50:50 by 2030 is the New Goal

“Gender equality is more than a goal in itself, it is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development, and building good governance.”

~Kofi Annan

The corporate world is a cruel place for a woman to work in. From differences in basic pay to workplace harassment, women face tons of issues when they work outside their homes. That is why many women opt not to work at all, and decide to become housewives. This hampers the growth of the economy by reducing the available workforce and by letting the talents of half the population go to waste.

Right from the beginning, girls have a lot less opportunities than boys while growing up in terms of education, healthcare, basic necessities, etc. Most parents consider their daughters as liabilities and their sons as assets. This means that they invest more of their time and resources into ensuring that the males of the house get everything that they need, while ignoring even the basic needs of the females including but not limited to sanitation, nutrition, rest, etc. Child marriage is still an issue in most rural areas. The girls barely get a say in who they marry, and when they marry. The first step to a gender discrimination free society would therefore be to educate the masses that their daughters are, in fact, assets too.

It is 2022, and even today we see the unfair advantages males have over their female counterparts. This difference is even more visible in the workplace, where females are continuously at a disadvantage just because of their sex at birth. The woman can either be the beautiful secretary who sleeps with the married boss to get a promotion, or be labelled as ugly and who-would-wanna-sleep-with-her. She can be highly educated and experienced - much more than her male colleagues - and she would still be asked “where is sir?” by her clients, who don’t respect her inputs even if they have proved to be very useful in the past. The disparity in income is still an issue, despite the feminist movement and many ill-implemented laws. The cases of crimes against women are still soaring, with many more workplace sexual harassment cases coming up every single day.

But it is to be noted that even in this unfair situation, many women have come up with brilliant business ideas, and have built empires from scratch, competing just as harshly with male entrepreneurs. Even more women have proved their worth to their respective companies and now sit at the top managerial positions. Women are resilient and determined to not just take the economy forward but to also prove to other women that they can do it as well. If earlier, a girl could have had ten powerful women as her idols, she can now look up to a million such women. In adverse conditions, women power through and pave the way towards a brighter future for the economy, society, and eventually the entire world.

By 2030, the planet should have a 50-50 workforce, not just in terms of workforce, but also in terms of power. More women are stepping up in the political sphere, and running entire countries successfully. Such a step is much appreciated in a world that has been run by power hungry men for centuries. It is said that women are more sentimental in their decision making, which makes them better equipped to run organisations and countries, than men who only think about the economic and political gains rather than thinking about people as well. The more women join the workforce, the more creative and effective it will get.

To employ more women would not mean to have less mothers and wives, it would only mean that the economy will gain from their perspective as well. Educating and employing women would not hamper society, but would help develop it with more educated mothers who are better equipped to raise kids and run households. A 50-50 workforce would help reach economic and societal goals even faster.

“Hiring and promoting talented women is the right thing to do for society - and it’s an economic imperative.”

~Carlos Ghosn, Chairman, Renault-Nissan Alliance

By - Yukti

---