Coronavirus pandemic worsens gender gap, will now take 135 years to reach parity

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The Covid-19 pandemic had an adverse impact on the workforce composition and it will now take 135.6 years to close the gender gap worldwide, according to the Global Gender Gap Report -2021 prepared by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The report states that the hardest hit sectors by lockdowns and “rapid digitalisation are those where women are more frequently employed. Combined with the additional pressures of providing care in the home, the crisis has halted progress toward gender parity in several economies and industries,” writes Saadia Zahidi, managing director and head of the Centre for the New Economy and Society, WEF.

According to the report, South Asia is the “second lowest performer on the index after the Middle East and North Africa, with 62.3% of its overall gender gap closed. The projected time needed for this region to close gender gaps is now estimated at 195.4 years,” the report warns.

The 15th edition of the WEF gender gap report is an index on gender parity in 156 countries and is based on its graded evaluations on four broad benchmarks — women’s participation in politics and economy and their access to health and education in each of these countries.

India as the third worst performer in the region. Due to its large population, India’s performance has a substantial impact on the region’s overall performance.

Only 22.3% of women in India are active in the labour market, and India has fallen down on the political empowerment index as well by 13.5 percentage points, and a decline in the number of women ministers, from 23.1% in 2019 to 9.1% in 2021.

In the index of education attainment, India has been ranked at 114. But the two indices where India has fared the worst are “Health and Survival”, which includes the sex ratio, and economic participation of women.

The report notes that the economic participation gender gap actually widened in India by 3% this year. The share of women in professional and technical roles declined further to 29.2%. The share of women in senior and managerial positions also is at 14.6% and only 8.9% of firms in the country have top female managers.

The estimated earned income of women in India is only one-fifth of men’s, which puts the country among the bottom 10 globally on this indicator, it said.

May it be India or the world, women are trying hard to be at par in every possible way. But the system in which they been tied is pushing them back to spread their wings. Gender equality will only curtail when men and women would share their responsibilities equally.