in the first round of voting in Ecuador’s general election last month.

A second-round vote in the coming months will decide if the Latin American country will stick with Noboa’s approach or seek an alternative voice in leftist candidate Luisa González.

Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Friday that his government is working on a plan to prepare large-scale military training for every adult male in response to the changing security situation in Europe.

Tusk told the country’s Sejm, the lower house of parliament, that the military training would create a reserve force that is “adequate to possible threats.”

The speech was focused on the international security situation. Poland is located along NATO’s eastern flank and is deeply concerned by the war in Ukraine. There are fears that if Ukraine is defeated, Russia will turn its imperial ambitions next to countries like Poland, which it controlled during the 19th century and during the Cold War.

Jaroslaw Kaczyński, the head of Poland’s largest opposition party, the conservative Law and Justice, said a mental shift in society would also be needed in addition to the military training of men. “We will have a return to the chivalric ethos and to the fact that men should also be soldiers, that is, be able to expose themselves, even to death,” Kaczyński said.

Concern has grown in Poland and across most of Europe as President Donald Trump has shifted the US position from being a defender of Ukraine to withholding military aid and intelligence and signalling a support for Russia’s position.

“If Ukraine loses the war or if it accepts the terms of peace, armistice, or capitulation in such a way that weakens its sovereignty and makes it easier for (Russian President Vladimir) Putin to gain control over Ukraine, then, without a doubt — and we can all agree on that — Poland will find itself in a much more difficult geopolitical situation,” Tusk said.

President Andrzej Duda on Friday said he submitting an amendment to the Polish constitution for consideration which would oblige the country to spend at least 4% of its GDP each year on defense.

Poland is already NATO’s top spender on defense as a percentage of its overall economy, spending above 4% of its GDP this year. But Duda said he wanted to take advantage of the consensus on the political scene in Poland today on the matter to enshrine it in the highest law.

Trump has suggested that the US might abandon its commitments to the alliance if member countries don’t meet defense spending targets.

Sudan has filed a case against the United Arab Emirates at the World Court for allegedly violating its obligations under the Genocide Convention by arming the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, the International Court of Justice said on Thursday.

The United Arab Emirates said it would seek immediate dismissal of the case, which it said lacked “any legal or factual basis,” a UAE official said in a statement to Reuters.

The charges are in connection with intense ethnic-based attacks by the RSF and allied Arab militias against the non-Arab Masalit tribe in 2023 in West Darfur, documented in detail by Reuters. Those attacks were determined to be genocide by the United States in January.

The Sudanese foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reuters has seen a copy of the government’s application.

Sudanese officials have frequently accused the UAE of supporting the RSF, the government’s rivals in an almost two-year-old civil war, charges the UAE denies but U.N. experts and U.S. lawmakers have found credible.

At the ICJ, Sudan alleges the RSF committed “genocide, murder, theft of property, rape, forcible displacement, trespassing, vandalism of public properties, and violation of human rights,” according to a statement by the ICJ, also known as the World Court.

“According to Sudan, all such acts have been ‘perpetrated and enabled by the direct support given to the rebel RSF militia and related militia groups by the United Arab Emirates,’” it said.

The UAE official said: “The UAE is aware of the recent application by the Sudanese Armed Force’s representative to the International Court of Justice, which is nothing more than a cynical publicity stunt aimed at diverting attention from the established complicity of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in the widespread atrocities that continue to devastate Sudan and its people.”

The UAE maintains that it is committed to addressing the humanitarian crisis and has “consistently called for an immediate ceasefire” in Sudan, in a statement.

The war between the Sudanese army and the RSF, which erupted after a power struggle over integrating the forces in April 2023, has devastated the country, spreading hunger and disease while risking its fragmentation, and has drawn in several foreign powers.

It has sparked ethnic attacks in multiple areas, but the bloodiest were in West Darfur, where survivors told Reuters that Masalit boys were targeted for killing while young women were targeted for rapes over waves of attacks soon after the war began.

The ICJ is the U.N.’s highest court that deals with disputes between states and violations of international treaties. Sudan and the UAE are both signatories of the 1948 Genocide Convention.

Sudan is asking the court to impose emergency measures and to order the Emirates to prevent such genocidal acts.

