The pandemic set gender parity back 36 years

I’m in the middle of writing a brand-new workshop ‘Catalyst for Change: Fostering Allyship in Academia’ when I came across this statistic.

The pandemic set gender parity back 36 years!

The time it will take to close the global gender gap increased from 99.5 years to 135.6 years, according to the global gender report produced by The World Economic Forum. Women around the world lost their jobs at a higher rate than men, 5% vs 3.9% among men. And sectors where job opportunities are growing are significantly underrepresented by women.

Making matters more complicated, data from LinkedIn’s Economic Graph team suggests that it is more challenging for women to switch into these emerging fields. While many blame a pipeline problem — the notion that not enough women desire to go into these emerging jobs — the report demonstrates something else. Many of the professions outlined have untapped talent pools filled with female workers, but employers aren’t looking beyond traditional backgrounds to fill open roles. This is exactly the problem I see replaying out in academia, the leaky pipeline!

Supporting a more gender-equal recovery

There is no one silver bullet when it comes to gender parity. There’s room for multiple solutions in multiple areas, a ‘silver umbrella’ approach. I love to look outside academia at what other governments and companies are doing to support a more gender-equal recovery. I found three great examples this week.

✅ Expanding to all. Volvo will now offer paid parental leave to ALL of its 40,000 employees for at least 24 weeks at 80% pay, regardless of where they work. The Swedish automaker’s program is being lauded as the most comprehensive plan so far to come out of the auto industry. [LinkedIn News]

✅Bereavement leave in NZ. New Zealand’s officials voted unanimously last week to allow mothers and their partners three days of paid bereavement leave after a miscarriage or stillbirth. [CBS News]

✅Tying goals to pay. Mastercard is the latest company to link executive pay in the form of annual bonuses to the company’s environmental and diversity goals. Nike, Chipotle and Starbucks have made similar announcements in recent weeks. [Reuters]

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