A Matter of Facts

Gender Gap Report: 2020

The A new Global Gender Gap Report was published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) at the dawn of 2020. Projecting current trends, the report expects the global gender gap will close in 99.5 years. If the year 2120 seems like eons away, the slow speed experienced over the period from 2006–2020 means it could take 257 years to close this gap.

Gender gaps can potentially be closed in: • 54 years in Western Europe • 59 years in Latin America and the Caribbean • 71 and a half years in South Asia • 95 years in Sub-Saharan Africa • 107 years in Eastern Europe and Central Asia • 140 years in the Middle East and North Africa • 151 years in North America • 163 years in East Asia and the Pacific

The good news is the educational attainment gender gap is on track to be closed over the next 12 years. Still, the report points out that even in countries where educational attainment is high, women’s skills are not in line with those required to succeed. In addition, they encounter barriers in the most in-demand occupations. Using data from LinkedIn, the report found that women are underrepresented in clusters with the highest employment growth rate, including data and AI, engineering, and cloud computing. Other key findings in the 2020 report: • Globally, 36 percent of senior private sector managers and public sector officials are women.

• On average, only 55 percent of adult women are in the labor market, versus 78 percent of men, while over 40 percent of the wage gap (the ratio of the wage of a woman to that of a man in a similar position) and over 50 percent of the income gap (the ratio of the total wage and non-wage income of women to that of men) are still to be bridged.

The Global Gender Pay Report 2020 says that while the gender gap across politics, education, health, and work has narrowed, the economic gender gap has widened. The report identified several factors causing this, including women being more likely to work parttime to carry the burden of motherhood and other work associated with running a household. Also, there is evidence of discrimination, stereotyping, and implicit biases still playing a role in earnings and promotion opportunities for women. This plays out in the U.S. where we see white women earning about 86 cents on the dollar versus white men while Black and Latinx women earn 64 cents and 48 cents, respectively. Gender parity expert Bianca Caban is CEO of SheWorx and head of partnerships at Republic, a global platform and event series empowering female entrepreneurs to build successful companies. She says companies need to take responsibility to avoid further widening the gender pay gap.

“In light of the recent World Economic Forum findings that the economic gender gap has widened, it’s imperative that companies track and examine certain metrics at least annually in several categories,” Caban said. “The percentage of women and underrepresented women of color (Black, Latinx, and/or Native American) employees in their workforce, salaries of women and women of color versus their male counterparts who are at their same level, and percent of the company’s male versus female employees who take advantage of family leave policies. This is especially important at companies that are in ‘frontiers of the new economy’ as noted by WEF, i.e. tech and startups, where women are more likely

2020 Global Gender Gap rankings; Global Top 10

1. Iceland 2. Norway 3. Finland 4. Sweden 5. Nicaragua 6. New Zealand 7. Ireland 8. Spain 9. Rwanda 10. Germany Economic opportunities for women are extremely limited in: Of the 153 countries covered by the report this year, the four new entrants ranked:

India (35.4%) Pakistan (32.7%) Yemen (27.3%) Syria (24.9%) Iraq (22.7%) Trinidad and Tobago (24th) Zambia (45th) Vanuatu (126th) Papua New Guinea (127th)

to be underrepresented and where the highest earning opportunities in our economy exist.

“Excitingly, research shows that woman-owned businesses are growing two times faster on average than all businesses nationwide. This trend is led by women of color (Black, Latinx, and Asian) business owners. However, women-owned businesses are also more likely to stagnate and not reach $1 million in revenues versus their male counterparts due to a lack of access to capital, resources, and networks. At SheWorx, we strongly believe that if more women-owned businesses reach their full economic potential, this will create more female leaders who will pay both themselves and their employees an equal wage. Let’s take advantage of this exciting growth in women-owned businesses to ameliorate the gender wage gap,” she added. 

Most-improved countries in the overall index this year

Ethiopia Spain Mali Albania Mexico Most-improved scores compared to last edition

Cape Verde Mali Nigeria Sierra Leone

“Excitingly, research shows that woman-owned businesses are growing two times faster on average than all businesses nationwide.