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Blogs and Opinion

  • COVID-19 lockdowns saw couples share housework and childcare more evenly – but not for long

    Tuesday 25th of January 2022

    It may feel like a common occurrence today, but if you cast your mind back to the first COVID lockdown, having whole families working and studying from home was a very unfamiliar situation. And it was one that had unfamiliar consequences.

  • How has COVID-19 impacted the US gender gap?

    Thursday 20th of January 2022

    The COVID-19 recession resulted in a steep but transitory contraction in employment, with greater job losses among women than men. The recovery began in April 2020 and is not complete. As of the third quarter of 2021, the labor force ages 25 and older remains nearly 2 million below its level in the same quarter of 2019.

  • How female inventors can fix STEM’s gender gap

    Wednesday 19th of January 2022

    While not specifically addressed by studies on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women, its impact on women in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) workforce is likely to manifest in a greater gender gap than was documented pre-pandemic.

  • Academics face bias for doing ‘feminine’ research

    Tuesday 18th of January 2022

    An analysis of 1 million doctoral dissertations finds widespread bias against research that just seems feminine, even if it’s not explicitly about women or gender.

  • Oxfam: This is what inequality looks like in 2022 – and 6 ways to solve it 

    Monday 17th of January 2022

    Inequalities have been deepened in the midst of the pandemic, as a result of violent economic policies contributing to thousands of deaths a day, according to a new report by Oxfam International.

  • Gender Day gives rise to the forgotten energy providers in the climate conversation 

    Thursday 13th of January 2022

    The singular issue that emerged on Gender Day during during last year’s COP26 was the need for disadvantaged women, who are the majority producers and users of biomass energy, to be included within the climate effort.

  • As per a gender pay gap study, women doctors are paid $2m less than their male counterparts

    Wednesday 12th of January 2022

    In a world where several countries have had equal pay laws in place for decades, you might think the gender pay gap would be non-existent by now.

  • Why the road to stakeholder capitalism begins with diverse boards

    Thursday 6th of January 2022

    The age of stakeholder capitalism has arrived. The question is, how do businesses shift from an exclusive focus on financial performance for shareholders toward generating shared value for shareholders and other stakeholders? How do we make stakeholder capitalism more fully lived and felt.

  • Study reveals the violence faced by migrant women across the globe

    Wednesday 22nd of December 2021

    There were seven women and three children among the 27 people who tragically lost their lives in the English Channel recently. Women and children are frequently among those seeking a new life in Europe: as of November 21, this year 27.1% of migrants arriving by sea in the Mediterranean are women or children. The channel presents a final dangerous crossing after what is normally a long, treacherous and often violent journey.

  • STEM has a gender problem. We must address it in the COVID-19 recovery

    Thursday 9th of December 2021

    According to Unesco data, globally, women are progressing toward parity in higher education (they represent 45 to 55 percent of bachelor and master levels of study and 44 percent of PhD’s). However, when looking at those disciplines driving advances in the digital economy and the fourth industrial revolution — key drivers of the post-pandemic recovery — such as ICT, computer sciences, physics, mathematics or engineering women remain a minority.

  • ‘One step forward, 3 steps back’: Gender equality and COVID-19

    Thursday 9th of December 2021

    Governments, companies and investors must do more to reverse the blow dealt to gender equality by the COVID-19 pandemic and try to cement some silver linings of the crisis for women, experts told a panel at the Reuters Next conference on Thursday.

  • 5 ways trade can support a gender-equal recovery

    Monday 6th of December 2021

    Ahead of the now postponed 12th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO), member countries are considering how to advance the still incomplete agenda on gender and trade. The evidence is increasingly clear that while the international trade architecture itself is embedded with the principle of non-discrimination, the benefits of trade are not equally distributed across gender lines. WTO negotiators should take concrete steps to ensure trade policies positively impact women – as consumers, entrepreneurs, producers, suppliers and workers.

  • BRIT awards: Next year’s ceremony will have gender-neutral categories

    Friday 3rd of December 2021

    Britain’s pop music honours, the BRITs, will get rid of its female and male categories from next year, introducing gender-neutral awards for local and international artists, organisers said.

  • Negative feedback: how do men and women respond differently?

    Friday 3rd of December 2021

    A while back, I was talking about a new opportunity at my current job with a friend over dinner. On one hand, I felt confident I would be great at it if given the chance. On the other hand, if they rejected me, I was ready and willing to interpret that as ironclad proof that I was terrible.

  • Children in wealthy countries are less optimistic about their future than those in developing nations – here’s why

    Wednesday 1st of December 2021

    Will you be better off than your parents?

  • Why women’s participation is essential to achieve global climate targets

    Wednesday 17th of November 2021

    We are engineers and scientists. We happen to be women, but first and foremost we are citizens of this planet who believe that immediate action is imperative to address the climate emergency.

