International Women’s Day 2023

In an ideal world we wouldn’t need a special day to celebrate women, but we have not yet achieved absolute equality with our male counterparts, who don’t have to raise their voice in the same way or fight with the same societal stereotypes to achieve what they want. We should celebrate women’s contribution to society, shout about their successes, and highlight their struggles all year round.

Given the topical conversation on gender equality these days, I researched the extent to which we as a society have attempted to achieve gender equality, and found both positive and negative case studies. Starting with the fact that even in the 21st century, women are still considered inferior and controlled by their male counterparts in many places around the world. In some countries women are still lagging in accessing education and participation in different professions, which ultimately increases the female vs male employment gap. 

Charts below show that the adult female literacy rate is more than 20% lower than the adult male literacy rate. For instance, in Pakistan the adult male literacy rate is almost 70% and the adult female literacy rate is 42%. Similarly, the case for the employment ratio where most of the Asian countries have 80 to 20 ratio of male and female employed. On a positive note, countries like Malaysia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, China, and UAE have a near equivalent literacy ratio for both men and women.  

Clearly, purchasing power has a great impact on GDP of a country and if we take the data of different regions to analyse the participation of women in purchase decisions, there are still many countries with very low participation of women either in large scale investments or land ownerships. Lack of opportunities and high rate of abuse and harassment are often cited as the major reasons for low women participation in any sector, which then provides an excuse to keep women at home and keep women away from employment. Surprisingly on the other hand countries like Cambodia, Philippines, Ethiopia, South Africa and Indonesia actually have a high rate of participation of women in purchasing decisions in 2020. In addition, Malawi, Timor and Niger tend to also be at a high rate which represents the woman's independence and progress in these countries. 

This data also highlights the fact that despite these obstacles faced by women, they are managing to overcome difficulties enough to participate in purchase decisions. Whereas those regions which have low rate of participation of women in purchase decisions also have adverse effects on their GDP per capita. Increasing participation of women in purchase decisions and other major decisions like land ownership can give a significant boost to economic progress.

Women having Children

Denmark scored 77.8 on the Gender Equality Index, a high score but, vitally, this shows that there are still struggles women have to deal with, even in MEDCs. According to a study conducted in Denmark analysing the child penalty (the percentage by which women are falling behind men due to children) and found that after the first child, women’s earnings significantly dropped and never fully recovered. But this was not the case for men with children, nor the case for women without children. 

In similar statistics looking at other developed countries, shockingly countries such as the US have a 65% ratio of women who face harassment and Canada has a high ratio of 80%. The most disturbing reality is that most of the harassments and assaults are not reported to police. Male dominated society can often provide an excuse to keep women at home because of these reasons. All of this leads to difficulties in engaging professionally effectively and with the ease of those who do not face similar obstacles.

Women in STEM

Disappointingly, there exists a wide gap between men and women in the STEM sector, where women globally account for only 17% of managers in the information technology industry out of the 3000 CS Gender Companies. Further analysing the STEM side, being enrolled in postgraduate STEM course, I initially thought there would be a large ratio of women in the field as I had on my course, but it turned out that women only make up to 28% of the workforce in science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM). Whereas men vastly outnumber women majoring in most STEM fields in college, which in turn raises the gender gaps more as men take over 72% of the fastest-growing and highest-paid jobs of the future. There are some facts collated on male and female representation of STEM specifically to the UK, which showed only 1% of improvement over the years. As per Census Bureau report , the US has a48.1% female labour force as biological scientists as compared to 17-19% civil and software engineers. However, amazingly women earned more than men in one of the STEM occupations (computer network architects) out of 70 detailed STEM occupations with the representation of only 8% in this occupation, which means if offered more to equivalent opportunities women can not only equally lead the world with their counterparts, but, in some cases, they can surpass them as well. Moreover, UNESCO published some major factors associated with social and cultural norms that stop females from pursuing STEM careers across 8 different Asian Countries (can be seen in the image below). These included:

• A perception that STEM is an “inappropriate” choice for women and associated as a male subject

• Expectations of domestic responsibilities, such as family care

• Unreliable support structures and a lack of mobility 

In spite of all these hurdles, women still are continuing to make progress and achieving what they have aimed. To all the people out there, who think women are not suitable in tech would be alarmed by the fact that ‘the internet’ is an innovation of a female STEM student Radia Perlman (Internet Pioneer). Another female (Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, Inventor & Computer Scientist) was  responsible for a major discovery in the STEM sector in terms of high-level programming by inventing the first programming language that used English words, which resulted in computer languages becoming more human friendly. 

Moving on to the bright side of the picture, women are working hard towards closing this gender gap by achieving their goals and contributing to society, where it has been seen a good increase from 21% to 25% over women taking leadership roles in 2022 as per diversity reports from 20 large technology companies.

In the USA, 42% of businesses are owned by women, which means 13 million of businesses are led by women, employing over 9.4 million workers. This increasing ratio not only shows women following their passion but is also encouraging other women to follow their passion by breaking stereotypes of society. 

According to the National Women’s Business Council Annual Report, women owning their own companies can provide some culture-breaking independence, interestingly women are three percentage points more likely to start a business than men. They can be not only outstanding entrepreneurs but also can create new work opportunities for others. The growth of women in the business sector is evidence that if women are given the right chances they can excel in their respective fields.

International Alert lists women as peace builders; interestingly, research shows peace agreements that involve women are 35% more likely to last at least 15 years and a probability that violence will end increases by 24%, where they have shared stories of 7 women on how they are working to achieve peace in their areas. Another example is Fawzia Koofi, who became the first woman Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Afghanistan with a motive of fighting for democracy and rights of Afghan girls and women. 

Another research conducted and produced by McKinsey & Company, based on data collected from several organisations in different developed countries, predicted that increased gender diversity can result in financial outperformance, where companies with higher diversity rates make to the top quartile of strong businesses. 

Another surprising factor here is that FTSE 350 has achieved the target of having 40% women on boards three years ahead of their deadline. Three-quarters of all companies now have four or more women on their board introducing better career opportunities. The progress of the UK with regards to this target has remained applaudable, where a voluntary business-led approach is not only working but has created a career track for senior women that a decade ago rarely existed. 

In 2022, women are promoted to well-deserved higher ranks resulting in the FTSE 100 Index meeting the target, which doesn’t only depict companies’ efforts but many women’s in being eligible and capable enough to be promoted to these senior positions. By taking these steps women are not only encouraged to come forward as senior managers in the company and eventually will eradicate the patriarchal mindset of the society.

This data proves that despite various barriers to women's progress in every walk of life, which are often constant and increasing, society is  growing for the better. In this modern era, women have worked specifically and tirelessly to attain valid and worthwhile attention from the world; to recognise their commendable efforts and encourage society to see women as strong individuals who can exceed expectations and reach phenomenal potential in any field.

A few of the Women of Butterfly Data!