eBook: International Women’s day – Closing the gender gap in 2021 and beyond

The Workplace Inspirathon, highlighted that we aren’t where we like to think we are in terms of gender equality. Economic disruption from the coronavirus outbreak has disproportionately burdened women. 

50% of our team, our Inspiring 101, our Inspiring Leaders, our Awards Judges and our contributors are women. 

We recognise that without gender balance, we would not achieve the diversity of thought and opinion that we so need to achieve our mission of changing the world of work. 

The report COVID-19 and gender equality: Countering the regressive effects, from McKinsey Global Institute, estimates that women make up almost two-fifths of the global labour force but have suffered more than half of total job losses from the crisis. 

That’s left women 1.8 times more vulnerable to the pandemic’s impact than men.

Without action to boost gender parity, reduced female participation would persist post-pandemic, leaving global GDP $1 trillion below where it would be if the coronavirus had affected both sexes equally.

But it’s not just about the economic repercussions. Women should have an equal voice, equal opportunities and be recognised and rewarded for their contributions fairly. International women’s day is an opportunity to recognise women in every profession, across the entire globe and the contribution they make. 

Women in the USA earn 82% of their male counterparts

And, although the gap has narrowed over the past 50 years, the trend of recent years is indicating that the narrowing of the gap is slowing. 

We need to keep up the momentum. That means open reporting and a commitment from all of us to make a change.

That’s why this International Women’s Day we wanted to open the conversation with our community of Inspirers, and start to close the gender gap together.

We asked our community: What’s the 1 thing we need to do to help close the gender gap for 2021 and beyond

The following Ebook is a compilation of some of the contributions from our community to help us all do our part both on an individual and organisational level. We hope this sparks a fire.