At current rates of progress, the World Economic Forum predicts it may take another 202 years to close the economic gender gap globally. Although many countries are well-placed to maximize women’s economic potential, they are failing to reap the returns from their investment in female education. In addition, too few countries are preparing to meet the challenges and harness the gender parity opportunities posed by the changing nature of work.

The Closing the Gender Gap report notes the need to look at gender discrimination, address pay transparency and consider targets and quotas for women in leadership positions – which correlate with BPW Australia resolutions and policies.

The project aims to create global and national public-private collaboration platforms to address current gender gaps and reshape gender parity for the future by:

National action: The Forum serves as an accelerator for national task forces, which successfully address current gender gaps and reshaping gender parity for the future in 12 countries. Focus is on closing gaps in labour force participation, remuneration and leadership, and preparing companies and countries for gender parity in the future of work.

Business commitments: The project calls for quantifiable commitments from leading companies to increase workforce opportunities and accelerate gender parity in the future of work.

Global exchange: The project has established an informal global community of practice of relevant leaders and experts for global knowledge exchange on closing the gender gap.