Closing the gap
Women have made huge progress in the workplace, but still get lower pay and far fewer top jobs than men. Barbara Beck asks why, in the first article from our special report(62)
Women have made huge progress in the workplace, but still get lower pay and far fewer top jobs than men. Barbara Beck asks why, in the first article from our special report(62)
It’s taking a long time, but things are getting better for women. In health and education, most countries have largely closed the gap between the sexes; in politics, the gap is wide but progress rapid. But the most egregious gap between men and women is still in the world of work.
Women make up 49% of China’s population and 46% of its labour force, a higher proportion than in many Western countries. China is generally reckoned to be more open to women than other East Asian countries, with Japan the worst. But there's still much to do
Men are still more likely than women to be in paid work, but the most vexing gap between the sexes is the continued disparity in earnings. In America the gap between wages has halved since 1970, from 40% to 20%; across the OECD the gap averages around 18%
Women are now more highly educated than men. Across rich countries the share of those aged over 25 who have had some form of higher education is now 33%, against 28% of men in the same age group. But they are still not getting the jobs to match
Both as entrepreneurs and as employees, women still seem to be at a disadvantage. The most obvious explanation is that most of them have children. But across the world there are huge differences in the acceptance of maternity leave (and quality of child-care)
In America women last year made up less than 18% of senior managers and not even 8% of the highest earners. Among the Fortune 500 companies only about 15% of the most senior managers and only 3% of the CEOs were women. There are not nearly enough skirts in the boardroom
Read our special report on women in the workplace.
On December 6th the author of our special report will answer your questions on Twitter.
From December 7th to December 16th readers and special guests use our online debating platform to contest the motion, "This house believes that a woman's place is at work."
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