One of the themes that one often hears is that the workplace of today favours skills and attributes that women possess in greater abundance than men - for instance, the ability to multitask, stronger EQ and better listening and consensus building skills.
However, a recent report by the World Economic Forum on "The Industry Gender Gap: Women & Work in the Fourth Industrial Revolution" suggests that women are likely to lose out on tomorrow's best job opportunities. It found that as disruptive change comes to business models, jobs are displaced and a new labour market materialises, from a net employment outlooks perspective, expected absolute job creation and losses due to disruptive change from 2015-2020 are likely to amplify current gender gaps.
The study projects a total loss of 7.1 million jobs - two thirds of which are concentrated in routine white collar office functions like office and admin roles - and a total gain of 2 million jobs in computer, maths, architecture and engineering related fields. Men will face nearly 4 million job losses and 1.4 million gains, with one new job created for every three jobs lost, whereas women will face 3 million job losses but only 0.55 million gains - more than five jobs lost for every job gained. If current gender gap ratios persist in the STEM fields, there will be one new STEM job per four jobs lost for men but only one new STEM job per 20 jobs lost for women. The impact is not just devastating for women but also for companies who face limited applicant pools.
The report concludes that to avoid this outcome, deeper thinking and targeted action from businesses and governments are required to manage the change. More deliberate efforts are needed to groom the future pipeline of female talent and to relieve the current dual burden of family responsibilities and work that many women face through new flexible working patterns and reshaping the division of labour at home.
For The Women's Foundation, the report also validates our emphasis on girls and STEM through our GirlSpark programme in partnership with Microsoft and our Girls Go Tech coding workshops supported by Accenture, Barclays and Cisco. We are currently recruiting new corporate partners for Year 2 of our Girls Go Tech programme starting in September 2016, which has been selected by Operation Santa Claus as one of its supported programmes for 2016-2017. Please contact TWF's Development Director, Claire Lim, at claire.lim@twfhk.org to find out more about how your firm can get involved.
Coming up on April 6, we are delighted to present a Fireside Chat between Joanna Hotung, one of Hong Kong's leading educational entrepreneurs, and Sheila Flavell, COO of FDM and one of Computer Weekly's 2015 Top 50 Influential Women in UK IT. FDM provides graduates with essential training for fast track career development in IT from locations in the UK, Europe, the US and Canada, Singapore and most recently Hong Kong!
PS We are delighted that different factions have been calling for the next Chief Executive of Hong Kong to be a woman but we have yet to hear anyone make the substantive case for why women make better political leaders. Well, one good reason is that research shows that when women are engaged in policy making, there is a greater emphasis on family welfare, education and the environment. If you add that to the list of attributes associated with women that I mentioned at the start of this missive - namely the ability to multitask, strong EQ and good listening and consensus building skills - let us know if you need further convincing!
