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Growth through equality

If the gender imbalance is eliminated, additional economic growth effects will result. An opportunity that must be seized after the pandemic, says Manuela Vollmann, ABZ*AUSTRIA.
The most important prerequisite for fundamental equality is the acceptance that both paid employment and unpaid housework, family work and care work are equally shared by women and men.

The traditional roles and responsibilities are hindering efforts to achieve equality in this country and the Covid19 pandemic has shown how unfairly opportunities and tasks are distributed. The fact is that women are more affected by the Corona crisis in the labor market. This is because the decline in employment primarily affected female-dominated sectors such as tourism, gastronomy and personal services. 

"There is hope that when the Corona pandemic ends, many of the jobs currently affected will be available again and we are all hoping for the best here, but at the same time there will probably be structural changes and we cannot assume that all of these jobs will be available again in the immediate future," says ABZ*AUSTRIA Managing Director Manuela VollmannIn addition, not only are the sectors in which more women work massively affected, but women in general have had to endure severe setbacks in terms of training and career paths due to the double and triple burden during the Corona crisis. "Women supported the children with homeschooling, looked after older family members and also took over the household. In addition to providing care and support, their own education or employment often fell by the wayside.", So Vollmann.

A Study by the Vienna University of Economics and Business The study shows that women in two-parent households with children worked around 14,25 hours a day during the first lockdown, almost 9,5 of which were unpaid. Men in the comparison group, on the other hand, worked fewer hours overall (13,75 hours), with a smaller proportion of that (7 hours) being unpaid work. Single mothers were the hardest hit, working an average of 15 hours a day. The expert therefore calls for the urgent expansion of social infrastructure, work-time models tailored to different life stages, and better pay and career opportunities for women, especially in essential sectors, to counteract existing disadvantages. Supporting companies that implement gender equality plans also appears crucial. "We know from recent studies that even family-friendly companies are increasingly tending to reject applications from people with care responsibilities due to the Corona crisis. There should be no investment package without an equality quota."

UTILIZING POTENTIAL
According to an EIGE study (European Institute for Gender Equality), considerable benefits can be expected from promoting gender equality. In the best case scenario, eliminating gender differences in employment could lead to a 2030 percent increase in GDP for Austria in 7. Researchers at Wifo recommend It is therefore important to use this additional economic growth potential that can be derived from greater equality to find a way out of the current crisis and to explicitly take the equality aspect into account when designing further measures to overcome the crisis and strengthen the economy.
PIONEERING WORK
A project like FairPlusService, which focuses on equal opportunities management consulting on the one hand and on training female employees on the other to enable women to have a stable and secure professional future, financial independence and self-sufficiency, is doing pioneering work. The participating companies benefit from the promotion and integration of their female employees and, through their participation, make an active contribution to equality between women and men in the labor market.
The most important prerequisite for fundamental equality is the acceptance that both paid employment and unpaid housework, family work and care work are equally shared by women and men.

The traditional roles and responsibilities are hindering efforts to achieve equality in this country and the Covid19 pandemic has shown how unfairly opportunities and tasks are distributed. The fact is that women are more affected by the Corona crisis in the labor market. This is because the decline in employment primarily affected female-dominated sectors such as tourism, gastronomy and personal services. 

"There is hope that when the Corona pandemic ends, many of the jobs currently affected will be available again and we are all hoping for the best here, but at the same time there will probably be structural changes and we cannot assume that all of these jobs will be available again in the immediate future," says ABZ*AUSTRIA Managing Director Manuela VollmannIn addition, not only are the sectors in which more women work massively affected, but women in general have had to endure severe setbacks in terms of training and career paths due to the double and triple burden during the Corona crisis. "Women supported the children with homeschooling, looked after older family members and also took over the household. In addition to providing care and support, their own education or employment often fell by the wayside.", So Vollmann.

A Study by the Vienna University of Economics and Business The study shows that women in two-parent households with children worked around 14,25 hours a day during the first lockdown, almost 9,5 of which were unpaid. Men in the comparison group, on the other hand, worked fewer hours overall (13,75 hours), with a smaller proportion of that (7 hours) being unpaid work. Single mothers were the hardest hit, working an average of 15 hours a day. The expert therefore calls for the urgent expansion of social infrastructure, work-time models tailored to different life stages, and better pay and career opportunities for women, especially in essential sectors, to counteract existing disadvantages. Supporting companies that implement gender equality plans also appears crucial. "We know from recent studies that even family-friendly companies are increasingly tending to reject applications from people with care responsibilities due to the Corona crisis. There should be no investment package without an equality quota."

UTILIZING POTENTIAL
According to an EIGE study (European Institute for Gender Equality), considerable benefits can be expected from promoting gender equality. In the best case scenario, eliminating gender differences in employment could lead to a 2030 percent increase in GDP for Austria in 7. Researchers at Wifo recommend It is therefore important to use this additional economic growth potential that can be derived from greater equality to find a way out of the current crisis and to explicitly take the equality aspect into account when designing further measures to overcome the crisis and strengthen the economy.
PIONEERING WORK
A project like FairPlusService, which focuses on equal opportunities management consulting on the one hand and on training female employees on the other to enable women to have a stable and secure professional future, financial independence and self-sufficiency, is doing pioneering work. The participating companies benefit from the promotion and integration of their female employees and, through their participation, make an active contribution to equality between women and men in the labor market.
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