  • Here are 6 books Emma Watson wants you to read on climate change

    Tuesday 16th of November 2021

    Actor Emma Watson – best known for her role as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films – has been hiding books on climate activism around Glasgow during COP26.

  • Women are more team-oriented, according to research that may help close the gender pay gap

    Tuesday 16th of November 2021

    Women are more likely to take risks and engage in competitive activities if they’re allowed to share their potential winnings with peers, according to new research I co-authored. Since one explanation of the gender pay gap is that women tend to be less competitive than men in workplace settings, this finding could lead to ways to narrow it.

  • Climate change: How is it affecting girls’ education?

    Tuesday 16th of November 2021

    Young Lives’ unique longitudinal research reveals in stark terms how childhood exposure to climate shocks such as droughts and floods has an unequal impact on children’s development, affecting their nutrition and access to education. This impedes their learning progress, with poorest children most affected.

  • COP26: Experts give their verdict on the summit and the Glasgow Climate Pact

    Monday 15th of November 2021

    The Glasgow Climate Pact is not perfect, but still strengthens the Paris agreement in several ways. Acknowledging that there is no safe limit for global warming, the Pact resolves to limit global warming to 1.5°C, instead of the Paris text of “well below 2°C”. Crucially it also delivers a strong framework for tracking commitments against real-world progress.

  • More women in the US complete college than men. These charts explain why

    Monday 15th of November 2021

    The growing gender gap in higher education – both in enrollment and graduation rates – has been a topic of conversation and debate in recent months. Young women are more likely to be enrolled in college today than young men, and among those ages 25 and older, women are more likely than men to have a four-year college degree. The gap in college completion is even wider among younger adults ages 25 to 34.

  • How women are staking out a space in the blockchain world

    Friday 12th of November 2021

    As an artist and women’s rights activist, Maliha Abidi is adept at using digital technologies, so when she came across non-fungible tokens she quickly figured they could be a way to reach more people, and for women artists to gain a bigger following.

  • COP26: Why we need more women at the top tackling climate change

    Tuesday 9th of November 2021

    There should be more women at the top of multilateral organisations to help alleviate the financial impact of climate change, Amanda Blanc, chief executive of British insurer Aviva and chair of a climate action group, said.

  • Women are burning out doing invisible ‘office housework’

    Monday 8th of November 2021

    Women are working harder – and getting more burned out – but their efforts are being overlooked, according to a new study.

  • Why rethinking care work is crucial for a gender inclusive recovery

    Monday 1st of November 2021

    A year and a half since the start of the pandemic and women continue to be disproportionately impacted due to an inadequate gender responsive recovery from the health and socioeconomic crises.

  • Gender pay gap: Women earn nearly 20% less than their male counterparts, study shows

    Thursday 28th of October 2021

    Latina women in the U.S. had to work all the way through 2020 and well into October 2021 to earn the equivalent of the 2020 wages of white, non-Hispanic U.S. men. October 21 marked Latina Equal Pay Day, the last in a row of equal pay days for different races and ethnicities published by the National Women’s Law Center, also comprising Black Women’s Equal Pay Day on August 3 and Native American Women’s Equal Pay Day on September 8 of 2021. The equal pay day for all U.S. women (compared to all U.S. men) was March 24. This means that on average, American working women are paid 82 cents for every dollar that working men make.

  • This is why human and nature capital must redefine wealth for a sustainable future

    Thursday 28th of October 2021

    Economic growth can only be considered truly sustainable if human and natural capital are part of the equation, as gross domestic product and other traditional measures fall short, a new report from the World Bank showed.

  • How does your personality type affect your income?

    Thursday 21st of October 2021

    You’ve just finished giving a presentation at work, and an outspoken coworker challenges your ideas. Do you:

  • Here’s how organizations can put intersectionality to work

    Thursday 21st of October 2021

    In recent years there has been much discussion about the impact that racial, gender-based and class-based discrimination and discriminatory practices have on society. Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw has been one of the leaders in this field. She first coined the term ‘intersectionality’ which she defined as the complex, cumulative way in which the effects of multiple forms of discrimination combine, overlap, or intersect, especially in the experiences of marginalized individuals or groups.

  • 4 ways media and entertainment could be more equitable and diverse

    Thursday 14th of October 2021

    Media and entertainment companies are increasingly recognizing the challenge of closing the gap between intention and action on fostering diversity and inclusion.

  • This is the UN’s plan for a gender-equal recovery

    Wednesday 13th of October 2021

    “COVID-19 has revealed and worsened inequalities and is a reminder of just how unsustainable and fragile the world’s economies and democracies are,” according to a new United Nations blueprint for a post-COVID recovery that seeks equality and justice for women.

