The Global Gender Gap

Gender is not only about fairness and equity, it is also about economic empowerment and includes many political, social and cultural dimensions. For decades now many countries around the globe have made substantial progress towards gender equality in fields of education and work. Nonetheless there is still a gender gap, women still earn less than men, are less likely to make it to the top of the job ladder and spend probably more of their final years in poverty. Gender inequality means wasting years of funding girls and young females in education, this implies less essential contribution that woman make to the economy. Making the best out of their talents, whether man or woman ensures that all have an equal chance

However the most challenging gaps remain in the economy, the political dimensions and in the health sector. Only an average of 68 percent of the global economic gender gap is reached so far, which implies that the economic gap will not be closed for another 170 years. Western Europe is closer with approximately 47 years, whereas the Middle East and North Africa will require 356 years to close the economic gender gap. When it comes to the political dimension, the gap narrows by 9 percent since 2006, meaning on present development it could be closed within 82 years. For the health sector it cannot be defined up to now, how much time is needed to close the health gender gap. Interestingly the gap is nowadays larger than it stood in 2006, in part due to specific issues in some countries like China and India. (World Economic Forum, 2016, p.24

This image is stereotypically masculine with characteristics as aggressiveness, strength and competitive thinking. Such way of stereotyping has come across for years and is still a topic in the 21st century, accounting for major barriers to women´s entry into top management positions, simply because female workers do not fit the image of the masculine leader. Therefore Affirmative Action programs modified hiring practices within organizations, requiring open recruitment advertisements and selection based on gender, race and age neutral indications of competence. These changes in recruiting implicate increasing proportions of women, people of color and elderly in a variety of occupations. (Acker, 2009, p.208 f) Another effective tool to increase the number of female workers, especially at board level, may be a quota. Further instruments to offset the gender imbalance would include the target setting and the monitoring and release of progress. (OECD, 2012,