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- An updated report from the McKinsey Global Institute warns that failure to take gender-sensitive actions during the pandemic could lead to a $ 1 trillion loss in global GDP by 2030.
- Australia is working with regional partners where 75% -90% of market vendors are women to install sanitation and safety equipment to limit the spread of COVID-19.
- As businesses seek to find an edge in recovering from COVID-19, we cannot miss any more opportunities to fully realize the enormous economic potential of women and girls.
Even before all the social and economic impacts of COVID-19 materialize, the World Economic Forum’s 2020 Global Gender Gap Report showed how much work remains to be done to achieve gender equality. That report suggested that it would take 99.5 more years to achieve gender parity, and research since then has shown that the consequences of the pandemic have negatively affected women even more.
Based on the economic data that has been released over the past 12 months, we have seen that the pandemic has exacerbated inequalities around the world, including gender.
According to the latest IMF World Economic Outlook report that the “severe collapse in 2020 … has had serious adverse impacts on women, the youth, the poor, informal employees and those working in intensive contact sectors.”
The UN data have also confirmed the precariousness of the economic commitment of women worldwide. Their research suggests that the sectors most affected by the pandemic have tended to be those highly feminized, such as tourism, hospitality, and retail. As a result, women’s employment is 19% more at risk compared to men’s employment.
Approximately 740 million women work in the informal economy worldwide and, given the significant loss of income they are experiencing, there are serious questions about how we will sustain the gains made and continue to advance efforts to tackle poverty.
While we know from past crises that women tend to be among the most significantly affected, we also know that when women’s individual economic security improves, their participation in work and leadership has ongoing benefits for business, industry and entire economies.
How Investing in Women Could Be Key to Post-pandemic Recovery
Here in Australia, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) and the BankWest Curtin Economics Center published a study last year that demonstrated for the first time a causal link between the representation of women on the boards of our top 200 companies (ASX200 ) and improvements in performance and profitability. .
As the study noted, inequalities such as the gender pay gap “not only challenge basic notions of equity, but compromise the current and future economic security of women and represent a lost opportunity in investment and human capital potential.” .
As companies look to find an edge on the road to recovery from COVID-19, they are undoubtedly considering what else they can do and how changes to the way they operate could improve their performance.
Hopefully, these questions lead to an examination of other pressing issues, such as how to address workforce participation and the gender pay gap, how to ensure that there is enough diversity and inclusion in our boardrooms, if we are supporting men and women. women equally in the management of their positions. work and care responsibilities, and how to maximize the potential of women, in all their diversity, by offering the right kind of skill development.
The full, equitable and meaningful participation of women in the recovery and response to COVID-19 is critical to achieving this gender-sensitive approach. Recent calculations by UN Women confirm the conclusions of the Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report. They show that, at the current rate, gender parity in ministerial positions will not be reached until 2077, and gender parity in the highest decisions of power will not be reached for 130 years.
How Australia is responding in our region
The Australian government is a strong advocate for gender equality and the economic empowerment of women. During the pandemic, she has taken steps nationally and internationally to ensure that we continue our efforts to support women’s safety. In the last 12 months, the Australian government has published its second Declaration of women’s economic security, a $ 150 million COVID-19 domestic and family violence response package, as well as an international response, Partnerships for Recovery, which prioritizes the needs of women and girls.
Australia is working with partners in our region as they deal with the economic impacts of COVID-19. In the Pacific, where 75-90% of market vendors are women, Australia has supported UN Women projects that make markets safer, healthier and more accessible. This has included hygiene measures to ensure that markets can remain open and COVID-19 safe. In Papua New Guinea, Australia has worked with the government to install water and sanitation infrastructure and provide safety equipment and basic training for providers to limit the spread of COVID-19. This is in addition to long-term efforts to help women assume leadership roles in supplier associations, which means that women are increasingly pushing for policies that better support their needs in the markets.
The World Economic Forum has been measuring gender gaps since 2006 in the Annual Report on the Global Gender Gap.
The Global Gender Gap Report tracks progress towards closing gender gaps at the national level. To turn this knowledge into concrete actions and national progress, we have developed the Gender Gap Closing Accelerators model for public-private collaboration.
These accelerators have been convened in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Panama and Peru in alliance with the Inter-American Development Bank.
In 2019, Egypt became the first country in the Middle East and Africa to launch an Accelerator to close the gender gap. While there are now more women than men enrolled in university, women account for just over a third of professional and technical workers in Egypt. Women who are in the workforce are also less likely to receive the same salary as their male colleagues for equivalent work or to reach senior management positions.
France has become the second G20 country to launch a Gender Gap Accelerator, indicating that developed economies are also playing an important role in spearheading this approach to closing the gender gap.
In these countries, CEOs and ministers are working together over a three-year period on policies that help to further close the economic gender gaps in their countries. This includes extended parental leave, subsidized child care, and the elimination of unconscious biases in hiring, retention, and promotion practices.
If you have a business in one of the Gender Gap Closing Accelerator countries, you can join the local membership base.
If you are a company or government in a country where we do not currently have an Accelerator to close the gender gap, you can contact us to explore opportunities to establish one.
Under the Australian government’s Investing in Women program, several Southeast Asian companies have conducted COVID-19 impact assessments and adjusted their gender action plans to respond to the effects of the pandemic on their workforce. Through this initiative, there has been a huge appetite for flexible work toolkits to help companies adapt to the current situation and understand the continuing value for companies and employees of adaptable work arrangements.
These two examples show that if we want to promote gender equality, we need a combination of practical actions and changes in social and cultural norms. Australia will continue to work in partnership with Indo-Pacific countries to support better gender equality outcomes.
Governments alone will not be able to address these problems and will have to work with business and civil society. As we seek to emerge from the COVID-19 crisis in a better position than we were, we cannot miss any more opportunities to fully realize the enormous economic potential of women and girls.
The business case for taking action
For several years, the evidence base around the benefits to the economy of addressing gender inequalities has continued to improve. The renowned McKinsey Global Institute Report, which highlighted the potential to add an additional $ 12 trillion to the global economy by 2025 by promoting gender equality, is often cited as an example of the potential benefits that can be achieved by addressing gender equality. inequality.
Interestingly, an update to this study conducted during COVID-19 warned that failing to take gender-sensitive actions during the pandemic could lead to a $ 1 trillion loss in global GDP by 2030, while taking action could ensure we stay on track previously. identified in the McKinsey study, making an overall $ 13 trillion increase in global GDP possible by 2030.
Simply put, gender equality is good for societies, economies and the global community.
There is simply no time to waste: 99.5 years must not pass to achieve gender equality, as predicted by the latest report on the global gender gap from the World Economic Forum. We must work harder and faster for the benefit of all, but especially women and girls.
