Progress to achieve greater gender equality at work was set back by at least two years due to the pandemic: PwC Women in Work Index

Action is needed to help women gain from job opportunities created by the transition of economies and businesses to net zero

Jakarta, 22 Apr 2022 – Higher female unemployment and a greater proportion of women leaving the labour market due to the COVID-19 pandemic has set back progress towards gender equality in work by at least two years, according to PwC’s latest analysis, Women in Work Index, shared during today’s webinar on “Women in Leadership Roles: Think Equal, Deliver Above and Beyond”.

The webinar covered insights on supporting gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow and was a tangible manifestation of PwC's commitment on supporting diversity, equality, and inclusion amidst technological disruption and the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has had an impact on female employees in particular.

Marina R. Tusin, PwC Indonesia Consulting Leader, added: “At PwC, we believe that gender equality underpins our values and is crucial to our purpose of building trust in society and solving important problems. For the past few years, PwC Indonesia has been conducting a series of events to support our inclusion and diversity vision and statements, including our annual Women in Leadership Roles Series, of which this webinar was part of. The Women in Leadership Roles Series allows us to celebrate what we have achieved while at the same time examining the opportunity and responsibility to push for a fairer, more equitable society, and to help our people at PwC to thrive and succeed.”

In the webinar, one of the speakers, Dian Siswarini, President Director of PT XL Axiata Tbk, said, “Women also make a big contribution, from family and environment to nation and state. In the economic field, women, with their creativity, have an important role both as business players and workers. In fact, more and more women have become professional leaders in companies and high state institutions, and even regional heads who have succeeded in making positive changes with their strategic steps. For this reason, women need to be empowered and have the capability to face any difficulties and overcome various obstacles and challenges they may face due to socio-cultural norms and stereotypes, as well as insecurity and vulnerability caused by discrimination and gender inequality.”

Dian added that “One solution in solving various social challenges related to gender inequality is when women are economically empowered. Furthermore, women must have the courage to work and have broad insight to be able to adopt the current rapid development of technology, which of course is able to support various activities carried out by women. Women who are empowered are able to create a better generation in the future.”

In terms of leadership style, women have their own uniqueness, Alexandra Askandar as Vice President Director of PT Mandiri (Persero) Tbk said, "Women are natural born leaders. I look forward  to seeing more women eagerly embracing opportunities to advance their careers, unleash their potential, and overcome existing challenges.”

In addition, responding to the presentation of women in the leadership ranks, Hernie Raharja as Director of Foods & Refreshment of PT Unilever Indonesia Tbk said, “In line with the global strategy of 'The Unilever Compass', we always believes that all parties have an important role in building a more just society. and inclusive, the work environment is no exception.We have made various efforts to ensure equality in the workplace, including providing equal opportunities and treatment between men and women, which we call 'equity'. Two examples of this implementation are by starting to carry out Un Stereotyping Training for senior managers and above to eliminate stigma and bias at work, and we also provide Maternity Leave for 3 weeks for male employees and 4 months for female employees. To ensure the implementation of all these programs, we have also formed an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Board”.

Noni Purnomo, as the President Commissioner of PT Blue Bird Tbk, emphasised the role of women in empowering themselves professionally by saying “Women must always focus on their goals, find passion, and be dedicated in pursuing them. You might find imperfections along the way, but I believe this can help us to grow and love ourselves more.”

In this webinar, Hamdhani Dzulkarnaen Salim, President Director of PT Astra Otoparts Tbk also joined the discussion, adding, “As we know, women have skills that can be developed in any field they want. When it comes to challenges in the professional world, the challenges they face will not be much different with men. However, not a few are able to prove themselves by performing brilliantly. In other words, women have been able to find their own way to solve these challenges well.”

Women in Work Index

PwC’s Women in Work Index this year, assesses women’s employment outcomes across 33 OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries. After a decade of slow but consistent gains from women in work across the OECD, the index fell for the first time in its history.

Larice Stielow, Senior Economist, PwC UK said: “The COVID-19 pandemic has made the goal of gender equality for women in work even more of a challenge. To reverse the setback to women’s employment outcomes, we need governments and businesses to lead the way by rebuilding our economies with effective policies which explicitly consider the needs of women and other disadvantaged groups. This is essential if we are to improve equality and achieve a fairer future for everyone in both work and society.”

The two main contributing factors to the index decline were higher female unemployment and lower female participation rates during the worst of the pandemic. The index estimates a “COVID-19 gap”, which compares job losses to the employment growth projected prior to the pandemic, finding there were 5.1 million more women unemployed and 5.2 million fewer women participating in the labour market than would be the case had the pandemic not occurred. Childcare and domestic work responsibilities played a significant role in causing women to leave the workforce.

Increasing women’s participation in the transition to net zero will be key to closing the employment gap

Effective policy action is needed to achieve greater gender equality in workplaces globally. This means more flexible working options, particularly that address the underlying gender inequalities in unpaid care and domestic work. Policies like equal paid parental leave would help to redistribute the unequal burden of care carried by women.

Even more critical will be the need for government and businesses to support women to benefit from the job opportunities created by the transition of OECD economies to net zero. The next decade of work will be shaped to a large extent by the transition of economies to net zero emissions. Our analysis shows that the net zero transition will increase jobs overall, with more jobs in 2030 in 15 out of 20 sectors across the OECD economies. However, the largest proportional gains in jobs will be in utilities, construction, and manufacturing. Women are disproportionately underrepresented in these sectors, which currently employ nearly a third of the male workforce across the OECD, compared to only 11% of the female workforce.

If nothing is done to improve women’s representation in these sectors, PwC estimates that the employment gap between men and women across the OECD - which measures the additional number of men in employment, expressed as a percentage of the number of employed women - will widen by 1.7 percentage points by 2030 (rising from 20.8% in 2020 to 22.5% in 2030).