In keeping with the World Economic Forum, at the present rate, it’s going to take 131 years to shut the global gender gap.
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It might now take 131 years to shut the global gender gap, in response to the World Economic Forum, after “a whole generation” of progress has been lost to Covid-19.
In a recent report released Wednesday, the WEF said global gender inequality is prone to persist until 2154, despite a slight improvement because the coronavirus pandemic, when the timeline stretched to 135.6 years.
Saadia Zahidi, managing director of the WEF, said most of the aspects which have set women back in recent years – including inadequate care infrastructure, disruption to the workforce as a result of recent technologies and stagnation in various sectors – still prevail.
“We’re beginning to see things getting back heading in the right direction. But which means we still have lost a complete generation on the road to gender equality, and essentially progress has stalled,” Zahidi Joumann Bercetche of CNBC told CNBC.
The WEF also found that while women worldwide are entering the labor market to a greater extent than men from 2022, there are still gaps within the labor market, with women facing higher global unemployment rates (4.5%) than men men (4.3%).
European countries lead by way of gender equality
The Global Gender Gap report, now 17 years old, compares gender gaps in 4 areas: economic participation and opportunities; educational achievements; health and survival; and political reinforcement.
Iceland has been voted probably the most gender-equal country on the planet for the 14th 12 months in a row, and is the one country to shut over 90% of the gender gap.
Norway, Finland, Recent Zealand, Sweden, Germany, Nicaragua, Namibia, Lithuania and Belgium made up the highest ten. While no country has yet achieved full gender parity, the highest nine countries have closed no less than 80% of the gap.
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On the regional level, Europe has the very best gender parity at 76.3%, ahead of North America where 75% of the gap is evened out. Zahidi said this was partly as a result of higher care infrastructure in Europe than within the US
“Many European economies have introduced measures to enable parents to reconcile work and family life, whether or not they are moms or fathers. There’s much less of it in the US. There’s a more business nature to the welfare economy, but that does not necessarily meet all needs,” Zahidi said.
Elsewhere, in Latin America and the Caribbean, the speed is 74.3%, while in Eurasia and Central Asia it’s 69%. The level is even lower in East Asia and the Pacific (68.8%), Sub-Saharan Africa (68.2%), South Asia (63.4%) and the Middle East and North Africa (62.6%).
Economic and political
Global gender parity has only increased by 4.1 percentage points because the first edition of the report in 2006, with the speed of change slowing down over time.
At the present rate, it’s going to take 169 years to achieve economic parity and 162 years to attain political parity.
“The element of economic integration is where there was the best stagnation, partly due to care, partly due to technology,” Zahidi said.
“But by way of political leadership, progress has also been remarkably mild, and this is basically a roadblock to leadership that we proceed to see in various areas,” she added.
The parity has only increased by 4.1 percentage points because the first edition of the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report in 2006, but the general pace of change has slowed significantly.
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Faster progress in each of those areas is critical to addressing wider gender gaps in households, societies and economies, Zahidi said, outlining a three-pronged approach for governments and businesses to take motion.
“First, governments need to take a position in care infrastructure. Secondly, each governments and corporations must concentrate on STEM education, STEM skills and STEM careers for girls,” she said, referring to the acronym for the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.
“Thirdly, all firms, all employers, must take into consideration creating more gender-equal employment, retention and promotion,” she said. “These are three things that may speed up the achievement of parity in our lifetime.”