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Business Insider

Reuters

Gender equality is starting to feel like a far-off dream especially as it could take the world another 131 years to close the gender gap, according to the World Economic Forum.
The WEF published its 2023 Global Gender Gap Report this week and examined gender parity across 146 countries, finding that the gender gap has closed across a variety of areas of society by 68.4 per cent globally, up 0.3 per cent from 2022’s 68.1 per cent score.
The gender gap measures equality across areas like the economy, education, health, and politics, according to WEF.
The slow rate of progress means it won’t be until 2154 that we reach full gender parity between men and women, the WEF’s report says, basing that number on the gender gap closing at the same rate every year.
Equality in farming could add US$1 trillion to world economy
It will take 162 years to close the political empowerment gender gap, and 169 years to close the economic participation and opportunity gap, while no clear timeline is known for the health and survival gap.
On a positive note, gender equality in educational attainment is within close reach, as it will only take 16 years to close the gap in this area.
Although no country has reached full gender equality just yet, Iceland took the top position for the 14th year running having closed 91.2 per cent of its overall gender gap – the only country with a figure above 90 per cent.
Norway, Finland, Sweden and New Zealand were also in the top five respectively, with scores of over 80 per cent.
The United States however is falling behind in closing the gender gap, dropping to 43rd on the list, down from 27th last year. The country’s parity score fell by 2.1 per cent to 74.8 per cent.
Women’s economic participation has regressed rather than recovered
Saadia Zahidi, managing director at WEF
“Recent years have been marked by major setbacks for gender parity globally, with previous progress disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic’s impact on women and girls in education and the workforce, followed by economic and geopolitical crises,” Saadia Zahidi, managing director at WEF said in the report.
“Today, some parts of the world are seeing partial recoveries while others are experiencing deteriorations as new crises unfold,” she said. “Global gender gaps in health and education have narrowed over the past year, yet progress on political empowerment is effectively at a standstill, and women’s economic participation has regressed rather than recovered.”
Alongside these issues, the gender wage gap also continues to be a persistent issue in the US.
An analysis by the Centre for American Progress earlier this month found that it could take another 33 years to close the gender pay gap, which means waiting until at least 2056.


Japan to push for women’s participation
Meanwhile, Japan plans to push for women’s participation in society, especially in politics, top government spokesperson Hirokazu Matsuno said on Wednesday.
The World Economic Forum report ranked Japan 125th out of 146 countries, down from 116th in last year’s report.
“We need to humbly accept our country’s current situation,” Matsuno, the chief cabinet secretary, told reporters during a briefing.
In economic participation and opportunity, a category that examines labour force participation, wage equality and income, Japan was 123th, the lowest among East Asian and Pacific countries.
Its gender parity in political empowerment was one of the world’s lowest, at 138th, behind China, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
Japan admits it must do more to ease women’s struggle to balance work and home
Women account for just two of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s 19 cabinet ministers and roughly a tenth of lower house lawmakers.
Investors, particularly those overseas, are cranking up the pressure on Japanese businesses to diversify their boards, traditionally skewed towards older men.
Norges Bank Investment Management, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, will oppose the appointment of board chairs for Japanese companies lacking female board members, the Nikkei business daily said in April.
Kishida laid out a gender equality initiative this month, aiming for women to occupy at least 30 per cent of executive positions in top companies by the end of the decade, from 2.2 per cent in July 2022.
Voters and activists have also pushed politicians to take action. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party compiled a plan this month to boost the share of its female lawmakers to 30 per cent.


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Switzerland

Another 131 years to close global gender gap, World Economic Forum report finds

Norway, Finland, Sweden and New Zealand ranked in the top five most gender equal society. Photo: Shutterstock 

India’s tea pickers fend off sex traffickers by retraining as beauticians

Beauty classes have helped thousands of women in India’s West Bengal state to become financially independent, making them less likely to become victims of trafficking. Photo: Sukla Debnath

Every Sunday, the only day plantation workers have off work, Sukla Debnath (centre, back row) visits tea gardens in West Bengal to offer beauty training. Photo: Sukla Debnath

School children and villagers attend a village meeting following the abduction at gunpoint and gang-rape of five anti-trafficking women activists at Chochang Village in Jharkhand state in 2018. Anti-trafficking activists say those with fewest economic choices face the gravest danger. Photo: AFP 

A teenage girl stands inside a protection home on the outskirts of Delhi. She was rescued from bonded labour, having been trafficked into domestic servitude. Photo: Reuters

‘I’m an example of speaking up’: how one woman helped change the way Asian-Americans see themselves

Helen Zia pictured in Hong Kong in 2019. Photo: Nora Tam

Helen Zia, 70, is an activist and author who is a trailblazer among those who care about Asian-American issues and civil rights. Photo: SCMP

Zia has also been a force for  LGBTQ  rights, not hesitating to spotlight the intersection of being a lesbian with Chinese-American roots. Photo: TNS

Zia also found a voice protesting US involvement in the Vietnam war while joining causes pushing for racial unity among low-income minority groups. Photo: SCMP

Helen Zia stands next to a painting of Vincent Chin in Detroit. Chin, a Chinese-American, was beaten to death in Detroit by two white men who never served jail time. Photo: AP 

She’s a ‘1.5 generation’ Korean-American, and she won’t let ‘comfort women’ be forgotten

Sinmin Pak, founder of Unforgotten Butterflies, listens to a panel discussion in Texas on “comfort women” earlier this year. Photo: The Dallas Morning News/TNS

Protesters hold placards featuring portraits of “comfort women” and their testimonies during a rally in Seoul last year. Photo: Xinhua

The late Lee Ok-sun, a former Korean “comfort woman”, attends a press conference in Seoul in 2019. Photo: AFP

Sex assault claims cast light on Australia’s macho politics, parliament’s ‘patriarchal environment’

Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe makes a statement in the Senate chamber at Australia’s Parliament House alleging she had been sexually harassed, and that the building was not a safe place for women to work. Photo: EPA-EFE

Independent politician Zali Steggall said women had experienced “horrific” levels of harassment and sexual assault while working inside Australia’s Parliament House.

Papua New Guinea women ‘will not stop’ weaving their way to a living

A woman selling traditional Papua New Guinean “Bilum” bags at a craft market in Port Moresby. The word bilum means “womb” in the local Tok Pisin language. Photo: AFP

Bilums can take weeks to make, and are dyed using colours unique to the maker’s heritage. Photo: AFP

Bilums are often given to friends and family, or used in welcome rituals, sometimes being laid on the floor in front of guests. Photo: AFP

Supervisor Maureen Charlie said that demand is growing, with international customers in North America, Europe and neighbouring Australia increasingly looking for authentic bilums. Photo: AFP

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Iceland took the top position for the 14th year, having closed 91.2 per cent of its overall gender gap – the only country with a figure above 90 per cent
The US dropped to 43rd on the list, down from 27th last year, from the 146 countries examined in areas such as economy, education, health, and politics


Iceland took the top position for the 14th year – having closed 91.2 per cent of its overall gender gap – while the US dropped to 43rd on the list, down from 27th last year.
