The gender power gap is defined as the proportional power held by women in leadership and management positions relative to men (such as the gap in top executive positions). [1] This measurement distinguishes itself from gender diversity, which only measures the presence of women at the top table. Instead, gender power gap specifically focuses on the value and number of top executive women, who hold decision-making power and authority in the institutions they work for. Executive positions held by women, typically as chief human resources officer, tend to have a fraction of the authority of male executives. Similarly in politics, women tend to be assigned roles which deal with family and other social issues, whereas men are assigned to tackle economic and structural developmental challenges. [1] [2] According to UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, who coined the term, the gender power gap that exists in societies, cultures and political systems is also present in economies and corporations. [2]
According to a 2015 UN report, women tend only to have leverage in a minority of decision-making roles in both the private and public sectors. [3] A separate study in 2022, led by Professor Andreas Hoepner of the graduate business school at the University of Dublin, found while women accounted for a quarter of top executive decision-making positions at S&P 500 companies, they controlled only 1 percent of the value of shares held among their fellow corporate leaders. [4] The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and UN Women found in January 2023, when compiling the map "Women in politics", that at global level, gender parity in political decision making and leadership roles, in spite of improvements, is still a very distant goal. [5] [6]
The term gender power gap was coined in March 2020 by António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, when he stated that the gender pay gap is "just a symptom of the gender power gap." [7] Guterres argued the gender imbalance between men and women exists because "gender equality is fundamentally a question of power". He proclaimed “centuries of discrimination and deep-rooted patriarchy have created a yawning gender power gap in our economies, our political systems, and our corporations”, and expressed how women are "still excluded from the top table, from governments and prestigious award ceremonies, and corporate boards". [7] In other words, it comes down to an imbalance in the amount of power men and women possess. [8]
The Canadian publication, The Globe and Mail, echoed Guterres' view in its 2021 "Power Gap" series, which analysed hundreds of public sector salary records. The series found that women are consistently "outnumbered, outranked, and out-earned" by men in management positions across various institutions, including universities, and public corporations. [9] Of the 171 organisations that disclosed full workplace data, The Globe and Mail found men outnumbered women at 84% and out-earned women on average 68% of the time. [9]
The gender power gap webinar hosted by gender data company ExecuShe and UN Women's Women's Empowerment Principles, highlighted that certain executive positions hold more power than others. For example, a CEO from a technology company typically holds 56% of decision-making power, while the CFO holds 12%, the CTO and CBO hold 11%, and the CHRO holds only 4%. [1] Women are more likely to hold CHRO positions, further contributing to the gender power gap. The webinar also found that on average, women executives hold just 10.7% of power in G20 companies, despite representing 15.9% of executive positions. Some countries, such as Australia (21.2%), South Africa (19.8%), and Canada (16.7%), fare better than others in terms of the gender power gap. Countries like Argentina (3.9%), South Korea (2.1%), and Saudi Arabia (1.8%) were found to have the lowest gender power gap figures. [1]
Further research with The Female Lead revealed 292 companies in the S&P 500 placed less than 10% of the value of corporate stock in women's hands. [10] The full list of women shareholders included notable names such as:
The UN Women report says global percentage of female MPs marginally increased to 26.5% from 25.5% in 2021, whereas percentage of female Speakers of Parliament marginally improved to 22.7% from 20.9% in 2021. The report indicates wide regional disparity, such as female MPs in European Nordic countries constitute 45.7% of the legislative whole, whereas in the Middle East and North Africa region just 17.7% of MPs are women. [5] [6]
Only 13 countries have 50% or more cabinet level ministers, Nicaragua (62.5%), Chile (62.5%), Mozambique (55%), Andorra (50%), Colombia (50%); Germany, Netherlands, Norway (50% each), Belgium (57.1%), Liechtenstein (60%), Spain (63.6%), Finland (64.3%), leading with Albania (66.7%). There are 17 other countries having women’s representation among Cabinet Ministers between 40 and 49.9%. Of these, nine states are in Europe, but nine countries — mainly from Oceania and Western Asia — do not have any female representation among their cabinet members heading ministries. [5] [6] At the global level, as of 1 January 2023, only 22.8% of Cabinet Ministers in Europe, 31.6% in North America, and 30.1% in Latin America and the Caribbean were women. These numbers were atypical, as for example representation in Cabinet ministerial level drops to 10.1% in Central and Southern Asia and 8.1% in the Pacific Islands (Oceania excluding Australia and New Zealand). [5] [6]
The power gap is also maintained by women being limited to certain portfolios. Women tend to lead policy areas related to gender equality, human rights, and social affairs, family and children affairs, social inclusion and development, social protection and social security, indigenous and minority affairs. The report says that the data indicates women tend to hold about 30% of the representation in public administration, education, and the environment, but men continue to dominate crucial policy areas like economics, defence, justice, and home affairs portfolios. [5] [6] Female cabinet ministers constitute 12% in defence and local government portfolios, 11% in energy, natural resource fuels, and mining portfolios, and 8% in transport portfolio. [5] [6] According to UN Women 2023 report, only 17 (11.3%) out of 151 countries, (monarchy-based systems excluded) have female Heads of State and 19 female Heads of Governments (9.8%) amongst 193 countries. [5] [6]
Alexandra Topping of The Guardian references a report on women’s leadership within the multilateral system, which highlights the persistent gender power gap that has existed since the establishment of the United Nations. [11] Topping points out that all but 4, out of 78 Presidents of the United Nations General Assembly, were male. Furthermore, the UN has not selected a woman as Secretary-General since its inception in 1946. [11] Women's representation among permanent representatives to the UN stands at just 24%. [11] Among 33 of the most proeminent UN institutions, women have had the opportunity to lead just 12% of the time. [11] Only one third of multilateral organisations were ever led by a woman, and 13 institutions, including the four largest development banks, have never had a woman in a leadership role. [11]
A glass ceiling is a metaphor usually applied to people of marginalized genders, used to represent an invisible barrier that prevents an oppressed demographic from rising beyond a certain level in a hierarchy. The metaphor was first used by feminists in reference to barriers in the careers of high-achieving women. It was coined by Marilyn Loden during a speech in 1978.
The Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) is an index designed to measure gender equality. GEM is the United Nations Development Programme's attempt to measure the extent of gender inequality across the globe's countries, based on estimates of women's relative economic income, participation in high-paying positions with economic power, and access to professional and parliamentary positions. It was introduced at the same time as the Gender-related Development Index (GDI) but measures topics like empowerment that are not covered by that index. Since it was first adopted, the GEM has been employed in several academic studies related to empowerment as a reliable metric for comparing gender empowerment across different countries. It has also faced some harsh criticisms, and many alterations and alternatives have been proposed.
Since the founding of the State of Israel, relatively few women have served in the Israeli government, and fewer still have served in the leading ministerial offices. While Israel is one of a small number of countries where a woman—Golda Meir—has served as Prime Minister, it is behind most Western countries in the representation of women in both the parliament and government.
Diversity within groups is a key concept in sociology and political science that refers to the degree of difference along socially significant identifying features among the members of a purposefully defined group, such as any group differences in racial or ethnic classifications, age, gender, religion, philosophy, politics, culture, language, physical abilities, socioeconomic background, sexual orientation, gender identity, intelligence, physical health, mental health, genetic attributes, personality, behavior, or attractiveness.
In many countries, women have been underrepresented in the government and different institutions. This historical tendency still persists, although women are increasingly being elected to be heads of state and government.
Gender inequality is the social phenomenon in which people are not treated equally on the basis of gender. This inequality can be caused by gender discrimination or sexism. The treatment may arise from distinctions regarding biology, psychology, or cultural norms prevalent in the society. Some of these distinctions are empirically grounded, while others appear to be social constructs. While current policies around the world cause inequality among individuals, it is women who are most affected. Gender inequality weakens women in many areas such as health, education, and business life. Studies show the different experiences of genders across many domains including education, life expectancy, personality, interests, family life, careers, and political affiliation. Gender inequality is experienced differently across different cultures.
Women in Uganda have substantial economic and social responsibilities throughout Uganda's many traditional societies. Ugandan women come from a range of economic and educational backgrounds. Despite economic and social progress throughout the country, domestic violence and sexual assault remain prevalent issues in Uganda. Illiteracy is directly correlated to increased level of domestic violence. This is mainly because household members can not make proper decisions that directly affect their future plans. Government reports suggest rising levels of domestic violence toward women that are directly attributable to poverty.
The phrase women in business refers to female businesspeople who hold positions, particularly leadership in the fields of commerce, business, and entrepreneurship. It advocates for their increased participation in business.
A women's wing, sometimes also known as a women's group or women's branch, is an auxiliary or independent front or faction within a larger organization, typically a political party, that consists of that organization's female membership or acts to promote women within a party. These wings vary widely in type, form, and affiliation. Membership may be either optional or automatic for all female members within the organization. The most common intention is to encourage women to join formal power structures, but different women's wings serve different purposes depending on variable circumstances.
The feminization of the workplace is the feminization, or the shift in gender roles and sex roles and the incorporation of women into a group or a profession once dominated by men, as it relates to the workplace. It is a set of social theories seeking to explain occupational gender-related discrepancies.
The Gender Equality Bureau was established in 2001 as a division of the Japanese Cabinet Office tasked with planning and coordinating the policies of the Japanese Government pertaining to gender equality. The Gender Equality Bureau conducts research on topics concerning issues of gender—compiling findings into an annual report called the "White Paper".
