Gender Disparity

No one living on the planet today would live to see gender equality in their lifetime. Women will have to wait for equal pay roughly until the year 2277. This is according to the latest finding of a report by the World Economic Forum that measured gender gap in 153 countries.

At the current rate of change, the gender gap in economic participation won’t close for another 257 years. Despite increasing demands for equal treatment, women will have to work roughly two centuries for equality at work.

The report measured the gender gap across economics, politics, education, and health and ranked countries on closeness to gender equality. The global widening of the economic gender is attributed to several factors. This includes low level of women in managerial positions, wage stagnation, labour force participation and income.

Women are more represented in jobs hit hardest by automation- for example retail- and not enough are entering professions- such as technology- with noticeable wage growth. As a result, women find themselves in stagnant sectors. This strongly limits a woman’s workplace opportunities.

Women also spend at least twice as much time on care and voluntary work as men, and lack of access to capital often keeps women from entrepreneurship and workforce opportunities. Although the overall gap has shrunk, the Davos-based forum said that it will take 99.5 years for women to achieve parity.

Politics is the domain where the least progress has been made to date. Women in 2019 held 25.2 percent of parliamentary seats and 22.1 percent of ministerial positions, but the picture is less rosy when it comes to the workplace.

Pakistan has been ranked a dismal 151 out of 153 countries as only Iraq and Yemen fared worse. Even war-torn Syria and the entire South Asia region has a better ranking. The wage gap has expanded in emerging and developing economies. Women in Pakistan continue to receive limited economic opportunities. The gap widened in healthcare, which means women do not have same access to healthcare as men.

Gender parity is necessary to ensure a strong a strong, cohesive and resilient society. The findings indicate that gender disparity is a global problem and the gap is widening. Women need more representation in politics and senior roles in the labour market. When women are in leadership roles it leads to better labour market incomes. We certainly cannot wait two centuries for parity and need to mobilise resources and focus our attention to achieve swift results.