Women will
have to wait 217 years before they earn as much as men and have equal
representation in the workplace, research said, revealing the widest gap in
almost a
decade.
Women are
paid and achieve just over half as much as men in the workplace, the World
Economic Forum said, reporting an economic gap of 58 percent between the sexes.
“In 2017 we
should not be seeing progress toward gender parity shift into reverse,” said
Saadia Zahidi, WEF’s head of education, gender and work. “Gender equality is
both a moral and economic imperative. Some countries understand this and they
are now seeing dividends from the proactive measures they have taken to address
their gender gaps.”
It is the
second year in a row that the Swiss non-profit has recorded worsening economic
inequality, which is calculated by measuring how many men and women participate
in the labor force, their earned incomes and their job advancement.
Last year,
WEF said women would achieve economic equality in 170 years, down from 118
years in 2015. No country has closed the pay gap, WEF said, using data from
institutions such as the International Labour Organization, United Nations
Development Programme and World Health Organization.
Overall,
Iceland, Norway, Finland, Rwanda and Sweden ranked highest among 144 nations
measured on progress in equality in four areas: education, health and survival,
economic opportunity and political empowerment.
Yemen, then
Pakistan, Syria, Chad and Iran, ranked lowest. Women fared much better in
education, where equality could be reached within 13 years, WEF said, while
closing the gap in political empowerment could take a further 99 years.
“Even though
qualified women are coming out of the education system, many industries are
failing to hire, retain and promote them, losing out on a wealth of capacity,”
it said. The report estimated that closing the pay gap could add an extra $250
billion to the GDP of Britain, $1,750 billion to that of the US and $2.5
trillion to China’s GDP.
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