  • What is ‘Instagram therapy’ and can it help women?

    Monday 11th of October 2021

    Women make up the majority of people living with mood disorders in Canada. However, treatments and resources that are adapted to their needs are still lacking. Looking for ways to feel better, many women are turning to social media platforms like Instagram.

  • Why are males still the default subjects in medical research?

    Monday 11th of October 2021

    Women and girls account for 50% of the population, yet most health and physiology research is conducted in males.

  • Women could lead longer, healthier lives – first global index of women’s health urges action from policymakers

    Wednesday 29th of September 2021

    Over the past year, more than 1.5 billion women worldwide were not tested for some of the most prevalent and pernicious diseases women face: cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure and sexually transmitted diseases/infections (STDs/STIs).

  • Why the world needs to invest in female climate entrepreneurs

    Monday 27th of September 2021

    In the fight against climate change, entrepreneurship and innovation – known as “greentech” – are essential. Women are more affected by climate change than men, and yet greentech is currently a male-dominated field; in Canada, only 1 in 10 greentech business founders are women and only 19% of greentech startups have at least one female founder. When it comes to creating climate solutions, the female perspective is sorely lacking.

  • How to fix the gender pension gap

    Monday 27th of September 2021

    The gender pension gap exists in virtually every retirement income system around the world. The range is remarkable, with Japan having an almost 50% gap whereas Estonia’s gap is less than 5%. By today’s values, on an average wage this gap can represent $8,400 per year in the US and £6,000 per year in the UK.

  • SDIS21: Society & the Future of Work – What are the challenges in making society and work more sustainable?

    Thursday 16th of September 2021

    In the decade leading up to 2020, we saw significant, albeit slow, progress towards making education and work more equitable and inclusive.

  • 4 ways to address the gender finance gap and empower women

    Wednesday 15th of September 2021

    “Nothing bad happens when women have more money” states Sallie Krawcheck, a former Wall Street executive and the CEO and founder of Ellevest, a female focussed investment platform. Sallie is one of a growing group of influential and vocal women who are espousing the idea of financial feminism, which stands for financial inclusion and equality for women, not only relating to their earnings, but also to building and keeping wealth.

  • This is the main barrier stopping female merchants from using digital payments

    Tuesday 14th of September 2021

    Building trust in digital payments is crucial to unlocking the potential of women merchants in India.

  • Lessons from Tanzania: How soccer and sex education can change girls’ lives

    Friday 10th of September 2021

    Being an adolescent anywhere is challenging. This is particularly true in sub-Saharan Africa, where adolescents have some of the world’s highest rates of HIV infection, unintended teenage pregnancy, and intimate partner violence.

  • How improving water security is tackling the gender gap in Mexico City

    Wednesday 1st of September 2021

    Water for human consumption is increasingly inaccessible, due to poor management, degradation of water sources, the effects of climate change and more.

  • ‘They’re not able to govern without 50% of the population.’ Former mayor speaks out for women in Afghanistan

    Friday 27th of August 2021

    Zarifa Ghafari was one of Afghanistan’s first female mayors but has fled the country as a result of the Taliban’s advances.

  • All-women Islamic choir smashes gender taboos in Egypt

    Thursday 26th of August 2021

    The words of the Islamic hymns being rehearsed in a small studio just outside Cairo are well known among Egyptian Muslims, but they have never sounded so different. Here, they are being sung by women.

  • Gender gap: This is how we can build an equal economic recovery

    Wednesday 25th of August 2021

    Progress on reaching gender parity has stalled and even gone backwards in the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • How to avoid gender bias in job postings

    Sunday 22nd of August 2021

    Women remain underrepresented in a number of high-profile fields like finance and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).

  • Agenda Dialogues: Mind the Gender Gap – Delivering an Equal Economic Recovery

    Wednesday 18th of August 2021

    With women’s jobs close to twice as likely to be cut during this recession as those held by men, the pandemic has set the world back 36 years in its quest to achieve global gender parity.

  • What risk and overconfidence can tell us about the gender pay gap 

    Sunday 15th of August 2021

    Gendered differences in men’s and women’s behavioral traits — namely, risk preferences and overconfidence — generate differences in job search behavior and may explain as much as 25 percent of the difference between men’s and women’s earnings in their first jobs, according to survey data on job search behavior analyzed by Patricia Cortés, Jessica Pan, Laura Pilossoph, and Basit Zafar in Gender Differences in Job Search and the Earnings Gap: Evidence from Business Majors (NBER Working Paper 28820).

  • How to nurture inclusivity and create a more diverse workforce

    Friday 13th of August 2021

    While the market seemingly recovers from the effects of the pandemic, the recession’s effects on Black, Brown and other underrepresented communities have been devastating, with experts calling the economic comeback “the most unequal in modern US history.”

