Catching up with the gap that women continue to fall behind in the economy would pay off big time. Not only because no one has the means to neglect half of the available workforce, nor because women are more talented than men, but because diversity pays.
This week, the World Bank updated its portrait of inequalities between men and women in terms of economic opportunities. For the tenth edition of its report Women, business and the law, the institution had planned improvements. In addition to increasing the number of aspects of the issue covered from 8 to 10, it not only compared the legal frameworks of 190 countries around the world, but also tried to see to what extent these laws have been translated into concrete actions in addition to seeking advice from local experts. The result of the exercise is depressing.
In fact, not only is there no country in the world where women have the same rights as men in matters such as work, mobility, entrepreneurship, retirement and marriage, but they enjoy, on average, not three-quarters, but a little less than two-thirds of the rights recognized for men. For example, 98 of the 190 economies studied have legal provisions requiring equal pay for work of equal value, but only 35 of them have accompanied them with pay transparency measures or enforcement mechanisms that effectively reduce work. gender gap.
The results are particularly bad, notes the World Bank, in the two new aspects covered, namely childcare services and protection against sexual harassment, domestic violence and femicide.
Canada would be one of the best performing countries in the world. Based on the situation in Toronto, its score is only weighed down by the absence of specific rules regarding femicide, child marriage, the right to flexible working conditions and the minimum number of women required on boards. of business administration.
Slow progress
This does not prevent Canada from having one of the largest average wage gaps (17%) between the sexes of developed countries, noted a study by Desjardins Movement on Thursday. This situation is partly attributable to the sectors in which women choose to work, say economists Florence Jean-Jacobs and Kari Norman, but two-thirds, if not three-quarters of the gap is due to women with skills and jobs similar to those of men.
This is explained by the professional and salary gap accumulated by women from the moment they have to start caring for their children, then aging parents. It’s also because the best-paying jobs often require longer and changing working hours, which are largely incompatible with family responsibilities, helped American economist Claudia Goldin, the third woman to win the Nobel Prize, to understand. economics last fall.
We also often denounce this “glass ceiling” which prevents women from accessing senior management positions. But we should rather talk about a ladder on which there are missing rungs, experts say, because it remains more difficult for them at each stage of their ascent.
The proportion of women on boards of directors (21%) and among legislators and senior executives (31%) is still far from parity in Canada, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce reported Tuesday, even if in the latter case, Quebec would, for all intents and purposes, have arrived there (49%). As for middle managers, the female presence is greater in specialized professions (48%), notably in public administration (52%), education (63%) and health care (75%), than in the retail and wholesale trade sector (38%), not to mention transportation (25%), manufacturing (21%) or construction (16%).
Praise of difference
All this has an economic cost and not only for the women directly affected. Companies with workforces closest to gender parity delivered, from 2013 to 2022, an average annual return 29% higher than that of their peers, regardless of industry sector or country, reported in a study this fall by asset management company BlackRock. Hedge funds led by women have generated 10.5% higher returns over the past 16 years, at the same time as companies that offer more generous maternity leave beat their sectors’ performance indicators.
It is not a question of increasing the proportion of women in organizations as much as possible, since an over-representation of women has the same effect as that of men, explained BlackRock. The secret to success lies in seeking a diversity of experiences and points of view which helps avoid being locked into a group mentality and which promotes innovation.
Experience has shown that encouraging and even striving for parity results in higher levels of engagement and satisfaction for both male and female workforces, the American bank reported last year. Morgan Stanley, which went so far as to adopt a performance indicator on the subject called “ELLES” (“HERS” in English, to Holistic Equal Representation Score). It also helps to better attract and retain talent.
But this phenomenon does not only apply to gender diversity, specifies BlackRock. It is also observed with regard to diversity in terms of age, training, socio-economic profile, skin color or cultural origin.