WP 92 - An overview of women's work and employment in Azerbaijan

An overview of women’s work and employment in Azerbaijan

Table 8. Female employment shares by occupational group, total labour force, Azerbaijan 2008

Source: authors’calculations on ILO Laborsta, Table 2C (Labour Force Survey)

2.7. Education and skill levels of the female labour force

2.7.1. Literacy

Traditionally literacy has been quite high in Azerbaijan. The country’s adult literacy rate —those age 15
and over that can read and write—in 1999-2006 was, according to the UNDP Human Development Indica-
tors, 98.7%, divided in 99.0% for men and 98.3% for women, resulting in a women to men parity rate of
99% (UNDP 2008). These rates differ slightly from those found in the country’s last in-depth investigation
into literacy, the UNICEF MICS survey (2000): 99.5% for men and 98.2% for women. According to this
survey, the remaining pockets of illiteracy concentrate on poor women in rural areas (ADB 2005). For 2007
the youth (15-24-year-olds) literacy rate of Azerbaijan was with 99.9% close to the maximum; young females
even scored 100%, against 99.9% for the young males. Already in 1999, both scores were 99.9% (MDG
Indicator 2.3, derived from ADB 2009a).

2.7.2. Education of girls

In 2006, the combined gross enrollment rate in education was for Azerbaijan 66.2%, divided in 65.3%
for females and 67.2% for males, or 97% women to men parity (UNDP 2008). The total school life expect-
ancy in 2006 was 9.4 years for girls and 9.8 years for boys (UNESCO 2010). Compared to figures delivered
by the large 2000 MICS survey, this implied considerable progress especially for girls, as by 2000 total
years in school for girls were 7.9, thus 1.5 years shorter, versus 8.9 years for boys, or 0.9 years shorter (UIS
2010).

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