Topic: Role of women and women’s organization; social empowerment
1. Women may struggle to close the gender pay gap as technology reshapes the global economy, with women’s jobs more likely to be replaced by robots while men dominate emerging sectors. Examine. (250 words).
Why this question:
India has been ranked 112th in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index 2020, out of the 153 countries across the world. Overall gender equality is improving but the number of women entering work is “stalling” and financial disparities are widening, found the World Economic Forum’s annual index tracking gender divides in health, education, economy and politics.
Key demand of the question:
The question wants us to analyse how the increase in the penetration of technology will lead to increase in the gender pay gap due to lack of reskilling and upskilling. Further, you must provide the solutions to tackle the same.
Directive:
Examine – When asked to ‘Examine’, we have to look into the topic (content words) in detail, inspect it, investigate it and establish the key facts and issues related to the topic in question. While doing so we should explain why these facts and issues are important and their implications.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Start by explaining the gender gap in India based on the findings of the report.
- Social observers often contend that considerable progress has been made on some fronts.
- But the arc of progress is not straightforward, and even though gender parity is an official policy in various corporate and other settings, the outcomes remain extremely poor in comparison with other countries.
Body:
Discuss about the challenges posed to gender pay gap by digitization and technology:
- One of the biggest challenges to achieving equal pay – with women currently earning about half as much as men – is getting more women into jobs in emerging digital industries as business and trade go online.
- As technology creates new jobs AI, engineering and cloud computing and renders others, like retail, obsolete, women risk losing out as they are less likely to have “disruptive” skills for careers with high job growth and salaries.
- bad share of female voices in our legislative bodies have done little for overall women’s welfare
Now talk about the implications of such challenges to women
- Overall, women must wait 99.5 years to see parity with men on average across health, education, economy and politics, said the authors, a slight improvement from 108 years in 2018.
- This means ensuring women have access to the most in-demand skills but also that companies adopt diverse hiring practices and more inclusive workplace cultures.
Discuss the measures needed to reduce this gender pay gap.
Unless India undergoes a social revolution that puts the idea of equity at its forefront, gender gaps would get harder to close.
Conclusion:
Conclude with balanced way forward.
