Last month in Davos, the 1% (representatives from the top-1000 companies with ‘selected’ governments) met in Switzerland to talk about how ‘business as usual’ could be ‘greener’, ‘more inclusive’ or ‘sustainable’ without changes the status quo.
It is no coincidence that these (mostly white, mostly male) billionaires met in a historical tax haven since 1971, without any democratic mandate, while women took to the streets to demand equality at the fourth global women’s march, while other women in some countries are risking their lives on a daily basis to uphold women’s rights.
It might seem like women’s rights have gained more attention in recent years, with movements like #NiUnaMenos or #MeToo gaining traction in the media. But in practice, there is little to no progress in economic equality. For instance, women still perform a disproportionate (to say the least) unpaid and domestic care burden (76.2%); women are paid 77% of what men get. And it will take 202 years to close this gap ‘because the [gender pay] gap is so vast and the pace of change so slow’, according to the World Economic Forum itself.
