Skills-based approaches to close gender gaps

Why it’s time to use reskilling to unlock women’s STEM potential: "Women make up just 28% of the global STEM workforce and only 22% of artificial intelligence (AI) professionals. Left unaddressed, this deficit will restrict innovation and economic growth during the reskilling revolution. Fostering collaboration, cultivating mentorship and delivering tailored solutions to country-specific challenges will close the STEM gender gap. Reskilling provides an opportunity to rethink how we are planning for the future of work. We must reconsider not only how we work, but who works. If the Fourth Industrial Revolution is rewriting the rules of work, now is the time to rewrite the rules of opportunity. Enrolment among women in STEM-related university programs has stagnated over the past decade, with the causes of this disparity differing across industries and regions. If left unaddressed, however, it will compound reskilling challenges that are already expected to cost G20 countries more than $11 trillion over the coming decade. Multiple inspiring stories have shown how these barriers can be broken. Ritu Karidhal, one of the 'rocket women' of the Indian Space Research Organization has inspired a rise in the number of women pursuing STEM fields in India. And she is not alone: From Esraa Tarawneh’s work on mitigating flash floods that's helped multiple communities tackle one of our century’s largest environmental threats, to Ayanna Howard’s assistive technologies that are revolutionizing accessibility for children with disabilities, women are pioneering ground-breaking innovations. Gender-diverse teams are also more profitable and productive. Companies in which female representation exceeds 30% are significantly more likely to financially outperform those with less. Gender diverse R&D teams are also more likely to introduce new innovations into the market over a two-year period. The case for closing the gender divide in STEM is clear, but it will persist without deliberate interventions. Women face a variety of barriers to accessing STEM fields and solutions must reflect this reality. In some regions, there will be a need to break stereotypes that dissuade girls from pursuing science. Elsewhere, the challenge will be infrastructure and ensuring access to resources and learning tools. Addressing these intersectional challenges demands localized strategies, which are essential for creating interventions that have enduring impact." Read more 👉 https://lnkd.in/eryKvFxp #MentorMonth #WomenInSTEM #GirlsInSTEM #STEMGems #GiveGirlsRoleModels

Just after International Women's Day, the March Research Insights from The World Bank's World Bank Development Economics focus on more and better jobs for women. They highlight four recent research papers: 👩🏫 Megan Lang and Julia Seither find that a skills-based program in rural Uganda, which focused on business planning, record-keeping, and soft skills, increased women's likelihood of generating income from their own businesses by 17% after 18 months, helping them reinvest in their enterprises and maintain stable revenues during the COVID-19 lockdown. 💡 These findings highlight skills-based programs as an effective strategy for enhancing women’s economic participation and ability to withstand financial shocks. https://lnkd.in/g3Gyixmd 👷♀️ Florencia Devoto, Emanuela Galasso, Kathleen Beegle, and Dr. Stefanie Brodmann show that a public works program in urban Djibouti, designed to facilitate women's access to employment through job proximity, high wages, and flexible work arrangements, achieved a 77% take-up rate among eligible women but did not lead to sustained employment after the program ended. 📌 This underscores the need for policies that extend beyond short-term employment by expanding access to sustained job opportunities, addressing structural labor market constraints, and creating an enabling environment for women’s workforce participation. https://lnkd.in/gCXRNizF 🏠 Ivette Contreras, Lelys Dinarte, Amparo Palacios Lopez, Valentina Costa, and Steffanny Romero Esteban find that a survey experiment in El Salvador found that including a module with a list of activities in household surveys increased reported employment for women by 8.1 percentage points, as it helped them identify informal activities like preparing food or helping in a family-owned business as work, which are often underestimated in standard surveys. 📍 In low- and middle-income countries, where informal work is prevalent and employment gaps between women and men are significant, refining labor data collection is essential to designing and targeting interventions that help women and youth access better job opportunities.  https://lnkd.in/gtxJEDET 🕌 Federico Fiuratti, Steven Pennings, and Jesica Torres estimate that gender employment gaps in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) could significantly boost GDP per capita, with long-term gains averaging 50% across the region, though these gains vary widely by country and are expected to be smaller in the medium term due to slow physical capital adjustment. 🧷 This underscores the importance of reforms to facilitate female employment to accelerate economic growth in MENA, particularly in countries with the largest gender gaps. https://lnkd.in/gA5wYYER The Research Insights are available here: https://lnkd.in/geXYnXEZ

