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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Stanford Social Innovation Review<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://ssir.org/articles/entry/women_and_the_future_of_work"><span style="color:blue">https://ssir.org/articles/entry/women_and_the_future_of_work#</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Scala Sans";color:black">Women & The Future of Work
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Scala;color:#222222">The strategies companies and policy makers are designing to address the changing nature of work need
to include a gender lens if they are to help foster the economic empowerment of women.</span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://ssir.org/images/blog/women-at-work-592x745.jpg"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Scala;color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="593" height="559" id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image003.jpg@01D54149.040A9C80" alt="https://ssir.org/images/blog/women-at-work-592x745.jpg"></span></a></span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext;text-decoration:none"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Scala;color:#AB1600"><a href="https://ssir.org/images/blog/women-at-work-592x745.jpg"><span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none">Training
drivers and providing jobs through its related women-for-women ride sharing social enterprise in India, Azad Foundation shows how non-traditional gig economy jobs can offer women new economic opportunities while challenging gender norms and stereotypes. (Photo
courtesy of Azad Foundation)</span></a></span><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Scala;color:#222222"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Scala;color:#222222">By
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Scala;color:#0D0D0D"><a href="https://ssir.org/articles/entry/women_and_the_future_of_work#bio-footer"><span style="color:#0D0D0D;text-decoration:none">Marissa Wesely* & Linda Midgley</span></a>
*</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Scala;color:#222222"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Scala;color:#222222">May 24, 2019 - There’s a growing consensus that
<a href="https://www.pwc.co.uk/economic-services/WIWI/pwc-women-in-work-2019-final-web.pdf">
<span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none">women’s economic empowerment is necessary
</span></a>to drive global growth and sustainability. Yet governments and companies around the world have done little to respond to how the changing nature of work will impact women differently from men. Despite a wealth of research on gender and on the future
of work through the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution—and even some research bringing these topics together—not much is changing in practice. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Scala;color:#222222">In our view, there are three reasons for this apparent lack of action. First, much of the existing research
focuses on broad impacts of changing work environments on women in the United States and Europe. There is little guidance for companies and governments active in other (very different) areas. Second, much of this same research focuses on the macroeconomic
level, rather than on building practical programs and policies. Finally, both companies and governments often operate in silos, with women’s empowerment in one department and issues related to future work in another. Whatever the reason, failure to apply a
gender lens to strategies that address the impact of technology on workers and workplaces runs the risk of undermining private- and public-sector efforts to advance women’s economic empowerment and drive sustainable development more broadly—including progress
toward a range of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It also will mean missing out on opportunities for women that new technologies present.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Scala Sans";color:black">Future Risks to the Female Workforce
</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Scala Sans";color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Scala;color:#222222">The most commonly cited risk to women through automation and artificial intelligence is job loss, due
to the concentration of women in lower- and middle-skilled jobs (such as manufacturing and clerical jobs). A recent
<a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/Staff-Discussion-Notes/Issues/2018/10/09/Gender-Technology-and-the-Future-of-Work-46236">
<span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none">IMF staff discussion paper</span></a> examining 28 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries, plus Cyprus and Singapore, concluded that in the next two decades, automation
will replace 11 percent of the female workforce (who tend to perform more routine and codifiable tasks), compared to 9 percent of the male workforce. That means 180 million female jobs are at high risk of displacement globally. Meanwhile, a
<a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/03/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-could-smash-gender-inequality-or-reinforce-it/">
<span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none">2016 ILO study</span></a> predicted that some Asian nations could lose more than 80 percent of their garment, textile, and apparel manufacturing jobs, as “sewbots” replace humans in factories. This would disproportionately
affect young women, who comprise a majority of the 9 million people dependent on jobs in those sectors.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Scala;color:#222222">The risk that technological advances will have a greater negative impact on women than men is aggravated
by the current lack of women in STEM jobs, as well as the low percentage of girls and women who are training in STEM fields.
