New Report Shows That It Will Take 200 More Years To Close The Global Gender Pay Gap

A new report has warned that the global gender pay gap will not be closed until the year 2220.

Published by the World Economic Forum (WEF), the report acknowledged that as compared to 2017, there had been some improvements in wage equality in 2018. Last year, concerns were raised that the global gender gap widened for the first time in 10 years.

According to an article by the Daily Mail, the report, however, added that the improvements made in 2018 were offset by greater inequality in women’s access to education and health care, along with their declining representation in politics.

Considering the present rates, the global gender pay gap will not be able to close across a range of areas for another 108 years, while the WEF report said that it will take an estimated 202 more years to close the workplace gap.

The WEF, which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, revealed in its annual report the disparities that exist between men and women in 149 countries of the world. It tracked discrepancies existing across four areas, including health, education, economic opportunity, and political empowerment.

Per the WEF report, even after years of advancements in health, education, and political representation, women still face setbacks in all the three areas in 2018.

The gender gap, however, slightly narrowed in terms of economic opportunity, but the report warned that there is not much to celebrate because of the global wage gap that is narrowing to nearly to 51 percent, the Daily Mail report detailed.

The annual review further said that across the globe, the number of women in leadership roles has risen to 34 percent. However, there are now proportionately fewer women than men participating in the workforce, which suggests that “automation is having a disproportionate impact on jobs traditionally performed by women.”

Gender pay gap will take over 200 years to close: World Economic Forum https://t.co/w5V6jzWfc7 pic.twitter.com/Dl2i0XNpSW

— The Hill (@thehill) December 19, 2018

The report further said that there is significant underrepresentation of women in growing areas of employment that require “science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills.” It also pointed out and criticized the particularly low participation of women in fields like the artificial intelligence (AI), where they only have 22 percent of representation.

It stated that “the gap is three times larger than in other industry talent pools.”

“In addition to being outnumbered three to one, women in AI are less likely to be positioned in senior roles,” it said, stressing the “clear need for proactive measures to prevent a deepening of the gender gap in other industries where AI skills are in increasing demand.”

It was also explained that the situation varies greatly in different countries and regions. Whereas the Nordic countries – Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Finland — continued to dominate the top of the table in that order, showing most equality among men and women. Syria, Iraq, Pakistan and Yemen showed the biggest overall gender gaps.

The report also stated that the United States “continued its decline, slipping two places to 51st, with the report, in particular, blaming a decrease in gender parity in ministerial-level positions.”