International Women’s Day 2021
Most people believe that women and men should be paid equally for equal work. Yet, this is not the reality. Gender gaps still exists, and the Covid-19 pandemic seem to make the gaps even harder to fill. Here, we present a few important insights about the perception of gender pay gap and the implications of Covid-19 from a report made in collaboration with the Global Institute for Women's Leadership at King's College London.
In a previous survey, we showed that gender inequality hit women harder than men. This fact still stands, also when it comes to pay. Even if we believe in the values of equality, especially equal opportunities, and the need to bridge the pay gap between men and women, we find that in public opinion, we are far from it.
About one in five people, with the proportion of more men than women, believe that concerns about the gender pay gap are an example of political correctness gone too far and that reports about the gender pay gap in the media are fake news. However, a broad sympathy for the need to address the gender pay gap can be found with around 50% of people across 28 countries saying that concerns about the gender pay gap are a response to a real problem.
As countries slowly recover from the pandemic, more than half of people think that gender equality between men and women will revert to what it was before the pandemic. Still, people are divided in whether gender equality will improve or get worse. About one in ten think women will become more equal with men and the same proportion think women will become less equal. However, women are slightly more pessimistic than men on this issue.
So how should we act?
As top priorities, 40% of people believe in more flexible working practices and support for female violence and abuse survivors should be included in Covid-19 recovery programmes. Furthermore, better access to health care services and social assistance is also found to be a top priority by 33% of people.
Men and women alike also demand political leaders to act and do a good job in recovering from the pandemic. To do so, 33% of people believe that the most important quality a leader needs is the ability to put their country’s needs before politics. This is followed by the qualities of political leaders being honest with the public and being able to understand problems facing ordinary people. Here, women more than men, believe that leaders should take the the impact on the economy as well as health into account and make the right decisions at the right time.
Should you be more interested in the topic of gender inequality and the consequences of Covid-19, the full report can be downloaded below.
