Women Leaders and Gender Parity

 

The Women Leaders and Gender Parity programme aims to increase participation of women in Forum activities. Besides involving women as members in communities and inviting women leaders to be active contributors to the global dialogue, the programme uses benchmarking tools to measure the global gender gap and showcase best practices for increasing gender diversity. It also produces reports and convenes Gender Parity Groups committed to closing gender gaps:

Closing the Gender Gap: Repository of Successful Practices is a best practices repository which consolidates tested practical information from across different sectors, industries and geographies on how to close the economic gender gap. 

Closing the Gender Gap - Use the online repository of successful practices online here

This collection offers companies the opportunity to learn from and build upon successful interventions implemented elsewhere. It also provides a six-point framework through which to focus organizational gender parity efforts: measurement and target setting; mentorship and training; awareness, incentives and accountability; work environment and work-life balance; leadership and company commitment; and responsibility beyond the office.

Find out more about the repository

The Global Gender Parity Group comprises 100 highly influential and committed leaders – 50 women and 50 men from business, politics, academia, media and civil society – who believe that companies and countries will benefit by addressing the gender gap and optimizing the flow of talent.

Regional Gender Parity Groups are multistakeholder communities committed to closing the gender gap, each comprises 50 leaders (25 women and 25 men) in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

The Women Leaders Community is drawn from the female participants of the various stakeholder groups convened at the Forum, brought together to collectively engage in dialogue and address current gender and diversity issues.

The Global Gender Gap Report, produced annually, provides a framework for capturing the magnitude of gender disparities around the world and aims to serve as a tool for benchmarking and tracking gender inequalities.

The Corporate Gender Gap Report covers the world's largest employers in 20 countries and benchmarks them against the gender equality policies that most companies should have in place.

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Why does the Gender Gap still exist?

The Forum's Global Gender Gap Report has found that although more women are in employment than ever before, major corporations are still not capitalizing on their talents. Pay equality is not there either. So why are women still not equally represented in major multinational companies and, when they are, why aren't they being paid equally? 

The report shows much progress still being made but a lot of ground still to make up. Its co-author Ricardo Hausmann, Director of the Centre for International Development at Harvard University, says countries have to adjust for the fact that marriage and motherhood are not at odds with women's advancement in the workplace. 

He said: "We have found that gaps are closing between women and men’s health and education – in fact, current data show that in the 134 countries covered, 96% of health gaps and 93% of education gaps have been closed. And, yet only 60% of economic participation gaps have been closed. Progress will be achieved when countries seek to reap returns on the investment in health and education of girls and women by finding ways to make marriage and motherhood compatible with the economic participation of women."

Fellow co-author Laura Tyson, S.K. and Angela Chan Professor of Global Management at the Hass School of Business, University of California at Berkeley, reflects: "The Global Gender Gap Report demonstrates that closing the gender gap provides a basis for a prosperous and competitive society. Regardless of level of income, countries can choose to integrate gender equality and other social inclusion goals into their growth agenda – and have the potential to grow faster – or they can run the risk of undermining their competitive potential by not capitalizing fully on one-half of their human resources. The economic incentive for closing the gender gap in health, education, economic opportunity and political power is clear."

Guy Dresser Posted by: Guy Dresser 1 November 2011