GGGR 2023

The 2022 edition of the Global Gender Gap Report called attention to a post-pandemic crisis in the workforce: gender parity across key indicators was slipping, implying large-scale disruption of economic opportunities for women worldwide in labour-market participation, in skilling, in wealth accumulation and in overall wellbeing.33 The recovery from the shock and ensuing polycrisis has been slow and, so far, incomplete, and the current context, coupled with technological and climate change, risks causing further regression in women’s economic empowerment. Not only are millions of women and girls losing out on economic access and opportunity, but these reversals also have wide-ranging consequences for the global economy. Following a series of gradual but steady increases in the share of women in leadership roles over the past two decades, this share has edged up to, on average, 33.7% in 2023 from 33.4% in 2022 across public- and private-sector leadership roles. However, high-frequency data presented in the report shows that hiring rates for women into leadership positions across industries have been in decline since mid-2022. Increasing women’s economic participation and achieving gender parity in leadership, in both business and government, are two key levers for addressing broader gender gaps in households, societies and economies. In addition, there are multiple mechanisms that link gender parity with firm-level and economic performance: a robust gender strategy is increasingly seen as essential to attracting the best talent and ensuring long-run economic performance, resilience and survival. Evidence on diversity in decision making shows that a diverse group of leaders makes more fact-based decisions that result in higher quality outcomes. And at an economy-wide level, gender parity is increasingly being recognized as critical for financial stability and economic performance.34 Collective, coordinated and bold action by private- and public-sector leaders will be instrumental in accelerating progress towards gender parity and igniting renewed growth and greater resilience. Beyond leadership representation, companies can engage in strategies to transform organizational culture, and design products and services to serve a broader range of consumers by making innovation processes more inclusive. Impactful initiatives are emerging at the frontier of business strategy and government policy, yet adoption beyond the frontier too often remains on the surface, is incomplete or altogether deprioritized. Government policy can be better designed to increase women’s labour- force participation, wages, and financial and technology access, and improve care systems and representation in public-sector leadership. Some governments are taking an equity and inclusion lens to economic policy-making, with recent gender mainstreaming efforts explicitly recognizing gender parity as critical to economic growth and financial stability. A number of governments are implementing more gender equal approaches to increasing labour force participation, pay equity and health and safety standards, preventing harassment and sexual violence at work. At the federal government level, progress can be enabled through gender-responsive budgeting which has in recent years been pioneered and expanded by a growing number of countries, including Sweden, India and Kenya. Further, governments are increasingly recognizing the importance of investing in the care economy and taking steps to support it. They are implementing policies such as expanding access to affordable Putting gender parity at the heart of economic recovery and transformation2.8(91.1%); Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing (90.9%); and Supply Chain and Transportation (84.6%) – alongside sectors with a relatively better representation of women, such as Financial Services (84.3%); Education and Training (83.3%); and Care, Personal Services and Wellbeing (81.8%). The sectors that place lower emphasis on gender parity in their overall DEI efforts are Real Estate (61.5%) and Media, Entertainment and Sports (60%). There is further significant cross-national variation in DEI efforts promoting gender inclusion in the workplace. According to the Future of Jobs Survey, the countries where companies are particularly committed to establishing a more gender-diverse workforce are Colombia, the Netherlands, Italy, United Kingdom and Canada. In Colombia and the United Kingdom, DEI programmes tend to prioritize flexibility on degree requirements for roles and recruitment, as well as on Employment Resource Groups (ERGs). The existence of DEI programmes alone is not enough for meaningful progress. A recent study identified five success factors that DEI initiatives with the highest impact for underrepresented groups had in common.32 These are (1) a nuanced understanding of the root causes of underrepresentation; (2) a meaningful definition of success; (3) accountable and invested business leaders; (4) a solution designed for its specific context; and (5) rigorous tracking and course correction. These factors must further be refined and customized across industries and regional contexts. Global Gender Gap Report 2023 57