The huge costs of depriving women and girls of rights and opportunities are borne not only by

women and girls themselves, but also by their families, communities, and the entire economy.
By investing in women and girls and ending gender inequality, we can eliminate those costs and
change the fate of entire countries.

There is no doubt that ensuring that women and girls enjoy the same rights and opportunities as
men and boys is the right thing to do from a moral and ethical standpoint. But it also makes
economic sense – $160 trillion worth, to be precise.

Countries benefit from an increase in wealth for women.

Image: World Bank

A new report released by the World Bank Group, with support from the Canadian government,
finds that if women had the same lifetime earnings as men, global wealth would increase by
$23,620 per person, on average, in the 141 countries studied, for a total of $160 trillion. That is
a lot of money that could be put toward, say, reducing inequality, expanding the ranks of the
middle class, and mitigating the factors that drive social and political instability.

Despite this clear opportunity, women still only account for 38% of their countries’ human capital
wealth, defined as the value of the future earnings of adult citizens. In poor and lower-middle-
income countries, women account for just one-third of such wealth – or even less.

In nearly every country, women and girls face systemic barriers that bar them from full and
equal participation in the workforce and the formal economy more broadly. While the specific
challenges confronting women vary, the fundamental imperative is the same everywhere:
national governments and international actors must put the needs and priorities of women and
girls at the center of everything they do.
As the current head of the G7, Canada has committed to ensuring that gender equality and
women’s empowerment are integrated into all of the body’s themes, activities, and initiatives.
This approach echoes Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy, launched last year on
the premise that ensuring equal rights and economic opportunities for women and girls is the
best way to eradicate poverty.

Reflecting this commitment, participants at the May 31-June 2 meeting of G7 finance and
development ministers in Whistler, British Columbia, discussed women’s economic
empowerment, including unlocking the potential of adolescent girls. Last week in Charlevoix,
Québec, G7 leaders affirmed this focus. To gain access to opportunities and to the resources
needed to succeed in the workforce, empowerment must occur throughout a woman’s life, from
early childhood to school and the acquisition of in-demand job skills.

If women are to participate equally in the labor force, we first need to ensure that they have the
right tools. That means guaranteeing that all women and girls have access to health care and
information, proper nutrition, and safe and effective learning environments at all levels. It also
means upholding sexual and reproductive rights and combating sexual and gender-based
violence, including harmful practices like child, early, or forced marriage.

But that is not enough to improve women’s employment opportunities and earnings. We must
also take collective action to reduce the amount of time women spend in unpaid work; to ensure
they have access to and control over productive assets like land, credit, insurance, and savings;
and to address the restrictive social norms that relegate women to lower-paid or informal work.
 Women in UK losing out on £140bn a year due to gender pay gap.

Campaigners warn women will face 'lifetime of unequal pay' unless urgent action taken to

close pay gap, which sees female employees miss out on average of £9,112 each per year

 May Bulman Social Affairs Correspondent 

The UK’s 15 million working women are collectively missing out on £138 billion
(£137,682,320,000) each year, with the gap widening further when part-time work is taken into
account, figures show( Getty )

Women in Britain are losing out on nearly £140bn a year in wages due to the gender pay gap –
or the equivalent of £9,112 each – according to an analysis of earnings from last year. 

Campaigners have warned women will face a “lifetime of unequal pay” unless urgent action is
taken to close the pay gap, which currently sees full-time female employees earn on
average £29,891 a year – nearly £10,000 less than a man’s average full-time wage of £39,003.
An analysis by the Young Women’s Trust of data from a survey of hours and earnings last
year reveals that collectively, the UK’s 15 million working women are missing out on £138
billion (£137,682,320,000) each year, with the gap widening further when part-time work is
taken into account.

The figures also show significant regional variation in the gap between men and women’s
pay. The biggest gender pay gap exists in London, where the average full-time annual pay for
men stands at £53,521, compared with £38,467 for women, marking a difference of more than
£15,054, or 28 per cent.

The East and the South East of England have the highest pay gaps after the capital, at
£11,362 (27 per cent) and £11,905 (27 per cent) respectively. Wales and the North East of
England have the most equal gender pay, but a significant difference between men and
women’s pay still exists, at £5,600 (17 per cent) and £5,961 (18 per cent) respectively.

It comes after it emerged that there remains a large gender pay gap at more than 500 of the
UK’s large companies, after the Government published the results from the first 527 firms to
 fulfil new guidelines to publish data on the salary difference between male and female
employees.

The figures showed men were paid nearly 65 per cent more per hour at the high street fashion
store Phase Eight and nearly 53 per cent more per hour at budget airline EasyJet. Thousands of
other companies, public sector bodies and other large organizations are expected to publish
their own data in the coming months. In light of the latest findings, Young Women’s Trust chief
executive Dr. Carole Easton OBE said: “We may have an equal vote but women are still
fighting for equal pay. Young women are more likely to be on low pay and many are resorting to
food banks or falling into debt. 

“We need urgent action to close the pay gap. Let’s not just make new coins; let’s look at who
they’re going to – because they certainly won’t be going to women!

