Women around the world will not achieve equality with men for 131 years – by the year 2154 – with only tepid progress on persistently large gender gaps, prompting the urgent need for faster action.
The Global Gender Gap Report 2023 – released by the World Economic Forum on Wednesday – shows that 146 countries have closed 68.4 per cent of the gender gap, up just 0.3 percentage points compared with the previous report.
That slight move is down to improvement in closing the education attainment gap, with 117 out of 146 countries in the index now having closed at least 95 per cent of the gap.
The slow progress "creates an urgent case for renewed and concerted action", said Saadia Zahidi, managing director at the World Economic Forum.
"Accelerating progress towards gender parity will not only improve outcomes for women and girls, but benefit economies and societies more widely, reviving growth, boosting innovation and increasing resilience."
With the challenges facing business such as climate change, inflation and technological shifts, ensuring diversity of leadership as well as staff will build resilience to cope with such a turbulent era of change.
"With the myriad challenges the world faces, we need the full power of human creativity and collaboration to find pathways to shared prosperity," Ms Zahidi said.
The annual Global Gender Gap Index benchmarks the current state of gender parity in four areas – economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.
Parity has advanced by only 4.1 percentage points since the first edition of the report in 2006.
While the global parity score has recovered to pre-pandemic levels, the overall rate of change has slowed significantly, the report showed.
No country has yet achieved full gender parity, but the top 10 economies ranked on that list have closed at least 80 per cent of the gap.
For the 14th consecutive year, Iceland took the top position and is still the only country to have closed more than 90 per cent of its gender gap, with a score of 91.2 per cent.
The Nordic country was followed by Norway, Finland, New Zealand, Sweden, Germany, Nicaragua, Namibia Lithuania and Belgium, who have all closed at least 80 per cent of their gender gap.
For the 146 countries covered in the 2023 index, the health and survival gender gap has closed by 96 per cent, the educational attainment gap by 95.2 per cent, economic participation and opportunity gap by 60.1 per cent, and political empowerment gap by 22.1 per cent.
At the current rate of progress over the 2006-2023 span, it will take 162 years for women to achieve political empowerment, 169 years for full economic participation and opportunity, and 16 years for equal educational attainment.
The time to close the health and survival gender gap "remains undefined", the report said.
The Middle East and North Africa, with a score of 62.6 per cent, is the region farthest from gender parity.
This is a 0.9 percentage-point decline in equality since the last edition for this region, based on the constant sample of countries covered since 2006.
The UAE, Israel and Bahrain have achieved the highest parity in the region, while Morocco, Oman and Algeria rank the lowest.
The region’s three most populous countries – Egypt, Algeria and Morocco – registered declines in their parity scores since the previous edition of the report.
In the Middle East, women can expect to achieve equality with men in another 152 years.
Workforce problems
Globally, labour market conditions for women remain a big challenge.
Women continue to face higher unemployment rates, at about 4.5 per cent, compared with 4.3 per cent for men.
Even when women secure employment, they often face substandard working conditions, mainly due to more women taking informal jobs than men, the report said.
Women are also underrepresented in business leadership positions.
While they account for 41.9 per cent of the workforce in 2023, the share of women in senior leadership positions is at 32.2 per cent in 2023, nearly 10 percentage points lower than the year before, according to LinkedIn data cited by the WEF.
Women are also significantly underrepresented in the Stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) workforce.
They account for almost half (49.3 per cent) of total employment in non-Stem occupations, but just 29.2 per cent of all Stem workers.
When it comes to artificial intelligence (AI) specifically, talent availability overall has surged, increasing six times between 2016 and 2022, yet female representation in AI is progressing very slowly, the report said.
The percentage of women working in AI today is approximately 30 per cent, about 4 percentage points higher than it was in 2016.
Private and public sector leaders must take "collective, co-ordinated and bold action" to accelerate progress towards gender parity, igniting renewed growth and greater resilience, the report said.
“While there have been encouraging signs of recovery to pre-pandemic levels, women continue to bear the brunt of the current cost-of-living crisis and labour market disruptions,” Ms Zahidi said.
