When it comes to the workplace, progress in reaching gender parity has stalled. The World Economic Forum’s 2020 Global Gender Gap report found that at the current rate, it will take another 100 years to close the overall gender gap and 257 years to bring about parity in the workplace; in the 2019 report this number was 202 years. Women are paid 23% less than men globally and 600 million women are in the most insecure and precarious forms of work.
The COVID-19 crisis and governments’ measures in response to the pandemic have made visible how critical women’s work is to many businesses in operations and supply chains. It shows how women’s voices, needs and priorities are too often overlooked.
Business Call to Action and Oxfam’s informative masterclasses series explore how businesses can identify, value and address women’s priorities, needs and voices today.
The first in the series covers four topics starting with gender equality and why it matters, then unpaid care and domestic work and its relevance for businesses. It moves on to look at safety in and out of work and considers gender-based violence and how to end violence against women and girls.
This masterclass looks at supply chains with a specific focus on how this relates to low-income women. It looks at the key drivers which can propel women’s economic empowerment, and how the absence of these drivers typically constricts the roles which women, and in particular low-income women, hold within supply chains – limiting productivity and growth for all.
For any further information on any of the material discussed in the series and for copies of reports and research used please contact: Harmonie Limb (HLimb@oxfam.org.uk) or Kate Cooper (KCooper2@oxfam.org.uk) at Oxfam.
For more information about Oxfam’s work with the private sector please visit their website here
For more information on Business Call to Action please contact bcta@undp.org or visit their website.