<a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000253479"><span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none">UNESCO reported</span></a> in 2017 that women represent only 35 percent of all students enrolled in STEM-related fields of higher education, and only
28 percent in the critical information and communications technology field. Without an intentional focus on women and girls, skilling and re-skilling programs companies or governments provide will likely disproportionately improve job prospects for men. To
encourage more women and girls to enter STEM fields, we must shift social norms and attitudes that define certain occupations as “male” or “female” using a localized,
<a href="https://ssir.org/articles/entry/three_ways_businesses_can_improve_their_womens_economic_empowerment_program">
<span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none">holistic approach to women’s economic empowerment</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Scala;color:#222222">More broadly, a global gender
<a href="http://wpmu.mah.se/nmict181group1/gender-digital-divide/"><span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none">digital divide</span></a> has been growing in certain regions. According to the
<a href="https://internetinitiative.ieee.org/newsroom/in-the-news/closing-the-gender-digital-divide">
<span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none">IEEE Internet Initiative</span></a>, the proportion of women using the Internet is 12 percent lower than the proportion of men using the Internet worldwide. In the least-developed countries, only one in seven
women uses the Internet, compared with one in five men. And across urban poor areas in 10 cities—including Lagos, Nairobi, Jakarta, and Bogotá—women are<a href="http://webfoundation.org/docs/2015/10/WROinfographic.png"><span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none"> 50
percent less likely than men to be online</span></a>, and 30-50 percent less likely than men in the same communities to use the Internet for economic and political empowerment. The
<a href="http://sdg.iisd.org/commentary/guest-articles/what-is-the-gender-digital-divide-and-why-should-it-matter-for-the-sdgs/">
<span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none">root causes</span></a> of this difference are high costs, lack of digital know-how, scarcity of relevant and empowering content for women, and barriers to women speaking freely and privately online. Bridging
this digital divide will again require localized, holistic approaches to address the specific concerns of women and girls that limit their Internet use.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Scala;color:#222222">This digital divide is particularly troubling in a world where technological competence increasingly
impacts a wide variety of jobs. According to a <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/digitalization-and-the-american-workforce/">
<span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none">2017 study by the Brookings Institution</span></a>, the use of digital tools has increased in 517 of 545 occupations since 2002 in the United States alone, with a striking growth in many lower-skilled occupations.
For instance, while women have historically dominated the care professions—a growing field in many parts of the world—patient monitoring and reporting, as well as other tasks involved in those professions, increasingly involve the use of technology. The overall
effect of this divide is that women will have greater difficulty accessing training, jobs, and resources that require Internet access—whether to learn new skills, work at jobs remotely, or access credit or markets.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Scala Sans";color:black">Opportunities for Women in the Future World of Work</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Scala Sans";color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Scala;color:#222222">Of course, technology also presents opportunities for women to move into and advance in the workplace
by gaining new skills and opportunities—in some cases leap-frogging into previously inaccessible jobs. Sometimes working remotely allows women to accommodate responsibilities at home while still taking part in the formal economy. In other cases, particularly
where social norms or the risk of violence limit women’s mobility, technology can connect women to online education and job opportunities. In India, for example,
<a href="https://ssir.org/articles/entry/for_more_gender_equity_in_indias_workforce_more_women_must_get_online?utm_source=Enews&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=SSIR_Now&utm_content=Title">
<span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none">Pratham Education Foundation</span></a> has been using a variety of Internet-connected technologies to support its vocational training for young women. Similarly, Internet connectivity is providing more and more
<a href="http://venturesafrica.com/these-10-apps-will-boost-agriculture-in-africa/">
<span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none">smallholder farmers</span></a>, artisans, and other entrepreneurs with information, new markets, and sources of credit—benefits that can also give
<a href="http://www.fao.org/fao-stories/article/en/c/1105823/"><span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none">women</span></a> working from home or in remote locations new sources of income or higher earnings.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Scala;color:#222222">Alternatives to formal employment offered by the gig economy—such as opportunities for
<a href="http://sakhaconsultingwings.com/"><span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none">women drivers</span></a>, as ride-sharing services expand globally—also provide women with new sources of income combined with flexibility. Many of these non-traditional