“An economic rebound requires the full power of creativity and diverse ideas and skills. We cannot afford to lose momentum on women’s economic participation and opportunity.”
The 15 players selected
Muzzamil Afridi, Rahman Gul, Rizwan Haider (Dezo Devils); Shahbaz Ahmed, Suneth Sampath (Glory Gladiators); Waqas Gohar, Jamshaid Butt, Shadab Ahamed (Ganga Fighters); Ali Abid, Ayaz Butt, Ghulam Farid, JD Mahesh Kumara (Hiranni Heros); Inam Faried, Mausif Khan, Ashok Kumar (Texas Titans
Abu Dhabi traffic facts
Drivers in Abu Dhabi spend 10 per cent longer in congested conditions than they would on a free-flowing road
The highest volume of traffic on the roads is found between 7am and 8am on a Sunday.
Travelling before 7am on a Sunday could save up to four hours per year on a 30-minute commute.
The day was the least congestion in Abu Dhabi in 2019 was Tuesday, August 13.
The highest levels of traffic were found on Sunday, November 10.
Drivers in Abu Dhabi lost 41 hours spent in traffic jams in rush hour during 2019
Allardyce's management career
Clubs (10) - Limerick (1991-1992), Perston North End (1992), Blackpool (1994-1996), Notts County (1997-1999), Bolton Wanderers (1999-2007), Newcastle United (2007-2008), Blackburn Rovers (2008-2010), West Ham United (2011-2015), Sunderland (2016), Crystal Palace (2016-2017)
Countries (1) - England (2016)
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
SNAPSHOT
While Huawei did launch the first smartphone with a 50MP image sensor in its P40 series in 2020, Oppo in 2014 introduced the Find 7, which was capable of taking 50MP images: this was done using a combination of a 13MP sensor and software that resulted in shots seemingly taken from a 50MP camera.
Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
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%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EJustine%20Triet%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESandra%20Huller%2C%20Swann%20Arlaud%2C%20Milo%20Machado-Graner%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%205%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
Top tips to avoid cyber fraud
Microsoft’s ‘hacker-in-chief’ David Weston, creator of the tech company’s Windows Red Team, advises simple steps to help people avoid falling victim to cyber fraud:
1. Always get the latest operating system on your smartphone or desktop, as it will have the latest innovations. An outdated OS can erode away all investments made in securing your device or system.
2. After installing the latest OS version, keep it patched; this means repairing system vulnerabilities which are discovered after the infrastructure components are released in the market. The vast majority of attacks are based on out of date components – there are missing patches.
3. Multi-factor authentication is required. Move away from passwords as fast as possible, particularly for anything financial. Cybercriminals are targeting money through compromising the users’ identity – his username and password. So, get on the next level of security using fingertips or facial recognition.
4. Move your personal as well as professional data to the cloud, which has advanced threat detection mechanisms and analytics to spot any attempt. Even if you are hit by some ransomware, the chances of restoring the stolen data are higher because everything is backed up.
5. Make the right hardware selection and always refresh it. We are in a time where a number of security improvement processes are reliant on new processors and chip sets that come with embedded security features. Buy a new personal computer with a trusted computing module that has fingerprint or biometric cameras as additional measures of protection.
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
Top New Zealand cop on policing the virtual world
New Zealand police began closer scrutiny of social media and online communities after the attacks on two mosques in March, the country's top officer said.
The killing of 51 people in Christchurch and wounding of more than 40 others shocked the world. Brenton Tarrant, a suspected white supremacist, was accused of the killings. His trial is ongoing and he denies the charges.
Mike Bush, commissioner of New Zealand Police, said officers looked closely at how they monitored social media in the wake of the tragedy to see if lessons could be learned.
“We decided that it was fit for purpose but we need to deepen it in terms of community relationships, extending them not only with the traditional community but the virtual one as well," he told The National.
"We want to get ahead of attacks like we suffered in New Zealand so we have to challenge ourselves to be better."
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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1.
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United States
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2.
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China
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3.
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UAE
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Japan
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5
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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8.
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Australia
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Saudi Arabia
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10.
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South Korea
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