While a hearing on the emergency measures should come before the ICJ within weeks, it will take years before the court will issue a final ruling which could determine if a genocide had been committed in Darfur.

The RSF and allied political groups are in the process of setting up a parallel government to the army-aligned one which has taken Port Sudan on the Red Sea, a move rejected by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.

Reporting by Reuters’ Maha El Dahan, Stephanie van den Berg, Khalid Abdelaziz, and Bart Meijer; writing by Nafisa Eltahir; Editing by Toby Chopra, William Maclean

Panama will allow more than a hundred undocumented immigrants deported by the United States to stay in the country for at least another 30 days, Security Minister Frank Ábrego said on Friday.

The group, mainly from countries in Asia and the Middle East, will receive temporary humanitarian permits for one month that could be extended up to 90 days, Ábrego told reporters, adding that the individuals had declined repatriation help from the United Nations and the International Organization for Migration.

They were among an original group of nearly 300 migrants sent to Panama from the US as part of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign, which it has pressured Latin American nations to help with.

Many of the group have been held in a makeshift camp near the remote Darien jungle.

A group of lawyers representing the deportees – who previously filed suit against Panama in the Inter-American Commision on Human Rights – welcomed Friday’s decision in a statement, but emphasized that asylum seekers should not be repatriated at the end of the 90 day-period.

“Today, in the context of our pending lawsuit, the Panamanian government has changed course – they have made a commitment not to deport our clients and to release them from incommunicado and arbitrary detention,” said Silvia Serna Roman, an attorney and co-counsel in the case, in the statement.

“Our primary concern is that the government offers no solution to our clients who cannot return to their countries due to a fear of persecution.”

The migrants were originally confined to a hotel in Panama City, before some were moved to the remote camp, which Herischi described as tough and dirty, with limited access to medication and the internet.

Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino has repeatedly denied that authorities have violated the deportees’ rights in accepting their deportation or confining them while in Panama.

“These organizations are respectful of human rights. It’s false and I deny that we are mistreating them,” Mulino has said.

In the worst outbreak of unrest since Syria’s transitional government took power, hundreds of people have been killed or wounded in clashes between the security forces and supporters of former President Bashar al Assad this week, according to a human rights monitoring group.

The clashes broke out Thursday in the Latakia and Tartous regions on the Mediterranean coast, areas where support among Syrian Alawites for Assad was strong and which has seen outbreaks of sectarian violence over the past three months.

More than 225 people have been killed since Thursday in the clashes, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said on Friday.

At least 100 Syrian government “security personnel” are included in the death toll, the UK-based independent human rights monitoring group said, while 125 civilians were killed when joint forces from Syria’s Ministries of Defense and Interior “launched a large-scale security operation in dozens of villages across the countryside of Latakia, Tartous, and Hama.”

The Assad family, members of the minority Alawite sect, ruled Syria for over half a century until Assad was ousted late last year by Sunni Islamist militants who sought to reshape the country’s political and sectarian order.

Syria’s Alawites – some 10% of the population – were prominent in the Assad regime, and while many Alawites have surrendered their weapons since December, many others have not.

The latest surge in violence highlights the challenges Syria’s new regime faces in appeasing disenfranchised groups, especially those that remain heavily armed.

Syria’s transitional president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, vowed in a televised speech on Friday to pursue those responsible for killing dozens of Syrian security personnel. He also urged security forces to “ensure no excessive or unjustified responses occur” following reports of many civilian casualties during clashes.

Syria’s interior ministry also said earlier on Friday that they are standing “at the threshold of a critical phase that demands awareness and discipline.”

The official Syrian news agency SANA said that after several police and security personnel had been killed, “large, unorganized crowds moved toward the coast,” citing an official with Syria’s Ministry of Interior.

Anas Khattab, head of Syrian intelligence, said that “former military and security leaders affiliated with the defunct regime were behind the planning and execution of these crimes.”

He said that the “treacherous operation” had claimed the lives of “dozens of our finest men in the army, security, and police.”

Khattab added: “To those who failed to heed our earlier warnings: you have been deceived by malicious hands into doing what you are doing today,” blaming individuals outside Syria.

Social media videos published since Thursday apparently show extensive casualties among both Syrian security forces and young men in civilian clothing.

