00:00If you look at the overall 20 years, every time there's a crisis, it's essentially women's roles
00:05that are lost faster. We saw that with the pandemic. We've seen that with what's happening
00:10now in terms of geopolitics. You're starting to see that pulling back in some of the Gulf countries,
00:14for example. And I think what it comes down to, and this is anecdotal, right? We can't say this
00:19from the data, but we tend to revert to traditional models of leadership during periods of shock and
00:24crisis. And I think that's what we're seeing consistently. Is there something that you said
00:29out of all of your years of experience that you say, actually, this would make things a little
00:33bit better? Are there policies in, again, either sectors or governments that can make a difference?
00:38I mean, certainly workplaces need to change. Certainly there are many parts of the world
00:43where there've been over 2,000 legal reforms since the 1970s that have improved the legal rights for
00:48women. But it's really about implementing them and putting them in place. So some of those things
00:53need to happen. But I would say if we're headed into this new economy, then we need a totally new
00:58approach to talent. So let's look at AI. This is a sector that is only recently booming. But it's
01:05amazing how quickly it's essentially replicated the patterns of the past. So only one in five
01:11engineers is a woman, and there tend to be concentrated where there is more female talent. It
01:18tends to be people in data annotation roles, for example, which is the lowest skilled work in the
01:22AI industry. So when it comes to the game changers, I think it's really about changing those sectors
01:29that are going to be shaping the new economy. I mean, does AI actually make it more difficult for
01:33women to have a fairer chance? I mean, you're absolutely right that there is that other impact
01:38too. It's not just about who's in the industry, but it's also about what is AI doing to the labor
01:43market more broadly. And women do tend to be more represented in those professions that are likely to
01:49get disrupted by AI. But I think the key message here is none of this is inevitable. None of this
01:53is set in stone. We need not think that just because it took this long up until now, that it
01:59absolutely will take 120 years. I think there are levers to pull. And one of those is ensuring that
02:04more women are going into the professions of the future, and that there's more gender
02:09disaggregated view to reskilling and upskilling. How's Europe doing? So Europe is definitely one of the
02:15regions that is overall doing quite well. It's tended to occupy about 70% of the top 10 rankings
02:22over the last 20 years. And if the pattern of change of the past holds into the future,
02:28it's going to be the second region that will reach parity in about 70 years, which is maybe just about
02:35in the lifetime of the next generation. When you look at the world economy, we talk about disruptions,
02:41it's AI, it's data centers, valuations, but you don't really know where they go. It's oil prices,
02:47inflation. What are you seeing?
02:49So we have our next chief economist outlook coming out actually next week in New York. And I'm going
02:55to give you just a hint of what is going to be in there. What the chief economists are telling
03:00us is
03:00that they are a lot more positive about the state of the global economy this September than they were,
03:06let's say back in May, because they've seen a lot more resilience overall in the economy. But when it
03:12comes to looking at the nature of future shocks and uncertainty and fragmentation, they expect that
03:17to continue to grow. And they're not particularly positive about how much longer this type of
03:23resilience can last. That said, they are giving credit to some of the fiscal expansion that most
03:30governments have put in place over the last few years, ever since this series of successive shocks.
03:35they're quite impressed with how quickly supply chains are diversifying and how quickly businesses
03:39have responded. They're less impressed with how things are going, for example, in terms of national
03:45preparedness. And they're certainly worried about the cost of living crisis that is likely to hit
03:50people more as high prices continue. And there must be almost, is there a direct correlation actually
03:55between, you know, the gender gap and strong economies? Yeah, so this is a very interesting
04:01one. So certainly, investing in all of your human capital, and especially with the type of
04:07economies that we're now in, leads to more competitive, higher growth, more resilient and
04:12sustainable economies. But that need not be an excuse either. So we found that countries have been
04:18able to pull ahead on gender equality, whether they're very low income countries or whether they're
04:22very high income countries. So you need not wait to become a high income country to be able to invest
04:28in
04:28gender equality. But if you invest in gender equality, you're likely to grow faster.
04:32I mean, talking about gender equality, is it time for the WEF to have a strong female lead at the
04:36head of the World Economic Forum? Well, I can't speak for our board of trustees. But if I were to
04:41look
04:41at a lot of the reports that are out there, I hope that there will be good news.
Comments