  • 5 ways to get more women working in AI

    Thursday 12th of August 2021

    Artificial intelligence (AI) has become embedded in everyday life around the world, touching how we work, play, purchase and communicate. The power of AI lies in its potential to improve lives, but this potential can only be realized if AI represents the entire population. Increasing diversity in AI development is crucial to delivering equitable outcomes.

  • World Bank: This is how COVID-19 has affected women’s employment

    Tuesday 10th of August 2021

    At the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, experts were quick to warn us about the disproportionate impact the crisis would have on socially excluded groups, such as women. The urgent need to respond to the health crisis was undeniable, but at the same time, understanding the differentiated effects of the pandemic on excluded groups would be key to enable the design of inclusive and resilient recovery efforts . Yet, social distancing measures created new challenges for those seeking to gather evidence on such impacts. We needed innovative approaches to collect data and we needed them fast.

  • People who speak more are more likely to be considered leaders

    Monday 9th of August 2021

    If you want to be a leader, start talking. It doesn’t even particularly matter what you say, according to a study testing the appropriately-named “babble hypothesis”.

  • How can Canada encourage more female workers to join the construction trade?

    Thursday 5th of August 2021

    A shortage of skilled workers is intensifying in Canada, potentially threatening the pace of the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, and that has policymakers looking at a largely untapped market for new construction workers: Women.

  • This is how the US female workforce has been affected by COVID-19

    Friday 30th of July 2021

    When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Farida Mercedes, an HR executive at a global cosmetic company, was on the cusp of a promotion. She had worked 17 years with the company. Her six- and seven-year-old sons needed a full-time parent to help them navigate the newfound challenges of online learning. Mercedes and her husband, a corrections officer, never discussed who would leave their job to help the kids during their school day. “I took that burden on myself, and he was very supportive,” she said. “But it just was no question.”

  • CEO diversity: does it explain CEO-to-employee pay ratio?

    Friday 30th of July 2021

    Kamala Harris’ election as US Vice-President has drawn attention to the fact that female and minority leaders are underrepresented in all walks of life. This is especially evident in the corner office of US companies. Despite their unique leadership qualities, data from 2017-2018 for S&P 1500 firms shows that women hold only 5%, and minority representatives only 7% of CEO positions. Recently, the TIAA named Thasunda Brown Duckett as its CEO, only the second-ever Black female chief executive in the Fortune 500.

  • Do you need to wear a mask if you’re fully vaccinated? An expert explains

    Thursday 29th of July 2021

    There is clear and mounting evidence that – though rare – breakthrough COVID-19 infections can occur, even in the fully vaccinated. This is particularly true with emerging variants of concern.

  • This is how female athletes are taking a stand against sexist clothing rules

    Monday 26th of July 2021

    Women’s dress codes in sport are determined by “traditions” that are both outdated and gendered. Their outfits have long tried to reconcile notions of “femininity” with those of “athleticism”, but this process has turned women into objects to be admired rather than being valued for their sporting skills.

  • What is the state of gender equality at the Tokyo Olympics?

    Thursday 22nd of July 2021

    In March, the International Olympic Committee and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Organizing Committee announced that the Tokyo Games would be the “first gender-balanced Olympic Games in history.”

  • Supported by UN Women, police forces are becoming more responsive to survivors of violence

    Wednesday 21st of July 2021

    In the past 18 months, by trapping women with their abusers, COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns have worsened the already-widespread violence against women while preventing many of them from getting help. But even those who do manage to contact the police come up against another long-standing challenge: a culture and system that treats the survivor as a big part of the problem. “The biggest challenge we face is that women do not report cases of violence because of victim-blaming attitudes by police officers,” says Police Superintendent Maria Mahmood, Director at the National Police Academy in Pakistan. “When I started working as a police officer, I was shocked to see the deep-rooted bias of a patriarchal police force. The criminal justice system is discriminatory, and also stigmatizes victims of violence and does not provide efficient support for them.” While there are many other causes besides unsympathetic officers, worldwide only 1 out of 10 female survivors seek help from the police, according to a 2015 United Nations report. UN Women has been trying to encourage police reforms in its work on Essential Services, and with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in its work on police and justice responses to gender-based violence against women.

  • To solve big issues like climate change, we need to reframe our problems

    Monday 19th of July 2021

    Imagine you own an office building and your tenants are complaining that the elevator is way too slow. What do you do?

  • Why venture capital should commit to gender balance

    Friday 16th of July 2021

    The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on women’s economic opportunities, mental health, wellbeing, and livelihoods. Female workers were among the hardest hit by the crisis – with over 64 million jobs lost in 2020 – as were female entrepreneurs and job creators. Moreover, the persistent gender digital divide has led to greater inequality in accessing digital devices and online services such as education, healthcare, and credit from financial institutions.

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