In a survey of 22,000 women in the global workforce, the PwC analysis showed that there is still a significant gender empowerment gap, with men more empowered in the workplace than women. And that the tech sector is where women are most empowered.
The Women in Work Index and the Global Empowerment Index provided a detailed look at gender-focused matters affecting the global workplace.
The WiW showed female workforce participation across the 33 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries slightly increased in 2021, but progress towards gender equality remains too slow.
PwC’s analysis showed that there are trillion-dollar gains to be made from closing the gender pay gap. Increasing women’s average wages to match those of their male counterparts across the OECD would boost female earnings by more than US$2 trillion per annum. But based on OECD countries’ gender pay gap of 14 per cent in 2021 and historical rates of progress towards gender pay equality, it will take more than 50 years to close the gap across the OECD nations.
Separately, a key finding of the PwC Global Empowerment Index (GEI) showed there is a gap of 34 percentage points between the proportion of women respondents who said being fairly rewarded financially for their work is important to them and the proportion who actually experience it, making it the biggest gap for women in our survey.
Additionally, the index showed a slight fall in the unemployment rate for women from 6.7 per cent to 6.4 per cent in 2021, but it was offset by similar improvements in male participation and employment rates, suggesting that employment levels are a symptom of macro-economic factors and the general labour market recovery, rather than an advancement towards gender equality.
The best-performing countries on the index in 2021 remain unchanged from 2020, with some rising in rank while others fell slightly. Luxembourg took the top spot this year (up from second place) and New Zealand fell into second place. Slovenia remained in third place and saw an absolute decline in its index score.
Larice Stielow, senior economist at PwC UK and WiW author, said a 20-year-old woman entering the workforce today will not see pay equality in her working lifetime.
“If the rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it is that we can’t rely on economic growth alone to produce gender equality — unless we want to wait another 50 years or more,” she said.
PwC’s Global Empowerment Index found that there is a significant gender empowerment gap, with men being more empowered in the workplace than women. This Empowerment Index measures 12 factors of empowerment across four dimensions of empowerment: autonomy; impact; meaning and belonging; and confidence and competence.
The four most important workplace empowerment factors for women, which are also the top four considerations for women deciding to make career changes, are:
- Fair compensation (72 per cent)
- Job fulfilment (69 per cent)
- A workplace where they can truly be themselves (67 per cent)
- Having a team that cares about their wellbeing (61 per cent)
The biggest gap areas for women are fair reward (34-point gap); choosing when (27-point gap), where (22-point gap), and how (22-point gap) they work; job fulfilment (20-point gap); and having a manager consider their viewpoint when making decisions (19-point gap).
The women in the survey with the highest empowerment scores were more likely to ask for a raise (55 per cent) and more likely to ask for a promotion (52 per cent). This compares with scores of 31 per cent (24-point gap) and 26 per cent (26-point gap), respectively, for women in our survey overall.
According to PwC’s Global Empowerment Index, the most empowered women workers are working in the technology, media, and telecommunications sector, driven specifically by the technology industry for which women are slightly more empowered than men.
Women working in the financial services and energy, utilities, and resources sectors are the second and third most empowered, but men are significantly more empowered than women in financial services.
