Shifting Paradigms For Gender Equity
In this special International Women’s Day edition of Now You KnOW, we look at the power of gender equity and how to move the needle across sectors.
Why Gender Equity Matters?
Countries with more women in government are more prosperous??
At the current rate of progress, full parity will not be reached for another 130 years, according to the World Economic Forum. All nations are different, and there is no single path for increasing the number of women in government leadership roles. What works for some might not work for others. But countries that are under-represented will continue to miss out on the benefits, and the gaps in their growth trajectories will only widen.?
The importance of women in leadership positions for health??
Women make up 65% of the healthcare workforce but hold just 30% of C-suite positions. This disparity is even more stark for CEO positions, where just 13% are female. To move the needle, businesses need to treat the goal of getting more women into the C-suite as a business objective. There's also a need for private equity to increase funding for companies with innovations targeted at women’s health. This includes broadening the scope of interest beyond areas typically associated with women’s health, like fertility and menopause, to conditions such as cardiovascular disease, which is the leading cause of death in women.?
Women footballers need to be at the center of the game?
The 2023 World Cup showed that aiming for commercial parity, or a sporting trophy, is not enough. Instead, it’s made clear what can go wrong when women aren’t central to their own game. From our experience working with leagues, clubs, and government bodies globally in women’s sport, adopting a women’s first approach is critical. This means reimagining women’s football from the ground up, catering to their unique biology and socialization. This approach needs to permeate across every part of the organization, especially in these three areas: leadership and governance, player proposition, and commercial.?
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The Path Forward?
Closing the gender gap in healthcare?
Although women have a longer life expectancy than men, they often experience worse health outcomes. Women are more likely to suffer from chronic pain, and due to biases suggesting that they are oversensitive to pain, they are less likely to be prescribed painkillers. Instead, they are often advised to seek psychological treatment. Women are diagnosed later than men for more than 700 diseases, including six non-specific types of cancer. Pharmaceutical companies have a role to play in closing this gap.??
Solving for AI’s bias?
Recognizing that artificial intelligence (AI) tends to perpetuate inequities may give us an advantage in the fight for fairness. It could be easier to mitigate AI’s biases than those perpetuated by humans, as a lack of fairness in AI can be systematized and quantified, making it more transparent than human decision-making, which is often plagued by unconscious prejudices and myths. AI doesn’t create bias, it serves as a mirror to surface examples of it — and it’s easier to stop something that can be seen and measured.?
Supporting blue collar women?
Job satisfaction rates for women have risen, yet many continue to suffer from a gender pay gap and report feeling mistreated or disrespected on the job. This is particularly true in blue-collar occupations that involve manual labor or skilled trades in areas like construction and manufacturing.? To attract and retain women in blue-collar positions, companies need to address the root causes that are driving women away from these jobs. This will require efforts to promote equal opportunities, ensure fair wages, and break down gender norms in the workplace.?
Using AI to make financial services more equitable??
The advent of AI has pushed financial services to be more mindful about aspects such as transparency, bias, and fairness. With generative AI, the industry will need to be more cautious about subtly gendered language or potentially westernized views being overly used, as the automation of technology is making us think more about systematic risk. The use of artificial intelligence could start to fill gaps in the data or make the most of newer, unstructured types of data, meaning that more people should have access to fairer decisions in future.?
Absolutely agree, Oliver Wyman! Gender equity is a crucial part of creating a more balanced and fair society. It's great to see discussions around bias in AI and the gender health gap. Let's keep pushing for change, supporting all women, and evolving the conscious practice of leadership.