World Economic Forum: Pandemic Delays Progress on Gender Gap Goals

The pandemic has set back years of progress toward equality between men and women, according to a World Economic Forum report on Wednesday, which showed that the pandemic raised the gender gap.

The Forum's latest report on the global gender gap addresses the gap between men and women in the workplace, schools and society, and outlines the need to build a world of gender equality.

A group of studies showed that the COVID-19 pandemic had a disproportionate effect on women, who lost their jobs at a higher rate than men and had to shoulder the extra childcare burden when schools closed, proving that the gender gap goals appear to be moving away.

In 2019, just before the outbreak, the report showed that gender parity across a range of areas would be reached within 99.5. Years yet, this year's report shows the world is not on track to close the gender gap for another 135.6 years, widening the gap by 34.7%.

However, women are gradually closing the gender gap in areas such as education, and health, yet, the pandemic has not helped tighten the gap.

"Inequality in the workplace, which has long appeared to be the stickiest area to fix, is still not expected to be erased for another 267.6 years," the report added.

The World Economic Forum cited a study by the United Nations' International Labor Organization showing that women were more likely to lose their jobs in the crisis, in part because they are disproportionately represented in sectors that have been directly disrupted by the lockdown.

Other surveys showed that women were bearing a greater share of the increased burden of housework and childcare during the lockdown.

When it comes to politics, women still hold just over a quarter of parliamentary seats, and only 22.6% of cabinet positions worldwide.

The report found the the political gender gap is not expected to close completely for another 145.5 years, marking a 50% hike from the estimated 95 years in the 2020 report.

The report noted that while Western European countries can close the overall gender gap in 52.1 years, it will take MENA countries about 142.4 years to do so.

In general, the Nordic countries dominated the narrowest gender gap, namely in Iceland, followed by Finland and Norway. New Zealand ranked fourth, ahead of Sweden.