Bloomberg reports that the Covid-19 pandemic has rolled back years of progress on gender parity for pay, making women wait a generation longer to earn the same as men.
A report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) found that at the current pace it will take 135 years for men and women to get the same paycheck for similar work. It echoes concerns raised by Bank of England policy maker Silvana Tenreyro about the impact of Covid-19 on women’s careers. While Covid-19 has accelerated automation, lockdowns have hit female-dominated sectors hardest and left women doing more household chores, sapping their productivity. The proportion of women in skilled professions has continued to increase, but separate research by the jobs website LinkedIn found that women were less likely to be hired for leadership roles, reversing two years of progress. One solution could be “skills-based hiring,” where recruiters focus on the potential candidates show rather than their direct work experience and formal qualifications. Measures like that are said to be necessary in sectors like technology. For instance, only 14% of people in cloud computing are female. The WEF called on business leaders and policy makers to embed gender parity into their plans for the economic recovery from the pandemic.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Lizzy Burden at Moneyweb
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page