oes the world recognize that women hold up half the sky? One wouldn’t think so. Last year, overnight, women in the U.S. woke up only to realize that the Supreme Court had wiped away rights to bodily autonomy they had held with the sweep of a pen—or a computer in this case.
Yet, as tragic and backward as the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision was, it undeniably served as a wake-up call for what is at stake for women’s rights, including reproductive justice, and not just in the U.S. but worldwide. And companies were caught right in the middle—not just from an advocacy perspective, but also a talent one as potential employees consider job options around state abortion laws. Whereas previous battles for women’s rights had been fought by feminist and the women’s movement, this time CEOs were being asked for their personal take. We saw an unprecedented number of companies and CEOs speak up and take a stance on the issue, with some women CEOs sharing their stories of their own abortions.
Women’s Leadership Under Fire
Beyond the C-suite, in the U.S. women engaged politically at a greater rate than before. The month after the Dobbs decision, the number of women registering to vote in the midterm elections rose by 35% in 10 states that share voter registration data, according to one analysis.
While the prospect of greater civic engagement has to be welcomed, the path to women’s leadership in politics is clearly uphill. Despite evidence that the performance of women leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic was A+, according to the Reykjavik Index for Leadership that measures the perceived legitimacy of women’s suitability to lead, there was no improvement of the perception of female leadership across the G7 countries, in fact in the U.S. the score dropped by almost 10 points.
The same study pointed to a downward trend in acceptance of female business leaders. Even more troubling, women are prejudiced against women as leaders (but men are more so), and young people are more prejudiced than their parents against women as leaders. Against this backdrop, it’s not surprising that leaders like Jacinda Arden decide to end her term of “strong and compassionate” leadership.
Arden became a beacon of hope and a role model to many when she became the world’s youngest female head of government in 2017 at the age of 37. She led New Zealand through the pandemic and the Christchurch attacks. Yet she became the target of online gendered violence and disinformation. The Te Pūnaha Matatini disinformation project, which monitors misinformation and online extremism, found that the level of violent rhetoric against the prime minister had risen exponentially in recent years noting that “The vocabulary … has migrated from implicit and elusive references to her murder, assassination and rape now to explicit calls for it.”
Online abuse against politicians is often thought of as the inevitable cost of being in the public eye, but women appear to be disproportionately targeted by online abuse and disinformation attacks. As the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, Irene Khan, has noted: “Women journalists, politicians, human rights defenders and feminist activists are targets of vicious, coordinated online attacks. The objective is to intimidate, silence and drive them off the platforms and out of public life.”
But There is Reason for Optimism
Despite the gloom, there are reasons to be optimistic and maybe the world is indeed realizing that women do hold up half the sky.
The personal and economic productivity agendas have collided with the coming of age of care. The care burden, for instance, falls predominantly on women and has for a long time been a hidden burden. Today, the care burden is now very clearly at the center of the economic agenda. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), 16.4 billion hours a day are spent in unpaid care work, 9% of global GDP—twice as much as GDP for the worldwide agricultural sector. It seems that everyone now is publicly grappling with the balancing act of work and child/elderly care. Tackling care is a no-brainer: not only does it support women in the economy, but meeting these needs could create almost 300 million jobs by 2035.
There is a marked increase in gendered health, wealth, and wellbeing with recognition that women’s health, including in menopause treatment and pleasure, require not just the science but the dollars to back them. Gender lens investing and women’s funds are increasing.
But the greatest beacons of hope are the brave women and girls who are out in the streets. From the women in Afghanistan who have braved the wrath of the Taliban as opportunities and rights are taken away from them, to the women who have protested in Iran.
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Does the World Recognize That Women Hold Up Half the Sky?
Illustration by Midjourney.
March 10, 2023
The growing number of powerful women leaders-from the c-suite to political office-is a testament to progress in gender equity. Yet women's leadership is under attack, leading one to wonder if the world truly appreciates the importance of women contributions, write Judit Arenas and Nicole Monge.
D
oes the world recognize that women hold up half the sky? One wouldn’t think so. Last year, overnight, women in the U.S. woke up only to realize that the Supreme Court had wiped away rights to bodily autonomy they had held with the sweep of a pen—or a computer in this case.
Yet, as tragic and backward as the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision was, it undeniably served as a wake-up call for what is at stake for women’s rights, including reproductive justice, and not just in the U.S. but worldwide. And companies were caught right in the middle—not just from an advocacy perspective, but also a talent one as potential employees consider job options around state abortion laws. Whereas previous battles for women’s rights had been fought by feminist and the women’s movement, this time CEOs were being asked for their personal take. We saw an unprecedented number of companies and CEOs speak up and take a stance on the issue, with some women CEOs sharing their stories of their own abortions.
Women’s Leadership Under Fire
Beyond the C-suite, in the U.S. women engaged politically at a greater rate than before. The month after the Dobbs decision, the number of women registering to vote in the midterm elections rose by 35% in 10 states that share voter registration data, according to one analysis.
While the prospect of greater civic engagement has to be welcomed, the path to women’s leadership in politics is clearly uphill. Despite evidence that the performance of women leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic was A+, according to the Reykjavik Index for Leadership that measures the perceived legitimacy of women’s suitability to lead, there was no improvement of the perception of female leadership across the G7 countries, in fact in the U.S. the score dropped by almost 10 points.
The same study pointed to a downward trend in acceptance of female business leaders. Even more troubling, women are prejudiced against women as leaders (but men are more so), and young people are more prejudiced than their parents against women as leaders. Against this backdrop, it’s not surprising that leaders like Jacinda Arden decide to end her term of “strong and compassionate” leadership.
Arden became a beacon of hope and a role model to many when she became the world’s youngest female head of government in 2017 at the age of 37. She led New Zealand through the pandemic and the Christchurch attacks. Yet she became the target of online gendered violence and disinformation. The Te Pūnaha Matatini disinformation project, which monitors misinformation and online extremism, found that the level of violent rhetoric against the prime minister had risen exponentially in recent years noting that “The vocabulary … has migrated from implicit and elusive references to her murder, assassination and rape now to explicit calls for it.”
Online abuse against politicians is often thought of as the inevitable cost of being in the public eye, but women appear to be disproportionately targeted by online abuse and disinformation attacks. As the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, Irene Khan, has noted: “Women journalists, politicians, human rights defenders and feminist activists are targets of vicious, coordinated online attacks. The objective is to intimidate, silence and drive them off the platforms and out of public life.”
But There is Reason for Optimism
Despite the gloom, there are reasons to be optimistic and maybe the world is indeed realizing that women do hold up half the sky.
The personal and economic productivity agendas have collided with the coming of age of care. The care burden, for instance, falls predominantly on women and has for a long time been a hidden burden. Today, the care burden is now very clearly at the center of the economic agenda. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), 16.4 billion hours a day are spent in unpaid care work, 9% of global GDP—twice as much as GDP for the worldwide agricultural sector. It seems that everyone now is publicly grappling with the balancing act of work and child/elderly care. Tackling care is a no-brainer: not only does it support women in the economy, but meeting these needs could create almost 300 million jobs by 2035.
There is a marked increase in gendered health, wealth, and wellbeing with recognition that women’s health, including in menopause treatment and pleasure, require not just the science but the dollars to back them. Gender lens investing and women’s funds are increasing.
But the greatest beacons of hope are the brave women and girls who are out in the streets. From the women in Afghanistan who have braved the wrath of the Taliban as opportunities and rights are taken away from them, to the women who have protested in Iran.