jobs also play an important role in helping shift gender norms. This is particularly true when technical training is accompanied by education on legal rights (for example, relating to harassment, violence, and sexual and reproductive health) and work with
communities—a holistic model used by the highly successful <a href="http://azadfoundation.com/">
<span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none">Azad Foundation</span></a> in India
<a href="https://www.oecd.org/dev/development-gender/Unpaid_care_work.pdf"><span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none">and many other local women’s organizations.</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Scala;color:#222222">This type of
<a href="https://ssir.org/articles/entry/three_ways_businesses_can_improve_their_womens_economic_empowerment_program">
<span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none">holistic, “building block” approach</span></a> to economic empowerment is important to achieving sustainable development for everyone, as embodied by the SDGs. Until we shift social norms that keep women from
fulfilling their economic potential—including those relating to women’s role in <a href="https://promundoglobal.org/programs/program-p/">
<span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none">doing unpaid care work</span></a>, and those that accept
<a href="https://promundoglobal.org/programs/prevention-plus/"><span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none">gender-based violence</span></a> and harassment—women’s increased labor force participation will not translate into true economic empowerment, with
equal rights and access to opportunities to fulfill that potential. Indeed, as <a href="https://www.cgdev.org/sites/default/files/women-and-future-work-fix-present.pdf">
<span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none">researcher Charles Kenny recently put it</span></a>:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:36.0pt">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Scala;color:#222222">In a modern economy, gender differences in employment are overwhelmingly driven by policies and norms rather than any innate differences between men and women in average suitability.
That implies the gendered impact of technological change on the labor market will primarily depend on the interaction of changing demand for particular jobs and skills with evolving norms and policies regarding the role of women and men in work and in the
home.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Scala;color:#222222">Meanwhile, emergent technologies are also opening opportunities to enhance women’s economic position
in fields that are traditionally female-dominated, including eldercare, childcare, nursing, and other care professions. Access to and training in new technologies has potential to preserve, expand, and improve jobs for women in these increasingly tech-reliant
fields.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Scala;color:#222222">Finally, to ensure that women truly reap the new opportunities technology offers, we need to reframe
what constitutes work, and what types of social protection policies and infrastructure we need to protect workers in this new world. Policies and programs relating to issues like parental leave, childcare, pensions, and harassment must change to ensure that
they support women working in informal settings or from remote locations. At the same time, governments and companies need to continue to focus on equal pay for equal work; indeed, a
<a href="https://web.stanford.edu/~diamondr/UberPayGap.pdf"><span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none">recent study</span></a> of Uber reflected a 7 percent gender earnings gap among drivers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Scala Sans";color:black">What Leaders Can Do </span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Scala Sans";color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Scala;color:#222222">Ensuring that women are not left behind and instead benefit from the opportunities technology affords
will require that governments, companies, educational institutions, and civil society act in concert. Business leaders and public policy makers in particular can:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<ul type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color:#222222;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo3">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Scala">Gather gender-disaggregated data, for example through
<a href="https://www.pwc.co.uk/annualreport/assets/2018/pdf/annual-report-18-diversity-pay-report.pdf">
<span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none">pay-gap dashboarding</span></a>, and put a gender lens on all training, re-skilling, and up-skilling programs to ensure that more women and girls have opportunities to move into jobs of the future.<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="color:#222222;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo3">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Scala">Help shift views of women in STEM and tech jobs, and more broadly in non-traditional jobs. This includes showcasing female role models in various settings—in educational settings, in workplaces,
and through advertising. Local women’s organizations, such as <a href="http://azadfoundation.com/">
<span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none">Azad Foundation</span></a> and <a href="http://sakhaconsultingwings.com/">
<span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none">Sakha Cabs</span></a> in India, are leading the way.<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="color:#222222;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo3">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Scala">Support programs for STEM education for girls and specific “right-skills” training programs for women. The
