Five insights on closing the gender gap

It’s clearly in the interests of both business and government to pull together to level the playing field for men and women. Gender diversity is becoming an important factor in the success of businesses across the globe, with women making up the majority of both high-skilled talent and consumers in most developed and emerging markets. Governments are also looking for ways to build productive workforces and with women making up the majority of those graduating from universities, many countries are ideally poised to maximize the returns from women’s participation in the labour market.

At the same time, the social context is also changing. There is a shift in values in many large economies as gender equality becomes a new societal norm and while women still bear a disproportionate share of the unpaid work at home, traditional roles and responsibilities are giving way to new expectations around work and family for both women and men.

Governments have various tools at their disposal to influence gender diversity in the workforce. Childcare facilities, parental leave, tax incentives and laws can all encourage more women to work or remain in the workforce. Companies too can create a favourable environment for women by ensuring a commitment from leadership, monitoring gaps, setting targets, developing accountability mechanisms and addressing the corporate culture for diversity.

However, dialogue and collaboration between government and business on gender parity is rare, if not non-existent, in most countries.

Two years ago, the World Economic Forum launched its first Gender Parity Taskforces to encourage collaboration for closing gender gaps. These schemes are now bearing fruit and generating insights on how different sectors can work together to bring about real change.

The pilot taskforces aim to close the economic gender gap by up to 10% in three years in Mexico, Turkey, Japan and the Republic of Korea. They bring together businesses and government – represented by both male and female leaders – to share experiences, agree on goals and reduce complexity. They also serve as a neutral platform to speed up progress on or existing initiatives. Bringing more women into employment, increasing their participation at professional and senior levels and closing the wage gap are amongst the focus areas in each of these countries. In addition, in Mexico and Turkey, there was a specific focus on integrating more women-owned businesses into the value chains of taskforce member companies.

When influential leaders in the business community join with senior government figures to make a public commitment on gender parity, the positive effect ripples out well beyond the taskforces themselves.

As we head into the final year of the taskforces in Mexico, Turkey and Japan, given the size and influence of the constituents involved, we expect tangible progress at the national level, including increased female representation in the labour force and a stronger emphasis on gender in national economic policy-making and on the business agenda. All four countries have made visible progress in the Global Gender Gap Index, closing their economic gender gaps from their starting points in 2012 by 2.5% in Mexico, 9.5% in Turkey, 7.4% in Japan and 1.6% in Korea.

While the aim of the taskforces is to tackle each individual country’s gender gap, the lessons on public-private collaboration are more wide-ranging, After two years into the taskforce terms, what have we learnt? The following insights have emerged, pointing to potential models for other countries to follow.

1. It is critical the rationale for gender parity is clearly developed and articulated as part of any national process to close economic gender gaps. For example, in Japan, as in many ageing economies, as labour forces shrink and talent shortages emerge, women’s integration into the labour force is key to promoting dynamism. This rationale has been clearly articulated by and to government and business leaders, creating the necessary consensus for change.

2. Long-term strategies to address gender diversity should be designed to withstand political cycles or business investment horizons. For example, since the initiation of the taskforces, all four countries experienced changes in political leadership. The fact that the activities were carried forward successfully in most countries despite changes to some of the original leadership can be attributed to the taskforces being anchored in business and government administrations more broadly.

3. A common starting point and common vision is critical in ensuring the commitment of key actors. For example, in Mexico all member companies in the taskforce took part in the same assessment to form the basis for a common understanding of the challenges involved and helped identify key points of intervention. Mutual accountability, knowledge sharing and best-practice exchange between companies follows from that base.

4. A highly structured, metrics-based approach to implement commitments and track progress is critical for sustaining momentum. In Korea, the newest Taskforce launched in 2014, strong leadership by the government has accelerated the mobilization of the business community and led to measurable commitments and action plans.

5. Beyond political and business leadership, the engagement of media, academic experts and civil society representatives helps ensure transparency and success in this transformation process. In Turkey, integrating these constituents into a broader leadership base has been helpful in creating awareness, multiplying impact beyond the taskforce membership, building trust and creating a positive momentum for accountability.

The business, economic and moral case for closing the gender gap is clear. We’ll get there more quickly if different sectors work together towards this common goal.

Author: Saadia Zahidi is a Senior Director, Head of Gender Parity and Human Capital and Constituents at the World Economic Forum.

Image: A couple holds hands as they walk across a street in New York, September 4, 2013. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson.