Corporate sector will need 257 years to achieve gender parity: WEF Report

The Global Gender Gap Report 2020 of the World Economic Forum (WEF) highlights that there are 72 countries where women are barred from opening bank accounts or obtaining credit.

It’s not only the political representation, gender equality is still a distant dream in the corporate sector. This was revealed in a recent report of the World Economic Forum (WEF) which reveals that the companies of only ten countries have above 30 percent women in their board of directors. If continued with the current rate of growth, the corporate world will need at least 257 years to achieve the targets of gender parity.

According to the report, France is on the top list of gender parity in corporate where the women occupy an average of 43.4 percent positions in the ‘board of director’. The other countries where women occupy above 30 percent positions in the board of directors are Iceland (43%), Norway (42.1%), Sweden (36.3%), Italy (34%), Finland (32.8%), Germany (31.9%), Belgium (30.7%), Denmark (30.3%) and New Zealand (30%). Interestingly, the United Nations (US) and United Kingdom (UK) could not secure place in the first category for the corporate houses in these countries have respectively 21.7 percent and 27.2 percent women in their board of directors. There are 12 more countries in the second category for having 20-30 percent women in the board of directors of their corporate sector. In the ranking, India and China has been placed in the third category as percent of women in companies’ board of directors of these countries is respectively 13.8 percent and 9.7 percent.

The report highlights although the women have performed well in education attainment but lagging in economic contribution. “The report highlights three primary reasons for this: women have greater representation in roles that are being automated; not enough women are entering professions where wage growth is the most pronounced (most obviously, but not exclusively, technology), and women face the perennial problem of insufficient care infrastructure and access to capital,” said the report. “Looking to the future, the report reveals that the greatest challenge preventing the economic gender gap from closing is women’s under-representation in emerging roles. In cloud computing, just 12 percent of professionals are women. Similarly, in engineering and Data and AI, the numbers are 15 percent and 26 percent respectively,” it added.  The report is based on the study of the condition of women in 149 countries.

The report highlights that in terms of economic participation, the gender gap will take 257 years to close because, globally, only 55 percent of women (aged 15-64) are engaged in the labor market as opposed to 78 percent of men.