In the last 12 months, the issue of ensuring a truly equal future for women in society has risen up the agenda of global challenges—while at the same time indicators suggest the actual gap is growing globally. From harassment and #metoo to #timesup and the rights to equal pay and equal access in education, the workplace, and the boardroom, women have been succeeding in spotlighting the issues and arguing for their rights. So as we look to the future, some fundamental questions arise:
- What is the future of women?
- Are women’s futures different from men’s futures?
- How do we proceed in the coming years to embed a gender equality mindset while accounting for the unique challenges women face?
This article draws on insights from our recent book, “The Future Reinvented—Reimagining, Life, Society and Business,” to explore how business and society can adjust to ensure a more positive future for women, focusing on what we consider to be critical agenda issues.
Areas that Could Benefit from the Increased Participation of Women
As we look to the forces shaping our world, it is clear that society as a whole could benefit significantly from the increased participation of women in the future of technology development, elected governmental roles, and higher education. For example, we need to better understand that an algorithm can be racist or sexist before integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into our social systems and institutions. The book by Dr. Safiya Umoja Noble, “Algorithms of Oppression,” is a great example of the kind of critical thinking about its broader social implications that the technology sector needs.
Increased participation of women in technology development could contribute significantly to the creation of more female-oriented products. For example, Natural Cycles, created by a woman, is an effective contraceptive app that gives women a natural choice over family planning, without the hormonal side effects of the pill. Many other clever technological solutions could be developed with an increased participation of women in technology.
If automated systems, including those powered by AI, are representations of those who created them, then maybe those systems need to represent the gender split we see in society. More women in fields such as programming machine learning could help to create a gender balance within our intelligent technologies.
The Evolving Role of Women in the Workplace
One view on the evolving role of women in the workplace is that men’s role also is evolving. Work in general is changing because of the different economic and technological drivers in place, for example, remote and gig working. The evolution of work has cross-gender impacts. Nations should look to follow Iceland’s fair pay example and eliminate the idea that women and men at work deserve different treatment in the first place.
In some domains and countries, the evolving role of women in the workplace is engendering a more confident and empowering attitude. Women are taking control of their own workplace situations and actively tackling inequalities. A variety of studies suggest that women’s confidence when asking for a raise or a promotion is growing year by year. Women are realizing that the first step to change starts from within, and these small changes can have a major impact on their work environment.
The future, as currently envisaged by many, depicts a world where much of the work that goes into creating products and services will be automated. Thus, what we offer our customers and clients could become increasingly commoditized, so our new propositions will need to focus on something different. Being more human and focusing on the relationship between businesses and customers could become a critical differentiator. So the focus might shift to building propositions on a foundation of competencies and values that are typically thought of as feminine—such as collaboration, relationship development, and empathy. Such an approach could help firms create the competitive advantage they need in the future. The role of women across business could become increasingly crucial in leading the culture change required to underpin the development of new propositions.
Significant Challenges Facing Women Professionals in the Years to Come
Women professionals face the continuing challenge of leading a household and maintaining a career. Societal pressure to “have it all,” however, may be taking a new shape. Women from the Millennial generation have not married or reproduced at the same levels as their predecessors. As such, a woman’s versatile balancing act across various personal and professional roles in the future may not necessarily be due to motherhood but rather a choice made for personal fulfillment.
Women professionals face the challenge of establishing a new relationship with the men in their lives. Men, as working colleagues or as relationship partners, are used to the stereotypical idea of providing higher economic support and assuming leadership roles. The challenge now is to create new ways of relating to each other based on an authentic mutual partnership.
Cultural norms vary significantly across the world, but evidence on the rise of women in business and more prominent in society is clear in Asia, for example. And yet, even in the developed world, we still see institutional discrimination. The cultural and deep-rooted context for discrimination is likely to take some time to clear and is only likely to change through a combination of active campaigning, legislative change, behavioral modification, and generational trends.
Will the Man-Woman Divide Persist in the Next Decade?
The gap is a big one. In November 2017, The World Economic forum estimated that, at current rates, it will take 217 years to close the gap on pay and employment opportunities. Sadly, this estimate has risen by 47 years over the figure calculated a year earlier. They also estimate that the broader gender gap—which takes into account factors such as health care, education, and participation in politics—has risen from 83 to 100 years over that same period.
If we define “the man-woman divide” as sexual dimorphism, e.g., that our differences extend beyond just our physical organs, then it seems likely this will continue. The man-woman divide probably will persist, although there is though some concern that male fertility in the West could be threatened by hormonal disruptions in the food chain and our natural ecosystems. However, the roles of each of the genders might become more similar. There could be fewer men- or women-oriented services, products, or roles. This might be the beginning of the next era where, in 20 years from now, the man-woman divide might become much less perceptible.
