U.S. Falls Behind in Shrinking the Gender Gap
Originally published by Jared Mitovich for Yahoo! Finance
The US this year dropped further behind other countries in closing the gender gap among several measures, according to new data from the World Economic Forum.
The country ranked 43rd in gender equality out of 146 countries, down from 27th place last year, according to the WEF’s 17th annual Global Gender Gap report.
Overall, it will take 131 years to close the gender pay gap across the world economy, the report found, a marginal improvement from the previous estimate of 132 years. It’s still a delay of three decades compared to the WEF’s estimate from before the pandemic.
While the level of gender parity has regained the progress it lost during the pandemic, converging economic and political crises are creating an uneven landscape worldwide, the WEF said, with progress slowing down overall and AI posing an additional risk.
“While there have been encouraging signs of recovery to pre-pandemic levels, women continue to bear the brunt of the current cost of living crisis and labour market disruptions,” WEF Managing Director Saadia Zahidi said in a press release. “An economic rebound requires the full power of creativity and diverse ideas and skills. We cannot afford to lose momentum on women’s economic participation and opportunity.”