Defense Ministry spokesman Colonel Hassan Abdel Ghani said Friday that “senior war criminals” were “scattered in the mountains with no refuge except the courts, where you will face justice.”

“Do not become fuel for a lost war… The choice is clear: surrender your weapons or face your inevitable fate,” he said, addressing other Assad supporters.

Other social media footage from Friday showed substantial military reinforcements converging on the area. The city of Tartous has been placed under curfew until Saturday.

The videos indicate that the security forces reached the coastal city of Jableh, near the Russian airbase at Hmeimim, and showed clashes and columns of smoke rising from near the base.

Other videos showed government forces entering Al-Qardaha, the home town of the Assad family, amid explosions and columns of smoke. An official with the defense ministry confirmed later on Friday that security forces carried out operations “against the remnants of the former regime,” in Al-Qardaha, according to SANA. And one video geolocated to the coast near Jableh showed improvised bombs being dropped from a military helicopter.

The Syrian Interior ministry issued a statement Friday urging “all civilians to stay away from military and security operation zones.”

It said all military and security units had been ordered “to strictly adhere to established procedures and laws to safeguard civilians.”

Syria’s Health Ministry said that six hospitals in the rural areas of Latakia and Tartous had come under attack on Thursday night by pro-Assad elements, resulting in several deaths.

Abdul Rahman Taleb, a Latakia-based activist and journalist, said he was attacked by Assad loyalists on Thursday while he was covering clashes with the Syrian security forces.

“We were besieged for about 12 hours in one of Latakia’s neighborhoods, with remnants of militants spreading all around us. I didn’t expect we’d make it out alive,” Taleb said.

He added he had been sheltered by other Alawites in the area “until the first reinforcements arrived and evacuated us.”

The violence has sparked pro- and anti-government demonstrations in several Syrian cities.

Saudi Arabia, a strong backer of the new government, condemned what it called “crimes committed by outlaw groups” in Syria.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A 17-year-old boy with a loaded shotgun boarded a plane at an Australian airport before being restrained by a pilot and two passengers, police said Friday.

The boy was disarmed and detained before police arrived on the scene Thursday at Avalon Airport in Victoria state.

Barry Clark, a passenger who tackled the suspect, said the boy had posed as a maintenance worker and became agitated when questioned by a flight attendant at the plane’s entrance.

“I looked up and then within a second I saw the barrel of a shotgun and I thought to myself that ain’t a tool that should be on a plane,” Clark told Network 10 television.

“When I saw the complete gun I said: we’re in trouble here,” Clark said.

“Then I saw it (move) towards her chest and so I thought, well, I’ve got to do something — this is all happening in a matter of seconds,” Clark added.

Clark, a former professional boxer and sheep shearer, said he snuck up behind the boy then pushed the gun and the flight attendant away in different directions so that she would not be hit if the gun discharged.

“I then proceeded to do what I had to do and just put him in a bit of a lock, got his hand and twisted it and put it up in his back, threw him to the floor and then put my knee in his back and held him in a position where he couldn’t get out,” Clark said.

Victoria Police Superintendent Michael Reid told reporters the boy from Ballarat in regional Victoria had climbed through a hole in the airport’s security fence before making his way to the plane’s stairs.

Reid credited Clark, the pilot and another passenger with restraining the boy.

“This would have been a very terrifying incident for the passengers of that plane and Victoria Police really commend the bravery of those passengers who were able to overpower that male,” Reid said.

Sydney-bound Jetstar Airways Flight 610 was carrying about 150 people and no one was hurt, police said. The flight was cancelled.

Counterterrorism police not involved in the investigation

An investigation was being carried out by crime squad detectives with no involvement from the police force’s counterterrorism unit.

The boy has been charged with multiple offenses including unlawfully taking control of an aircraft, orchestrating a bomb hoax and possessing a firearm, a police statement said. He was remanded in custody to appear in a children’s court on a date to be determined.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australian airports had robust security.

“This incident is concerning for members of the public. I commend the work of police and aviation officials in responding to it quickly,” Albanese told reporters.

Avalon Airport’s chief executive Ari Suss said his organization was working with Victoria Police in response to the emergency.

“As part of our ongoing commitment to security, we have implemented further measures across the airport, including within the terminal and surrounding areas,” Suss said in a statement.

“We continue to work closely with authorities to maintain a safe and secure environment for all travelers,” he added.

