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In the U.K., a new political party is focused on achieving gender equality in business and society – including boosting the income of women to match their male counterparts.
Founders Sandi Toksvig, Sophie Walker, and Catherine Mayer officially launched the Women’s Equality Party last month.
“We have to stop being told to wait for equality,” Ms. Toksvig, a British-Danish writer and comedian, told an interviewer. “I’m done waiting.”
Despite the UK’s 1970 Equal Pay Act, which prohibits inequitable treatment of women and men in pay and employment conditions, British women still earn nearly 20 percent less than their male colleagues.
So far the Women’s Equality Party has set up more than 65 branches and drawn over 45,000 members and supporters. Among their goals: to make such a profound impact that they put themselves out of existence.
“In ten years’ time, I hope we don’t exist,” Ms. Toksvig told the New York Times.
Around the world, women will probably have to wait a bit longer.
According to the authors of the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index 2015, at the current rate of change it will take countries around the world another 118 years – until 2133 – to close the gender gap.
The newly-released report ranks 145 economies according to how well they leverage their female talent based on factors like economics, education, health, and political participation.
This is the tenth year the Swiss foundation has published its gender survey. With a decade of data to survey, it’s clear there has been great progress, but as the report says, “stubborn inequalities remain.”
In fact gender inequality was a big topic at the WEF’s Davos conference last January.
Davos is the annual confab that brings together the world’s rich and powerful to discuss topics of global significance. It has been held for the past 45 years and is considered the best place on earth to find out what global decision makers are thinking about.
Last year gender inequality was very much on their minds. One session called “Ending Poverty Through Parity” asked the question – how can investing in women and girls accelerate progress on the new Millennium Development Goals?
It’s too bad so few of the people pondering gender issues at Davos are women. Last year the gathering of 2,500 attendees had a record female participation rate of 17 percent.
How long do we have to wait until it’s 50 percent?
© Copyright 2015
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