Voting behavior refers to how people decide how to vote. This decision is shaped by a complex interplay between an individual voter's attitudes as well as social factors. Voter attitudes include characteristics such as ideological predisposition, party identity, degree of satisfaction with the existing government, public policy leanings, and feelings about a candidate's personality traits. Social factors include race, religion and degree of religiosity, social and economic class, educational level, regional characteristics, and gender. The degree to which a person identifies with a political party influences voting behavior, as does social identity. Voter decision-making is not a purely rational endeavor but rather is profoundly influenced by personal and social biases and deeply held beliefs as well as characteristics such as personality, memory, emotions, and other psychological factors. Voting advice applications and avoidance of wasted votes through strategic voting can impact voting behavior.
Gender inequality in the United States has been diminishing throughout its history and significant advancements towards equality have been made beginning mostly in the early 1900s. However, despite this progress, gender inequality in the United States continues to persist in many forms, including the disparity in women's political representation and participation, occupational segregation, and the unequal distribution of household labor. The alleviation of gender inequality has been the goal of several major pieces of legislation since 1920 and continues to the present day. As of 2021, the World Economic Forum ranks the United States 30th in terms of gender equality out of 149 countries.
Gender representation on corporate boards of directors refers to the proportion of men and women who occupy board member positions. To measure gender diversity on corporate boards, studies often use the percentage of women holding corporate board seats and the percentage of companies with at least one woman on their board. Globally, men occupy more board seats than women. As of 2018, women held 20.8% of the board seats on Russell 1000 companies. Most percentages for gender representation on corporate boards refer only to public company boards. Private companies are not required to disclose information on their board of directors, so the data is less available.
Women in positions of power are women who hold an occupation that gives them great authority, influence, and/or responsibility in government or in businesses. Historically, power has been distributed among the sexes disparately. Power and powerful positions have most often been associated with men as opposed to women. As gender equality increases, women hold more and more powerful positions in different sectors of human endeavors.
Gender diversity is equitable representation of people of different genders. It most commonly refers to an equitable ratio of men and women, but also includes people of non-binary genders. Gender diversity on corporate boards has been widely discussed, and many ongoing initiatives study and promote gender diversity in fields traditionally dominated by men, including computing, engineering, medicine, and science. It is argued that some proposed explanations are without merit and are in fact dangerous, while others do play a part in a complex interaction of factors. It is suggested that the very nature of science may contribute to the removal of women from the 'pipeline'.
Feminist institutionalism is a new institutionalist approach that looks at how gender norms operate within institutions and how institutional processes construct and maintain gender power dynamics. Feminist institutionalism focuses on how institutions are gendered and how their formal and informal rules play a part in shaping political life. It offers a new way of interpreting the formation of institutions that goes beyond traditional views by accounting for the gendered stigma and gendered outcomes that comes with institutions. As a result, feminist institutionalism is changing the face of various institutions by providing awareness into their very own dynamics of inclusion and exclusion.
Gender inequality in Ukraine refers to economic, social, political and education inequalities between men and women of Ukraine experienced due to their gender. According to multiple reports it is an ongoing issue on each level of the Ukrainian society, where discrimination of women is an inevitable part of everyday life. The root causes of the circumstances are reportedly related to patriarchal attitudes and deeply entrenched gender stereotypes of the traditional Ukrainian culture. The cultural environment in Ukraine is aggravated by a poor rule of law, insufficient power of the social institutions and lack of political will.
The colonial roots of gender inequality refers to the political, educational, and economic inequalities between men and women in Africa. According to a Global Gender Gap Index report published in 2018, it would take 135 years to close the gender gap in Sub-Saharan Africa and nearly 153 years in North Africa. While much more is known about the effects of colonialism on all African people, less is known about the impacts of colonialism on specifically women. There are competing theories about the cause of gender inequality in Africa, but scholars suggest its genesis is in slavery and colonialism. For most women, colonialism resulted in an erosion of traditions and rights that formerly granted women equality and esteem. Women in pre-colonial Africa held positions of power and were influential in many aspects of their societies. This changed during the post-colonial period. With new forms of gender inequality introduced, many of the cultural underpinnings of African societies were eroded, and this harm has been challenging to mend. Theoretical frameworks that help to explain the colonial roots of gender inequality include coloniality of power and coloniality of gender. These decolonial concepts provide an account of how gender inequality became situated within the African context and help to explain why present-day inequalities, including women's political underrepresentation, remain significant challenges for Africa.
Gender parity is a statistical measure used to describe ratios between men and women, or boys and girls, in a given population. Gender parity may refer to the proportionate representation of men and women in a given group, also referred to as sex ratio, or it may mean the ratio between any quantifiable indicator among men against the same indicator among women.
.. Guterres told the U.N.'s International Women's Day observance Friday that "gender inequality is the overwhelming injustice of our day." "Deep-rooted patriarchy and misogyny have created a yawning gender power gap in our economies, our political systems, our corporations, our societies and our culture," he said. "Women are still very frequently denied a voice; their opinions are ignored and their experience discounted." ..
.. Outside the family structure, the gender power gap is stark, with women holding only a minority of decision making roles in public and private sectors (UN 2015). ..