As with many norms that become unacceptable as our collective sense of right and wrong evolves, from one perspective, a gradual erosion of alpha male domination looks set to take place. Society through the empowerment of women, supported by increasing enlightenment among men, could help to accelerate the agenda for equality, aided by the power of technologies such as social media as platforms for campaigning and “outing unacceptable practices.” At another level, the dominance of strong male leaders of major economies suggests that traditional male hierarchies may be hard to dislodge.
Women’s Ability to Manage Risks and Challenges
Is society responsible for preparing women for the risks and challenges of the future? How should we help them respond to economic shocks, the failure of social institutions, and the challenge of adapting to the automation of work—potentially displacing many jobs? Perhaps the best way to do this is to increase women’s participation in and completion of post-secondary education worldwide.
It has been thought that men are more prone to taking risks and overcoming challenges than women. Psychological research has debunked this myth, and now we know that these differences depend on the type of risky behaviors we include in the research questionnaires. It is not that one gender is more prone to risk taking than the other. Rather, we are all capable of developing these capacities depending on the experiences we have had and the situations we face.
Are there innate abilities women have that can be nurtured through education, in work training, and coaching? Could these help raise women’s awareness of their own capabilities, while also allowing them to demonstrate competence in managing risks and challenges in leadership positions?
Advice to Women on Tackling the Future
In a world increasingly dominated by the hype and reality of technology, women need to adjust their expectations of this growing force in society. Even though we encounter abundant conventional wisdom that says humans will be replaced by technology, this is a line pushed by the technoprogressives with a vested interest, and women, in particular, shouldn’t fall for it. The future, especially one highly imbued with AI, needs humanity, and especially women, more than ever.
The future is waiting for women to take on any leadership role where they feel they can contribute to society. The world as we know it is changing, and now is the time to evolve a new generation with higher expectations of what women can do. The critical challenge here is for women to believe in themselves and encourage other women to do so, as well.
The key here is for women to focus on maximizing their potential as women. This means celebrating their natural skills and sense of the importance of relationships, empathy, collaboration, and caring. Ultimately, these are the traits that could make the difference between a dystopian technology-enabled world and a very human future.
Achievements in the Progress of Women on the Planet We Hope to Be Talking About in Five Years’ Time
In five years, we hope to see better legislation to protect women’s health and access to education. Hopefully, more countries will adopt gender-blind wage policies like Iceland. Also, we hope to see greater priority placed on bringing maternal and infant mortality rates down to near zero globally within five years, using strategies that empower women and make best use of local knowledge.
In five years, we truly hope we finally will have zero tolerance of female genital mutilation globally. We hope all women in the world have full access to education. And we hope women participate in at least half of the leadership roles in the corporate and political sectors.
Across the next set of electoral cycles, it would be a pleasant surprise if half of all the developed world’s major democracies were led by a woman and if the supporting legislatures were gender balanced.
The authors are futurists with Fast Future—a professional foresight firm specializing in delivering keynote speeches, executive education, research, and consulting on the emerging future and the impacts of change for global clients. Fast Future publishes books from leading future thinkers around the world, exploring how developments such as AI, robotics, exponential technologies, and disruptive thinking could impact individuals, societies, businesses, and governments and create the trillion-dollar sectors of the future. Fast Future has a particular focus on ensuring these advances are harnessed to unleash individual potential and enable a very human future. For more information, visit: http://www.fastfuture.com. The authors are also co-editors and/or contributors for the recently published “The Future Leader’s Handbook—A Guide to Leading With Foresight,” “Beyond Genuine Stupidity—Ensuring AI Serves Humanity,” and “The Future Reinvented—Reimagining Life, Society, and Business,” and two forthcoming books: “Unleashing Human Potential—The Future of AI in Business,” and “50:50—Scenarios for the Next 50 Years.”
Rohit Talwar is a global futurist, keynote speaker, author, and the CEO of Fast Future. His prime focus is on helping clients understand the emerging future and shape strategic responses that put people at the center of the agenda. Talwar is the co-author of “Designing Your Future,” lead editor and a contributing author for “The Future of Business,” and editor of “Technology vs. Humanity.”
Steve Wells is an experienced strategist, keynote speaker, futures analyst, partnership working practitioner, and the COO of Fast Future. He has a particular interest in helping clients anticipate and respond to the disruptive bursts of technological possibility that are shaping the emerging future.
Alexandra Whittington is a futurist, writer, Foresight director of Fast Future, and a faculty member on the Futures program at the University of Houston. She has a particular expertise in future visioning and scenario planning.
April Koury is a futurist, writer, Foresight director of Fast Future, and a faculty member on the Futures program at the University of Houston. She has worked on a range of foresight initiatives, including society and media in 2020; emerging economies; and the future of travel, tourism, and transportation.
Helena Calle is a researcher at Fast Future. She is a recent graduate from the MSc. program in Educational Neuroscience at Birkbeck, University of London, and has eight years of international experience as a teacher, teacher trainer, pedagogic coordinator, and education consultant. Calle coordinates Fast Futures’ growing research on the future of learning.
