The COVID-19 pandemic has, of course, had an extraordinary effect on all our lives. But for women, according to a new report, it's had a particularly devastating impact. The World Economic Forum's annual Global Gender Gap Report shows that COVID-19 has pushed back gender parity by an entire generation.
So, in this edition of The Agenda, Stephen Cole will look at when, if ever, we might finally reach true gender equality.
Till Leopold, the head of Inclusive Economies Practice at the World Economic Forum's Centre for the New Economy and Society, joins Stephen to discuss precisely how the report came to this rather shocking conclusion – and what can be done to address it.
According to the report, the economic gender gap won't be closed for at least another 267 years. So why is it that in an apparently advanced society, women are still paid less than men for doing the same jobs? Stephen tries to get to the bottom of the gender pay gap and how it's been affected by COVID-19 with Wanda Wyporska of The Equality Trust and Rachel Verdin, a former trade union representative and now academic at the University of Sussex Business school.
The gender pay gap may be widening, but COVID-19 may have provided at least some better opportunities for women. Kate Maclean from the Centre for International Development at Northumbria University joins Stephen to explain why female political leaders – like New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern have come to the fore in this time of crisis.