Report Shows Digital is Helping Close the Gender Gap at Work
16th August 2016
Accenture has carried out research into ‘digital fluency’ and created the Accenture Digital Fluency Model, a tool that enables the company to analyse the effect of digital fluency on gender equality throughout the career lifecycle.
According to its report ‘Getting To Equal – How Digital is Helping Close the Gender Gap at Work’, Ireland ranks 8th out of 26 countries in terms of ‘Accenture Digital Fluency Model Overall Scores for Women’.
It describes ‘digital fluency’ as “the extent to which people embrace and use digital technologies to become more knowledgeable, connected and effective”.
A major benefit for women is that digital fluency allows for more flexible work, which women derive greater value from, especially when it comes to family life.
Almost half of the working women surveyed said they use digital to work from home and to access job opportunities: 41 percent said digital helped them balance their personal and professional lives, and to access job opportunities.
According to the report, at the current rate of digital adoption, developed nations likely won’t achieve workplace gender equality until 2065, and developing nations until 2100. But if governments and businesses can double the pace at which women become frequent users of technology, we could reach gender equality in the workplace by 2040 in developed nations and by 2060 in developing nations.
Part of the solution to the barriers women face in the workplace, including societal and family restrictions, lies in what Accenture research calls “the liquid workforce.” The ‘Accenture Technology Vision 2016’ reports that organisations must focus on enabling people — consumers, workers and ecosystem partners — to accomplish more with technology. This growing use of technology will help everyone balance their personal and professional lives and access new opportunities in an evolving work environment.
Read the report in full here.