It was only during the last day of March that the World Economic Forum (WEF) published its annual Global Gender Gap Report. What does this year’s 407 page study tell us about the worldwide differences between men and women? 

Amongst a myriad of sobering statistics relating to workplace challenges, declining political participation and general economic disempowerment for women across the world, one little fact sits protuberant from the rest: closing the global gender gap, has increased from 99.5 years (announced in the 2020 report) to a heinous length of 135.6 years. 

Quite a provocative statement indeed; it’s time to delve into the details and seek to bridge this debilitating gender gap.

Examining data globally from 156 countries, the study encompasses four key dimensions: economic participation and opportunity, education, political empowerment, and lastly, health and survival. Countries are ranked according to the Global Gender Gap Index, their scores interpreted as a distance from 50-50 gender parity.

The WEF report’s methodology aims to disconnect the level of development from the country itself; instead, it looks at the country’s equality of distributing the resources currently available. This certainly paints a more interesting picture. In a sense, it means that both rich and poor countries stand a chance to rise through the rankings.

In short, the report provides us with an insight into how men and women are faring in tandem - as economies continually develop and expand.

Now you can heave a sigh of relief when we turn to the good news - for the education and health aspect at least, the gap is marginal at 95% and 96% respectively, with 100% being full gender equality.

But make no mistake, there’s plenty of work still to be done; a clear economic imperative urges for not just educating and empowering women, but also calls upon easing their ability to engage in political processes; this year’s political empowerment subindex sadly presents us with 22% of a 50-50 gender parity. It’s the convoluted ideology of patriarchy and historical public/private dichotomy (association of male in the public, and female in the private spheres) that furnishes the shortfalls of our political empowerment table, and rests the tablecloth of limitations to democratic governance that represents women’s interests. 75% of legislators are men in the world, and of the 156 countries analysed, it’s evident that women are vastly underrepresented as heads of state, ministers, and as members of parliament. 

As said by UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka: 

“No country prospers without the engagement of women. We need women’s representation that reflects all women and girls in all their diversity and abilities, (…) across all cultural, social, economic and political situations”.

And so, through the ways of policy formulation and decision making, we’re conveniently brought to the gender pay gap problem. We all know that women should be equally responsible for innovation and strategy at work as their male counterparts. Then, why do we see the dismally obvious gender pay gap? Such a question is only part and parcel of many other gender injustices all urging for answers and resolutions from government.

However, the report still provides a cause for optimism; the Nordic economies making it to the top of the rankings is largely a habitual given, such that the UK might want to take forward some points for learning. 

It’s worth looking at their general care infrastructure; namely Iceland, who prioritised support to working parents during the pandemic. From the benefit of a well-developed welfare state, these countries boast progressive childcare policies, thus removing the burden of childbearing from mothers and catalysing women’s progression in wider society. Or even Sweden; at the start of Invisible Women Caroline Criado Perez describes a town in Sweden that decided to reevaluate all its policies in terms of gender impact. Studies have shown that women are more likely to walk in their commute, and Sweden was currently prioritising clearing the snow off roads rather than pavements. Switching their priorities proved an unexpected money saver - most people injured in snow storms were pedestrians, as after all it’s easier to drive rather than push a buggy through three inches of snow. The burden on state healthcare was reduced and the budget better off - there is merit in designing public policy with gender inequalities in mind.

One can’t help but ask - what is the rest of the world doing for women in the public sector?

The double hit that women have taken from the pandemic means the burden of care has disproportionately fallen to them. In fact, more women are spending a full time’s work on childcare, 5 hours more than the pre-pandemic times.

Indeed, many governments have shown efforts to support working women over the years. For example, the UK introduced its first maternity leave legislation in 1975 and has been significantly developed since. In California and New Jersey, workers can take paid family leaves to attend newly born children. But even so, these policies only flatter the highly educated and well-paid professional women, those having good healthcare and better pensions, the women who can afford child-care services on the market upon return to work. Even NZ’s Ardern herself, the global figure of maternal heroism, barely stands tall beside the trials and tribulations of workplace discrimination faced by mothers around the world. We’re simply not doing enough.

It seems gender parity reaches much further than economic empowerment. It’s really just a moral imperative encompassing the political and cultural aspects of society. So, it’s only time to set the seal on ensuring equality - in terms of being able spend time both at home and in work; it’s part of the cure to elevating a society’s well-being and prosperity.

The main takeaway from the WEF’s 2021 report? 

This all adds up to the cavernous underutilisation of resources. When a country fails to optimise female time and talent, they’re clearly falling short of the PPF curve; contributing to a wastage of land, labour and capital. The world is under-using half of its human capital and we’re only touching on the surface of the talent pool. Not only this, but countries investing in ensuring more women are brought into the labour force are likely to be growing faster in the future (not to mention that they would thus be more competitive). 

There’s a momentum for change, a call for change. As more and more attention is made towards skilful and talented women, the issue of the gender pay gap becomes even more apparent. The lack of salary parity in fact acts as a force to halt progress in equality, with women not receiving the recognition they deserve in their pay checks; A force to downplay women’s recognition and halt their progress. In this foundational and formative stage of modern digitisation, we need assurance of female representation not merely in policy-making and governance, but also in the fastest growing jobs, the technology roles. 

These are the jobs of tomorrow, and if we want to close the Gender Gap in less than 135 years, they need to be available to the women of today.

Nikita Karri