World Economic Forum (WEF) believes In terms of economic participation, economicthe gender gap will take 257 years to close at the current slow rate of progress, according to its annual report. Last year, the WEF said it was estimated that it would be 202 years until full parity was achieved compared to 202 years in 2019, according to the annual report by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
The report showed out that, despite the gap has closednarrowing in recent years, progress is slowinghas slowed. Last year, it was estimated that it would take be 202 years until full parity was is achieved, and but now this year the WEF added new another 505 years were added..
The report said that globally, only 55% of women (aged 15-64) are engaged in with the labour market as opposed to 78% of men.
““There are 72 countries where women are barred from opening bank accounts or obtaining credit,” reported according to the WEF.
It came during the WEF annual meeting in Swiss Davos. The meeting is the foremost creative force for engaging the world’s top leaders in collaborative activities to shape global, regional and industry agendas at the beginning of each year. The theme of the 2020 meeting was Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World.
It also revealed that there is no country where men spend the same amount of time on unpaid work as women. In countries where this the ratio is the lowest, it is still 2:1.
Looking to the future, the report found out that the women’s under-representation in emerging roles is the greatest challenge preventing the economic gender gap from closing, revealing that in cloud computing, just 12% of professionals are women. Similarly, in engineering and data and AI engineering, the numbers are 15% and 26% respectively.
” Workforce strategies must ensure that women are better equipped (in terms of improved skills or reskilling) to deal with the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Diverse hiring is another area for improvement (reflecting the current situation that sees gender parity in an in-demand skillset but not equal representation), along with creating inclusive work cultures,” the report suggested.
In terms of the economic opportunities in Egypt, the WEF stated notes that the country Egypt has a long way to go and as it now ranks 140th globally, compared down from to 108th in 2006.
It pointed out that only 24.7% of women are in the labour force, and about 20% of them are on a part-time contract.
Furthermore, the report declared that very few women are in a managerial rolepositions, representing only 7.1%. Their presence as among firms’ owners and top managers at firms is also extremely limited, representing only 2.4% and 4.9%, respectively.
“These facts reflect the barriers that still prevent women’s access to finance and assets. By law, there are still significant limitations for women, at least for some social groups to own land, capital, and financial products,” the report explained.
As a result, differences in income, which include wage and non-wage revenues between men and women, are large.
The report uncovered that it is estimated that the average income of an Egyptian man is about 3.8 times that of the average income of an Egyptian woman.
The report put acrossstated that removing all barriers that grant equal access to women and men to internships should be a first step to leveraging the untapped human talent of women in the country.
