Companies define strategies to achieve a greater participation of women
Ecuadornews:
Eliminating the gender gap in the labor market, with an equal participation of women, would inject some $ 13 billion into the world economy, according to a recent World Bank report. The data was addressed by Bibiana Aido Almagro, a representative of UN Women, during the conversation ‘Gender equality is a good business for the organizations,’ held in Quito last week by the Canadian Ecuadorian Chamber of Commerce together with the Canadian Embassy, UN women and private companies.
“Empowering women is not only fair but also the most intelligent, it means betting on justice, ethics, rights, but it also means betting on efficiency, performance, and productivity,” said the UN Women’s Representative. At the regional level, on average, women earn 25% less than men for doing the same job. According to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC) until 2015, women worked up to 17 hours more than men and earned wages a 23.4% less. At the global level, according to the World Labor Organization (ILO), the wage gap is 23%, on average.
Maria Fernanda Corral, president and founder of the organization Women for Women, recalled that twenty years ago the bet was to reach 2017 with a 50/50 parity between men and women. However, the reality of today’s world is far from the scenario visualized two decades ago. In Ecuador, she said, not involving more women in the economic sector represents losses of $ 3.3 billion annually. The figure is equivalent to 3% of the national GDP. She added that related studies show that hiring women in strategic positions contributes to the return of investments by 54%, an additional 43% in sales performance, and a 17% more to the value of corporate actions. (I)