Global Agenda Council on Women's Empowerment 2013
Issue Overview |
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Gender gaps in economic participation, political opportunity, education and health are well documented. No country has yet been able to close all the gaps, which vary in size substantially according to country and region. Equity and efficiency arguments exist for closing the gaps and tapping into the female half of human capital that is currently underused, and doing so is both good practice and good business. Long-term progress is difficult if half of a population is not fully engaged in the development process. As consumers, workers, entrepreneurs and caregivers, women are central to solving today’s most pressing global challenges.
In a world moving from capitalism to “talentism”, gender parity can no longer be treated as superfluous. Women make up one half of the human capital available in any economy and businesses and governments may reap a rich diversity dividend from investments in gender parity.
- Iceland ranks first in the world on gender equality, according to the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Report 2011.
- In the United States of America, women make up only 2% of chief executive officers in Fortune 500 companies.
- Girls outnumber boys in secondary schools in 45 developing countries.
“Half the world’s population, half the world’s talent pool, half the world’s consumers, half the world’s innovators: women. And we need to find ways to give them opportunity to achieve their potential.”
Laura D’Andrea Tyson, S. K. and Angela Chan Professor of Global Management, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, USA; Chair, Global Agenda Council on Women’s Empowerment
“The most under-appreciated risk is that organizations, corporations, countries and their governments are too slow to realize that women have to be included in the decision-making on issues that impact us all.”
Laura Liswood, Secretary-General, Council of Women World Leaders, USA; Member, Global Agenda Council on Women’s Empowerment
Five Challenges, One Solution: Global Agenda Council on Women’s Empowerment Annual Report 2011
Closing the Gender Gap: A Repository of Successful Practices
Measuring the Success of Gender Equality
Closing the Gender Gap Case by Case
International Literacy Day
8 September 2012
International Day of the Girl Child
11 October 2012
International Women’s Day
8 March 2013
The Council serves as a key pillar of the Forum’s Women Leaders and Gender Parity Programme, providing new insights and synthesizing existing knowledge to develop innovative solutions for closing the economic gender gap globally.
In the previous terms, the Council has worked to maximize the messaging on gender issues, from taking a targeted issue-specific approach with traditional groups to mainstreaming the issue across non-traditional groups. The Council helped to conceive the idea of a repository of successful interventions in gender parity, a project that was subsequently developed and launched by the World Economic Forum.
During 2011-12, the Council has developed a compendium outlining how the advancement of women might impact and provide solutions for addressing five global challenges.
In the upcoming term the Council will focus its efforts on country-based gender gaps by addressing the challenges of gender disparity through a data-driven and systemic approach. This will be based on the specific country-level situation in three pilot countries, Mexico, Turkey and Japan.
The Council will enable collaborative interaction among a multistakeholder community of selected organizations such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and influential leaders (particularly business leaders and policy-makers) to close gender gaps. It will constitute a platform to share and exchange tested successful interventions that have effectively closed the economic gender gap, through private sector or public sector initiatives. Finally, it will develop a clear action plan of focused, country-based solutions for integrating more women in the economy.
Research Analyst: Shubhra Saxena Kabra, Knowledge Manager, Global Agenda Councils, shubhra.saxena@weforum.org
Council Manager: Jessica Dyllick, Senior Programme Manager, jessica.dyllick@weforum.org
Forum Lead: Saadia Zahidi, Senior Director, Head of Constituents, saadia.zahidi@weforum.org
