According to Wednesday’s World Economic Forum Report, women are the most affected by the recession and the cost of living crisis. The Covid-19 pandemic, as well as other economic shocks, is preventing them from closing the gender gap.
In its Global Gender Gap Report 2022, the WEF estimated that – at the current rate of progress – it will take 132 years for men and women to reach full parity, with the global gender gap being closed by 68.1%. The Geneva-based NGO noted that it’s a slight improvement from 136 years – a figure projected in 2021 – but said there was still a lot of work to do.
The document states that the pandemic caused the gender gap to get worse because it affected many female-dominated industries, such as travel, retail and tourism.
“The current recession, unlike past economic slumps that have tended to be worse for men, is disproportionately bad for women,”The report stated.
The Forum also argues that adequate salaries and investment in infrastructure could speed up the transition to a world with equal gender pay.
Research also assessed the progress of different continents on their path to gender parity. North America and Europe closed more than 76% respectively. Others are following suit, such as Latin America and Caribbean (72.6%), Central Asia (69.1%), and East Asia, the Pacific (69%). South Asia’s performance was the lowest, with 62.4% closing its gender gap by 2022.
The study also provided a breakdown of gender equality by country, with top marks going to Iceland, several Nordic countries and New Zealand. Nicaragua, Nicaragua and Nicaragua were the next most popular. The study does not find that any country is fully gender parity.
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