An improvement of just four years. It will take another 132 years to close the gender gaps, according to an annual study by the World Economic Forum (WEF) published on Wednesday. Last year, 136 years were needed to achieve equality. Not enough to cure the damage of covid, which has “set back gender parity by a generation”, remind the experts.
The recovery is not strong enough to make up for lost ground. The study, conducted annually for sixteen years, focuses on four areas: education level, health and survival, economic participation and opportunity, and political power. It is in the first two that the genders are closest to equality. In contrast, at the rate of progress being made, it would take 151 years to close the gaps in economic opportunity and 155 years to close those in political power.
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No country achieves perfect equality. But it is Iceland, still leader of the ranking, which comes closest, followed by Finland, Norway, New Zealand and Sweden. And Switzerland? She slipped slightly in the area of economic opportunity, dropping her from 10th to 13th place. In terms of labor market participation, the country fell from 34th to 47th place, signaling a deterioration greater than average.
“Imminent crisis”
In this area, most countries have been affected. Equality has been declining since 2009, but the trend has steepened in 2020 and has fallen further “dizzyingly” in the two years since. It is now at its lowest level at 62.9%. Further, “while current unemployment rates for both men and women are above pre-pandemic levels, the global unemployment rate for women in 2021 (6.4%) was higher than that of men (6.1%)”, underlines the WEF, which evokes an “imminent crisis”.
The outlook is bleak: “The cost of living crisis is having a disproportionate impact on women, following the many job losses suffered during the pandemic and the persistent difficulties faced by healthcare infrastructures”, commented Saadia Zahidi , Director General of the WEF.
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Before adding: “Faced with a weak recovery, governments and businesses need to deploy two types of efforts: targeted policies to support the return of women to the labor market and the development of female talent in the industries of the future. Otherwise, we risk permanently eroding the achievements of the past decades and losing the future economic benefits of diversity.”
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