<a href="https://www.pwc.co.uk/press-room/press-releases/tech-she-can-first-anniversary.html">
<span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none">Tech She Can Charter</span></a> is an example of businesses coming together in the United Kingdom to advance this agenda, while local women-led partners like
<a href="http://www.stembees.org/"><span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none">STEMbees</span></a> in Ghana help ensure that STEM education not only incorporates skills and mentorship, but also addresses other locally relevant issues like digital safety
for women and girls.<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="color:#222222;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo3">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Scala">Build or advocate to build social protection programs to ensure that all work—whether formal or informal, full-time or part-time—is treated equally in terms of wages, pensions, parental leave, health
care, and childcare programs, and that these programs and social infrastructure address the
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLILEmk1YPE"><span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none">particular needs of women and girls</span></a> in various contexts.<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="color:#222222;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo3">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Scala">For companies, fill gaps in government programs to help reduce the unpaid care burden on women and help shift gender norms through paid parenting and eldercare leave, provision of childcare facilities
and subsidies, and encouragement of men to take on unpaid care burden through strong paternity-leave programs, as companies like
<a href="https://nwlc.org/blog/starbucks-announces-new-backup-child-care-benefit-for-employees/">
<span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none">Starbucks</span></a> and <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/3062792/patagonias-ceo-explains-how-to-make-onsite-child-care-pay-for-itself">
<span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none">Patagonia</span></a> are doing.<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="color:#222222;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo3">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Scala">Support women entrepreneurs by sourcing talent from women-owned businesses around the world, as many companies are doing in partnership with
<a href="https://weconnectinternational.org/en/"><span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none">WeConnect International</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="color:#222222;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo3">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Scala">Share evidence and strategies—especially from settings outside of the United States and Europe—to understand and address the impact of future work on women’s livelihoods and lives.<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="color:#222222;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo3">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Scala">Explicitly recognize and champion the importance of women’s economic empowerment in its own right, as well as the role it plays in achieving economic growth and decent work (SDG 8) and the broader
sustainable development challenges reflected in the SDGs. This means communicating and reporting publicly on the link between SDG 5 (gender equality), SDG 8, and the other SDGs in government policy documents and company annual reports; setting explicit objectives,
and monitoring progress accordingly.<o:p></o:p></span></li></ul>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Scala;color:#222222">It is encouraging to see many companies and governments building wide-ranging strategies to economically
empower women across value chains and geographies. By taking some of these simple steps, they can ensure that their strategies are forward-looking. By recognizing the potential impact that the changing nature of work will have on women and girls in the workforce
of the future, and by incorporating a holistic approach in understanding what it takes to truly empower women economically, companies and policy makers can help advance women’s economic empowerment in ways that are transformative for women and foster sustainable
development for all.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Scala;color:#222222">*Marissa Wesely</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Scala;color:#222222">
is the co-founder of <a href="https://www.winwinstrategies.org/"><span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none">Win-Win Strategies</span></a>, working with businesses and women’s organizations to catalyze a transformative, cross-sector approach to sustained
women’s economic empowerment. She is also the chair of the Global Advisory Council of
<a href="http://www.womenwin.org/homepage"><span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none">Women Win</span></a>, a global nonprofit of which Win-Win Strategies is now a part. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Scala;color:#222222">*Linda Midgley</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Scala;color:#222222">
is one of <a href="https://www.pwc.com/sdgs"><span style="color:#AB1600;text-decoration:none">PwC</span></a>’s leading experts on the SDGs. She helps organizations define an SDG strategy, implement it, and report on their progress and impact. Midgley also
supported GRI (formerly known as the Global Reporting Initiative) and the UN Global Compact with their respective flagship SDG publications, “An Analysis of the Goals and Targets” and “Integrating the SDGs into corporate reporting: A Practical Guide.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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