A/HRC/31/51 51. However, the broad category of female-headed households should be differentiated further, as households face different socio-economic circumstances, resulting in different outcomes regarding their livelihoods and food and nutrition security. Research among South African farmworkers revealed that certain female-headed households, although having less access to earned income compared to male-headed households, achieved greater food and nutrition security than comparable households with male headship. This was due to women having better access to social grants, remittances, and income obtained through informal work. This highlights the crucial role of women’s access to resources and power relations within households for greater food and nutrition security56. Women’s non-agricultural livelihoods and the right to food C. 52. Disadvantages for women in both agricultural and non-agricultural sectors undermine their right to food. Women’s income possibilities are more constrained than men’s; the women’s participation in the labour force is lower than men on a global scale – 70 percent of working age men are in the labour force compared to only 40 percent of working age women57 and the labour force participation rates have stagnated around the world in the past two decades.58 53. Women earn an average of 24 percent less than men, resulting in between a 31 and 75 percent lifetime reduction in income and they are also less likely to receive a pension. 59 International Labour Organization (ILO) data shows that occupational segregation is significant, with women over-represented in clerical and support positions and in service and sales roles compared to managerial occupations, skilled work in agriculture and fisheries and in craft and trade occupations. 60 Unfortunately, this occupational segregation does not reduce with new economic development. Instead, occupational segregation results in a lower quality of work accessible to women, as well as a “stubbornly persistent” wage gap outside of the agricultural sector, which affects women’s income and their ability to purchase food. 61 54. Even when women successfully earn income to support their families, men often respond by withdrawing their contribution to the household budget in order to purchase luxuries.62 A recent study in Nicaragua showed that if mothers contributed considerably to household income the likelihood of moderate and severe food insecurity decreased by 34 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 Lemke and Bellows 2016, Chapter 5 in Bellows et al. 2016; see also Lemke S, Bellows AC, Heumann N 2009. Gender and Sustainable Livelihoods: Case Study of South African Farm Workers, International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development, 4 (2-3): 195-205. Op Cit. FAO, The State of Food and Agriculture Women In Agriculture – Closing the Gender Gap for Development”, UN Women (2015) Progress of the World’s Women Transforming economies, realizing rights 2015 – 2016 http://progress.unwomen.org, at p 71. ILO 2015c. “Key Indicators of the Labour Market (KILM) Database.” Accessed January 2015. http://www.ilo.org/empelm/what/WCMS_114240/lang--en/index.htm ILO 2015c. “Key Indicators of the Labour Market (KILM) Database.” Accessed January 2015. http://www.ilo.org/empelm/what/WCMS_114240/lang--en/index.htm. World Bank 2011. World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development. Washington, DC: World Bank p. 205. The World Bank, FAO, IFAD, Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook, Washington, 2009 p. 90. 13