#WEF Davos: Fourth industrial revolution and gender

What is the fourth Industrial Revolution and what is it going to change?

Industrie 4.0, or the Fourth Industrial Revolution is the new indulgence in tech and tech-based solutions that we find the world largely advancing towards. The dependence on complex social networks decreases as we advance towards an era of the Internet of Things.

According to the Gender Gap Report 2015, India is at the 108^th spot out of 145 countries. 

Industrie 4.0 is also going to come with its own set of challenges in the economy, and hence the world’s preparedness to meet the challenges of the coming wave of change has been this year’s main theme of the annual conference of the World Economic Forum at Davos.

Denis O’Brien, Chairman, Digicel said, “We are poised to experience more digital progress in the next 10 years than we have in the last 50 years.” The job market is going to change dynamically, hence there was also a talk dedicated to the ‘Gender Impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution’, where world leaders like  Saadia Zahidi, Theresa Whitmarsh, Mara Swan, Oliver Cann, spoke on their observations on the present and the speculations of the future. These were the key points that emerged:

According to the Gender Gap Report 2015, India is at the 108^th spot out of 145 countries. We were at 114^th spot last year, one of the poorest countries in the world, and this seems quite a climb;

Findings from the WEF Gender Gap report were presented, which stated that gender-balanced senior teams outperforms the industry average by more than 34 percent;

Globalization in the tech age will lead to more local hiring. where people who are more immersed in culture will be hired, and that will be the key to a company's success;

Retention is being seen as a key issue in employment of women;

Many companies are still run on a design to cater to societies from 50-60 years ago.Most employees have admitted to an unconscious gender bias, that is both structural and cultural;

Women are looking out for mentoring ans networking, as it makes them survive and be happy in an organization;

Women need to feel more appreciated and accepted for a company build a successful culture.

There is this culture of old, regressive nature that is man made, and needs to be altered for us to adapt and build a more inclusive, prosperous society. And for that, our old structures need to be altered first. There is a large half of the world's talent pool that is being left out because we haven't been able to disengage.

As Zahidi remarked, "The problem is complex, but solvable." Swan said that CEOs must step up and take responsibility. Whitmarsh said, "Putting women in visibly powerful positions will help more women be able to visualize themselves in these roles. What gets measured, gets managed."