Jetstar, a budget subsidiary of Sydney-based Qantas Airways, said it was working with police and the airport to understand what happened.

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol, who lawmakers voted to impeach over his declaration of martial law, has been freed from detention after prosecutors decided not to appeal a court decision canceling his arrest.

Yoon remains suspended from his duties and still faces ongoing criminal and impeachment trials.

He was seen bowing to cheering supporters, who were waving Korean and US flags, as he walked out of the detention center in Uiwang on Saturday.

“I would also like to express my deep gratitude to the many citizens who have supported me despite the cold weather, as well as to our future generations,” Yoon said in a statement following his release.

Yoon has been in detention since January when he was arrested on charges of leading an insurrection – one of the few criminal charges the president does not have immunity from.

His December 3 decree threw South Korea into turmoil when he banned political activity and sent troops to the heart of the nation’s democracy – only to reverse the move within six hours after lawmakers forced their way into parliament and voted unanimously to block it.

Lawmakers have since voted to impeach him and he is now waiting for the country’s Constitutional Court to decide whether he will be removed from office permanently or be reinstated.

His impeachment trial is separate from the criminal charges he faces.

His release means that Yoon can now await the impeachment verdict, expected to come in coming weeks, from home instead of in detention.

South Korea’s main opposition party leader Lee Jae-myung, said Friday that the court ruling does not clear Yoon of allegations he “destroyed the constitutional order through an unconstitutional military coup.”

This story has been updated.

Unpaid work. Sexual harassment. Violence. Low wages. The “motherhood penalty.” These are just some of the issues that millions of women continue to face at work in 2025.

Despite progress made towards global gender equality, men continue to hold the highest paid positions in industries worldwide, while many women still typically handle grunt work across companies and supply chains.

Meanwhile, many women around the world are still struggling to find work, with many holding precarious jobs or forced to hustle in the informal economy just to get by.

Overall, women continue to carry a disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work, underlining United Nations Secretary General António Guterres’ comments that global poverty “has a female face.”

“If the quantity and quality of employment are failing women, the impact is higher poverty risk,” said Sally Roever, formerly the international coordinator at Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO), a global network that aims to improve working conditions for women in the informal economy.

Labor experts say that the working world excludes, underpays, overlooks and exploits around half of its available force – and as such, work systems – in their current structures – are failing women.

What is work and why is it not working for women?

The International Labor Organization (ILO) defines work as “any activity performed by persons of any sex and age to produce goods or to provide services for use by others or for own use.”

Globally, the most common form of work is informal and unregulated, according to the ILO, who estimates nearly 60% of all workers are involved in this type of work, most of whom are women in the Global South.

Although work in the informal economy is most prevalent in developing economies, it is also an important part of advanced economies, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Informal work takes many different forms globally and includes jobs such as street sellers, unregistered taxi drivers, domestic workers and day laborers.

For women working in the formal economy, they often don’t hold the same legal rights as men, according to a 2024 World Bank report. More than 90 countries do not have laws mandating equal pay for equal work, while dozens of others prohibit women from working in certain industries, such as construction or manufacturing. Some countries prohibit women from working jobs deemed “too dangerous,” and others ban women from working at night.

What work do women do?

In the formal sector, women typically hold lower-paying roles and are only likely to hold leadership positions in occupations “traditionally viewed as female-centric,” according to the ILO.

For example, women make up 67% of the global health and social care workforce – providing essential health services for an estimated five billion people worldwide – yet men are estimated to hold 75% of leadership roles in the sector, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Women working in the informal economy are over-represented in the most vulnerable types of employment, including domestic work, food production and agriculture, according to the ILO.

The invisible burden of care work

Unpaid care work is a barrier to women actively engaging in the labor market, leaving women marginalized, and without any social protections or income stability in many parts of the world, experts say.

In 2023, around 708 million women worldwide were unable to enter the labor force because of unpaid care responsibilities, according to the most recent ILO global estimates, who said the data “confirm that care responsibilities continue to be the main reason women are not looking or not available for employment.”

And even when domestic work is paid, safety risks are often not accounted for, she said. For example, domestic work is mostly carried out in homes, which are not commonly considered a workplace. Paz said this means occupational health and safety standards are rarely in place to protect people – mostly women – who are paid to do that work.