She didn’t need a handout. Or a shortcut. She just needed a leg up and a way back in. After years of caregiving, many women are ready to return to the workforce, but the door doesn’t always swing open. Even the most capable women are often overlooked because of one thing: the "gap." For me, that gap was 18 years. Not 8—eighteen. Eighteen years of managing carpools, organizing events, juggling schedules, running a household. Eighteen years of skills that rarely show up on a resume. And now that I've been a successful returner, I ask myself, who would hire someone like me? Smart companies 😊. But far too many still see a career break and assume that means a lack of relevance, experience, or readiness. Here’s what you really get when you hire a woman returning to the workforce: – Project management (birthday parties, managing daily routines) – Financial planning (family budget and long-term expenses) – Negotiation (managing sibling conflicts, coordinating with schools and partners) – Time management (appointments, activities, and house logistics) – Crisis resolution (sick kids and broken water heaters) – Team leadership (leading a household, making decisions daily) – Event coordination (vacations, reunions, classroom volunteering) ** What other ones did I miss? These are not soft skills. They’re real, practical, and valuable. But how do we help more women get into roles where they can make an impact? That’s where returnships come in. A returnship (internship for returners) offers real work experience, mentorship, and a structured path back into the workforce. It gives high-potential candidates a way to prove what they’ve always been capable of. If you’re a business leader, here’s why you should consider launching one: – Access a motivated, loyal talent pool – Close gaps in hiring with real-world expertise – Bring fresh perspectives and adaptive thinking – Support women in a practical, measurable way – Strengthen your culture with lived experience Yes, returnships challenge traditional hiring practices, but they also raise the bar on what smart hiring can look like. If you’re in Utah, the Return Utah's annual Return-to-Work Network Night (for everyone) is happening next week. Link is in the comments. If you’re not in Utah, message me. I have a list of active returnship programs across the country and internationally. And if your company is ready to create a returnship but doesn’t know where to start, reach out. At Elavare, we help companies design returnship programs that work for everyone involved. As a co-leader of A Bolder Way Forward's Workforce Development spoke, I'm not backing down from our goal of education 100+ companies in Utah about the value of returnships. We need more returnships. We need you. Shay Baker Susan R. Madsen Brieanne (Brie) Sparks, MBA, Samantha Aird, Marta Nielsen, Angela Rawlings, Robbyn Scribner, etc.... #WorkforceDevelopment #ReturnToWork #WomenInLeadership

Here’s the hard truth: traditional hiring practices weren’t built with gender equity in mind. They often reinforce gender disparities — especially in industries where women are already underrepresented, like tech, AI, energy, and logistics. Here’s why: When we rely too heavily on degrees, past job titles, or linear career paths, we unintentionally close the door on highly qualified women — especially those who’ve taken nontraditional routes or gained skills in adjacent roles. Take this example: Women make up just 24% of Energy Engineers in the U.S. But when we widen the lens to include roles with similar skill sets — like Energy Analysts (41% women) and Energy Managers (26%) — the share of women in the talent pool increases significantly. By emphasizing what people can do instead of what their title says, we could boost female representation across sectors. Globally, a skills-based shift could expand the talent pool for women by 6.3x. Imagine what that could mean for our daughters, sisters, mothers. #SkillsFirst #SkillsBasedHiring #WomenInTech

Skills-based hiring is here. The next step? Skills-based pay. If we hire for skills but still pay by title and unreliable market surveys, we’ve updated the language without changing the math. Those of you who know me have heard me say it before: Market rate is bullsh!t. Why? When women—especially women of color—do the work, it’s more likely to be undervalued. That’s occupational segregation in action. Fifty years of research clearly shows: • Women enter male-dominated fields → pay drops. • Men enter female-dominated fields → pay rises. Same jobs. Same skills and responsibilities. Different pay. A skills-based compensation model flips the script by: • Valuing internal impact—what the work enables, not who’s done it historically • Mapping verified skills across roles to uncover hidden overlaps • Weighting skills by both role importance and strategic priority—so pay actually aligns with the organization’s goals • Anchoring ranges to sustainable wages, then pressure-testing with the market (not the other way around) If you’re embracing skills-based hiring, don’t stop halfway. Align pay to skills and strategic value. Then, watch trust, retention, and performance follow. #BeyondMarketRate #PayEquity #FutureOfWork #SkillsBased