Women's Workplace Equality Rankings: These two countries are at the bottom of the "women's power"

Women's workplace equality rankings are actually at the bottom of these two countries

On the first day after International Women's Day, let's take a look at several reports on women.

A report released by UN Women on the eve of International Women's Day entitled “A Review of Women's Rights 25 Years After the Beijing Conference” examines gender equality and the empowerment of women in the 25 years since the Fourth World Conference on Women Global progress in the field of rights.

During the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995, a forum of 31,549 people from non-governmental organizations around the world focused on the theme of "equality, development, and peace", discussing issues of concern to women worldwide and various issues involving women.

But the report released by UN Women shows that countries are making slow progress in achieving gender equality and hard-won gains are being threatened.

After reviewing the report “Women's Rights Review 25 Years After the Beijing Conference” released by the UN Women's Agency, there are three main problems in the gender imbalance in the workplace.

First, women's average wages are lower than men's.

Cartography: Hou Yutong

Second, the proportion of women participating in the labor market is lower than that of men.

Cartography: Hou Yutong

Third, women hold fewer positions than men.

Cartography: Hou Yutong

For the low proportion of women engaged in high-level academic work, the British magazine The Economist believes that the possible reason is that women are less confident than men.

The Economist cites the findings of a working paper published by a group of researchers from five universities in the United States and Europe to support this hypothesis.

The paper counted the number of participants and questions from 247 academic reports and seminars. These academic events are held in 35 universities in ten countries and cover biology, psychology and philosophy.

On average, half of the participants in each seminar are women, but male participants are more than 2.5 times more likely to ask questions to speakers than women. People may think that asking questions is a more capable performance (this may be right or wrong).

However, the paper states that only at seminars where men first ask questions can there be far more male questioners than female questioners. If the first person to ask is a woman, on average, the ratio of men to women in the questioner is equal to that of the participants.

In addition, The Economist magazine is based on 10 indicators: education level, labor force participation, salary, childcare costs, maternity and paternity rights, business school applications, and the proportion of women in senior management, company boards and parliaments. , Ranking women's workplace equality in 29 countries.

Among them, the Nordic countries, which pay attention to equality, generally perform better, while women in Japan, South Korea and Turkey are still seriously behind.

In South Korea, women's salaries are on average 35% lower than men's, accounting for only one-seventh of managers and only one-third of company directors. In Iceland, the number one, women account for nearly half of executives and directors. The rise of the United States under Trump from 20th to 19th is partly due to the increase in female labor force participation.

The Economist further pointed out that in order to improve women's leadership, the implementation of mandatory quotas on the company's board of directors is a useful attempt.

Since the introduction of a compulsory quota system in Norway in 2008 (requiring listed companies to leave at least 40% of their seats to women), the quota system has become popular everywhere. In Belgium, Germany and France, the proportion of women on the boards of large public companies is 30% to 40%, three to five times that of a decade ago. In the United States, which has no quota system, the percentage of women on the board of directors has slowly risen to 20%.

On the other hand, The Economist also pointed out that given the complexity of the workplace, it is not appropriate to deal with quotas so simply. Such measures can be used at most as a temporary tool rather than a permanent tool to accelerate the process of professional equality. Sexual solution.

Using other measures to improve women's prospects for career advancement will have a more positive impact on women and their employers. For example, men should be encouraged to take parental leave so that women's opportunities to reach the top in the workplace will not be compromised by childcare; Flexible working hours should become the norm; high-quality childcare and more flexible school schedules will also help.

"The more important task is to help more low- and middle-income women keep their jobs, and to create conditions that make it easier for them to compete with their talents," said The Economist.

The "feminine power" can be expected in the future

At the branch of the "China Development Forum 2019" Economic Summit hosted by the Development Research Center of the State Council on March 23 last year, the guests discussed the topic of "female leadership: a new force for change" and explored women's role in the current economic and social development. important position.

Fidelity International CEO Li Chengen pointed out at the meeting that women's participation in business management is more important than a decision-making ability. If women and men can manage in pairs, companies will be more productive and better able to solve problems.

"Therefore, to give women a real chance to enter the leadership level, make some adjustments in terms of onboarding, performance, salary, incentives, etc. Such adjustments are gradual, and each step will move towards the big goal." Li Chengen said.

It is hoped that in the near future, there will be less and less prejudice and discrimination against women in the workplace, and women will be more calm and unhindered in their struggle to break the "ceiling" of professional growth.

As UN Secretary-General Guterres called on Twitter: For centuries, discrimination, patriarchy and misogyny have created a gender power gap in our economic, political and sociocultural framework. On Women's Day, I call on everyone, men and women, to join the fight for gender equality.

Author: Mei Yawen