While unpaid care work isn’t counted in traditional economic measures, it is vital to economic activity, Pozzan of the ILO added, noting that care work allows others participate in the workforce. “You cannot have paid work unless you have unpaid care work,” she said.

Women face more risks at work

While all workers face some risk and vulnerabilities on the job, women face them in greater numbers, particularly those working in the informal economy across the Global South.

This is partly because of the nature of the jobs they do. For example, domestic and factory workers risk exposure to toxic chemicals, industrial workers face extreme pain and farm workers risk prolonged sun exposure. And many women in the agricultural industry – who make up most rural smallholder farmers worldwide – are often not recognized formally as farmers in many countries, leaving them without any rights to the land they work.

Across nearly every sector, gender-based violence and sexual harassment at work continues to persist as patriarchal societies have normalized gender-based violence, according to the experts.

That violence has a knock-on effect on the overall economy.

In Cambodia, a 2017 study by the humanitarian agency CARE said that almost one in three women garment factory workers reported they had been sexually harassed, lowering productivity and seeing many women leave the job – costing employers an estimated $89 million annually.

Meanwhile, women are facing risks to the future of work, with big tech and the climate emergency two of the most prominent disruptors.

Women’s jobs are more at risk of being lost to AI as women typically hold low-skill positions requiring less education and formal qualifications that are more likely to be replaced by automation.

Climate change is also disrupting work and affects women differently than men. During an extreme weather event, which is often exacerbated by human-made climate change, women are usually the ones to shoulder a larger burden when it comes to running the household, making cooking, cleaning, gathering resources and childcare more challenging and time consuming.

More women are working until they die

Women are also working longer than men as they typically have less access to state and social benefits – including sick leave, unemployment pay, or pensions.

For example, in a high-income country such as the United Kingdom, women retire with an average pension savings of £69,000 (approximately $87,340), compared to men’s £205,000. ($259,480), according to NOW: Pensions, a UK-based pension scheme.

In developing countries, women often withdraw from the workforce due to family responsibilities, according to Aura Sevilla, also from WIEGO. Maternity policies that aim to fill in income gaps are often inadequate, according to WEF figures.

Nearly one in two women who become pregnant aren’t protected from income loss if they have their child, according to the ILO, leaving women with less overall wealth just because they started a family.

At an average life expectancy of 74, women also live longer than men, whose life expectancy is 69, according to World Bank data. In many heterosexual relationships, this means women need to keep working if their partners are no longer able to work, or die, said Florian Juergens-Grant, also from WIEGO.

Are there solutions to improve work for women?

Experts say that investing in the care economy, changing the culture of care, and strengthening unions and workers protections will help improve work conditions for women globally.

For work to really work for women, experts agree that it is important to invest in the care economy, as it can create new jobs and offer a return on investment.

Unpaid domestic and care work would equal a substantial portion of global GDP if given an equivalent monetary value, according to the ILO, who said that in some countries that amount would exceed 40%, based on conservative estimates.

An example of how this action works in practice can be seen in a city-run project located in Bogotá, Colombia, where men are taught basic care skills in a bid to rebalance domestic care responsibilities.

More than 400,000 people have benefitted from the Care Schools for Men program since its inception in 2021, and a survey from late 2023 suggests more men and women in Bogotá say that they now distribute household work more equally than in 2021.

The city government also runs “‘Care Blocks”’ to support caregivers – the majority of whom are women – which include laundry services, legal aid, daycare, psychological support, and dance classes, among others.

Between March 2021 and December 2023, almost 250,000 caregivers benefitted from these services, and the team is hoping to add a further 23 Care Blocks by 2035.

Another way to improve work for women is to encourage multinational brands to audit working conditions all the way across their supply chain, WIEGO experts said.

For example, many women in the garment and footwear industry prefer to work from home than in factories to either balance care responsibilities, for cultural or religious reasons, because they are too old to work in factories, or because they live in villages. But they often receive low wages, unstable and irregular pay, and endure poor working conditions.

The strengthening of unions and collectives is also key in establishing better workers’ rights for women.

One success story comes from São Paulo, Brazil, where after years of organizing, the women-led Domestic Workers Union successfully negotiated a minimum wage above the national minimum, and weekly rest periods for live-in domestic workers, among other achievements.

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