According To World Economic Forum, Cost-of-Living Crisis Results In A Continuously Widening Gender-Gap
A cost-of-living crisis was recently sparked by the sudden hike in the prices of fuel and food. This can be seen globally, from India all the way to The United States of America. We’re all facing these hikes and it seems to have affected the way we live our lives, in a massive manner. It doesn’t just stop there, though. This crisis seems to have regressed the world into the past as it is erasing the progress we achieved on our gender equality goals. Following a recent report by the World Economic Forum, it has been declared that there is a visible and continuously widening gender gap in the global labour force, due to this crisis. This has pushed gender equality further out of our reach which is unfortunate because it was a deep struggle getting here.
Various reports through the first month of the year had hoped that the year 2022 would be the year of ‘making up’ for the past destruction caused due to the pandemic including the economic, food and gender disparity crisis but unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be happening and the cost-of-living crisis keeps increasing. Evidently, the gender gap keeps widening day by day too.
According to various reports and an article published by Time, the forum estimates that it will now take 132 years—down from 136—for the world to reach gender parity, which the organization defines around four main factors: salaries and economic opportunity, education, health, and political empowerment.
Also Read: Research Says Women Are More Likely Than Men To Be In “Lower-Earning Pathways.”
Saadia Zahidi, the managing director at the World Economic Forum strongly believes that “In face of a weak recovery, government and business must make two sets of efforts: targeted policies to support women’s return to the workforce and women’s talent development in the industries of the future. Otherwise, we risk eroding the gains of the last decades permanently and losing out on the future economic returns of diversity.”
She believes that the strong effect of the cost-of-living crisis of this crisis on women might also be due to the lack of care infrastructure for them and their families which is a real shame.
India has ranked shockingly low for the 16th year in a row according to the World Economic Forum. We stand at 135th place in terms of gender parity, even after the country has shown some improvement in the areas of economic participation and opportunity.
This means that it’s time to stop the cost-of-living crisis and instead, create stronger policies that are focused primarily on gender equality with the ever-widening gap in mind. It’s about time the country pulls up and starts walking in the right direction.
