Closing the Gender Gap....
According to the World Economic Forum’s recent report it will take another 132 years to close the global gender gap! As recent crises compound, women's workforce outcomes are suffering and the risk of global gender parity regressing intensifies.
The Global Gender Gap Index benchmarks the current state and evolution of gender parity across four key dimensions ; Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment. It is the longest-standing index which tracks progress towards closing these gaps and was incepted in 2006. It will take 155 years to close the Political Empowerment gender gap, 151 years for the Economic Participation and Opportunity gender gap and 22 years for the Educational Attainment gender gap.
Gender gaps in the workforce are affected by long-standing structural barriers, socioeconomic and technological transformation, as well as economic shocks. More women have been moving into paid work and leadership positions, yet globally societal expectations, employer policies, the legal environment and the availability of care continue to play an important role in the choice of educational tracks and career trajectories. Geopolitical conflict and climate change both impact women disproportionately. In addition, the projected deepening of the current cost-of-living crisis is impacting women more severely than men, as women continue to earn and accumulate wealth at lower levels. With rising childcare costs, there is a high risk that an asymmetric demand to provide unpaid care work will continue to be imposed on women. Pleasingly the share of women hired into leadership roles has seen a steady increase, from 33.3% in 2016 to 36.9% in 2022.
Excitingly we have a solution! The Global Impact Initiative’s Gender Equality fund is the world’s first, actively managed impact fund for Women and Girls. Gender equality is long overdue, and this investment solution enables investors to utilise investment capital to deliver empowerment for women in the workforce and better outcomes for girls' health, education, nutrition and social and economic empowerment. The fund has partnered with Robeco, Grameen Australia, Malala Fund, UN Women Australia, UNICEF Australia and World Vision to accelerate social impact for women and girls.
This innovative, impactful fund is available as an Australian Fund and a Dublin-based UCITs and the minimum investment is only $5,000. Please contact us via our website for more information should you be interested in investing in gender equality and closing the gender gap!