“Real equality means supporting women into better-paid, male-dominated sectors like
engineering and construction and tackling low pay in women-dominated sectors. Helping
parents share childcare more equally and supporting women back into the workforce after
taking time out through flexible working opportunities would help, too. 

It's not just pay inequality we should be worried about – women's cognitive abilities are
affected by sexism too.

 Magdalena Zawisza
 Tuesday 15 August 2017 17:10 

A new study has revealed that women from more conservative countries perform worse on
memory tests than those from more egalitarian countries ( kontrast-fotodesign )

Let’s try you. Read the title above once, then cover it and write down word for word what you
remember. Having difficulties? How well you do may be down to which country you live in.
That’s according to a new study, published in Psychological Science, involving an impressive
200,000 women and men from 27 countries across five continents. It revealed that women from
more conservative countries performed worse on memory tests than those from more
egalitarian countries.
Demographics expert Eric Bonsang and his colleagues analyzed national survey data from
individuals above the age of 50. They used existing data on cognitive performance tests
measuring episodic memory (memory of autobiographical events). These involved recalling as
many of ten words read out by a researcher as possible in one minute either immediately or
after a short delay. The team rated each country’s level of gender equality by looking at the
proportion of people agreeing with the statement: “When jobs are scarce, men should have
more right to a job than women.”

Women outperformed men on memory in gender-egalitarian countries such as Sweden,

Denmark, The Netherlands, the US and most European countries. However, in Ghana, India,
China, South Africa and some more gender-traditional European countries (such as Russia,
Portugal, Greece and Spain) the pattern reversed. Women in these countries performed worse
than men – which was exactly what the researchers had predicted. Interestingly, men in
egalitarian countries also scored better than men in conservative countries (but not by as
much).The findings did not depend on world region or the countries’ economic development
(gross domestic product per capita in 2010). A factor that may be at play, however, is that
modern countries (such as many of the gender-equal ones above) have better health benefits.
Older adults may simply be healthier. But that doesn’t necessary explain the observed gender
differences – the study after all found that the effect was stronger for women than for men.

The authors instead argue that a society’s attitudes to gender roles determine which behaviors
and characteristics are deemed appropriate for men and women. In turn, these social
expectations influence women’s (and men’s) life goals, occupational choices and experiences.
As a result, women in more gender-traditional countries may have less exposure to cognitively
stimulating activities such as those involved in education and work. Participation in education
and work indeed explained 30 per cent of the findings.

Damaging stereotypes

While the study provides some evidence that attitudes based on stereotypes do shape our
abilities, a full test of this theory would require a study of aptitudes which are stereotypically
considered feminine – such as social sensitivity or linguistic ability.

For example, would men in gender-traditional nations under-perform on tests measuring social
sensitivity, compared to women? A study conducted on American students showed just that. It
may indeed be that this effect is even larger in more conservative countries.

Only 8 per cent of women feel they are on the road to success at work

The results of this study were explained in terms of “stereotype threat”, a fear of doing
something that would confirm or reinforce the negative traits typically associated with members
of stigmatized groups. Say you are a woman sitting a math’s test. The common perception that
women are not good at math’s may play on your mind and your score may suffer as you
struggle to concentrate. The fear takes away our cognitive resources and leads to
underperformance on tasks deemed challenging for the stereotyped group.
This effect is very powerful and has been shown in a wealth of studies. When reminded of
negative stereotypes, women have been shown to underperform ‘s tests, or African
Americans on tests measuring intellectual ability. Indeed the new study could be interpreted in
terms of stereotype threat theory.
We’ve even seen the neurological underpinnings of this effect. Our new study, published
in Frontiers’ Ageing Neuroscience, asked a group of older participants to read an article about
memory fading with age (age stereotype). We showed that, as a result, their reaction times in a
cognitive task were delayed. What’s more, brain wave activity in these individuals indicated that
their thoughts about themselves were more negative. This was seen in data from
electroencephalography (EEG), which uses electrodes to track and record brainwave patterns.

Our study shows that short-term exposure to negative stereotypes has detrimental effects on
cognitive functioning. Similar processes may have taken place in women continually exposed to
negative gender and age stereotypes in gender-conservative countries – explaining their under-
performance on the memory test.

What makes a country sexist?

Another consideration which future studies should take into account is the countries’ wider
political system – not just the gender attitudes themselves. One theory suggests
modernization leads progressively to democratization and liberalization – including that of
attitudes to gender roles. The society’s heritage, whether political or religious, influences the
society’s values.
Indeed, our studies on cross-cultural attitudes to women and men show that they are more
liberal in longstanding democracies such as the UK than in countries transitioning to democracy
(such as Poland and South Africa). We found that gender attitudes were also affected by the
preceding political systems: they were more conservative in the post-apartheid South Africa and
less conservative in a post-communist Poland. So national histories of institutionalized
inequality (apartheid) vs forced emancipation (communism) have left a long lasting impact on
national levels of sexism.
Perhaps not coincidentally, some of the longest standing democracies in the new study happen
to be the ones which are more gender-egalitarian. As my research suggests, both
democratization and the reduction of stereotype threat – especially through the mass media,
such as advertising involving non-traditional gender roles – are important. These efforts should
be our focus in bringing greater equality across a range of skills for women and men across the
globe.