how digital is helping close the gender gap at work

Getting To EqualHow Digital is Helping Close the Gender Gap at Work

Copyright © 2016 Accenture All rights reserved. Accenture, its logo, and High Performance Delivered are trademarks of Accenture.

Copyright © 2016 Accenture All rights reserved. 2

THE ACCENTURE DIGITAL FLUENCY MODELDigital Fluency is the extent to which women and men embrace and use digital technologies to become more knowledgeable, connected and effective • The Accenture Digital Fluency Model

allows us to measure the extent to which women and men are leveraging digital to advance throughout their career lifecycle. The score is out of a possible 100.

• Our Digital Fluency Model combines data from our survey of 4,900 men and women in 31 countries with published data from respected sources like the World Bank, OECD and the United Nations.

• Through regression analysis, our model is able to analyze the relationship between, and estimate the effect of Digital Fluency on career achievement.

Digital FluencyExtent to which both men and women have embraced digital technologies to become more knowledgeable, connected and effective.

Education The level of education women achieve

EmploymentGetting a job and remaining in the workforce

AdvancementHow well women are doing as they move towards leadership

Digital Fluency Model – Overall Score

The Driver Career Achievement

Overall Model


THE ACCENTURE DIGITAL FLUENCY MODELThe model shows how digitally fluent women and men are, and how much that fluency is helping drive positive changes in their education, employment and advancement at work

• Men outscore women in every country we studied.

• The US, Netherlands, Australia, UK and Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland) have the highest overall scores and rank amongst the top performers on workplace equality.

• Increasing digital fluency in countries like India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Mexico will help improve outcomes in education and employment.

• Women in, for example, Saudi Arabia, Italy and Japan have reasonable levels of digital fluency yet are not achieving the outcomes we would expect. Digital fluency alone is clearly not the solution for every country – cultural factors are another significant consideration.

Overall Model

Source: Accenture Digital Fluency Model, 2016

IndiaIndonesia

PhilippinesMexico

Saudi ArabiaSouth Africa

Greater China Italy

BrazilJapan

Korea, Rep.Germany

AustriaArgentina

SingaporeUnited Arab Emirates

FranceSwitzerland

IrelandCanada

SpainUnited Kingdom

NordicAustralia

NetherlandsUnited States

0.00 10.00 20.00 30.00 40.00 50.00 60.00 70.00 80.00

Digital Fluency Model - Women

DIGITAL FLUENCY EDUCATION EMPLOYMENT ADVANCEMENT

55 – top score

12 lowest score

41– mid score


DIGITAL FLUENCY SCORES VARY WIDELY BETWEEN COUNTRIES AND REGIONSNations with higher rates of digital fluency among women tend to have higher rates of equality in the workplace

• The Netherlands, Nordic countries, US and UK rank highest in terms of digital fluency for women.

• Countries can improve gender equality in the workplace by raising digital fluency levels which, in turn, will help women make gains in education, employment and career advancement.

Score

22

Digital fluency scoreOverall score for women Rank: A lower rank means women are doing better relative to men22

Digital fluency


Rank by Gap in Career Achievements

(lower is better)12148

182567

221516112

23199

26133

17105

21142420Indonesia

IndiaPhilippines

MexicoGreater China

South AfricaBrazil

ArgentinaItaly

Saudi ArabiaAustria

SingaporeJapan

FranceIreland

GermanySwitzerlandKorea, Rep.

AustraliaSpain

United Arab EmiratesCanada

United KingdomUnited States

NordicNetherlands

-5 5 15 25 35 45 551010232628283135353542424446474748495052525253555863

Digital Fluency of Women


GAPS BETWEEN MEN AND WOMENThe size of the gap in digital fluency between men and women varies greatly across countries and regions.

• Increasing women’s digital fluency and closing the gap improves equality at work.

• The biggest gaps between the scores of men and women are seen in Japan, Singapore, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands

• Why the differences? Men still use digital more than women and are more aggressive in pursuing digital fluency. In some countries cultural norms are holding women back despite there being evidence that digital has released more potential from women

Digital fluency


MenWomen

UK

Irlan

d

Sou

th K

orea

Spa

in

Arg

entin

a

30

35

40

45

50

55

60

65

70

Japa

n

Sin

gapo

re

Fran

ce

Sw

itzer

land

Net

herla

nds30

35

40

45

50

55

60

65

70

Countries with the Biggest Gender Gaps

Countries with the Smallest Gender Gaps

Dig

ital F

luen

cy s

core


0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 800

20

40

60

80

Women Linear (Women) MenLinear (Men) Linear (Men)

Digital Fluency

Edu

catio

n

INFLUENCE OF DIGITAL FLUENCY ON EDUCATIONEducation outcomes rise as digital fluency increases. In fact, women have achieved higher education outcomes in 16 of the countries we studied.• There is a strong relationship between

digital fluency and education.• Digital fluency has helped to change the

game in education and has fuelled the trend for women to overtake men in secondary education and higher education (university). In many countries, women are better educated than men.

Women score higher than men and pull away as their digital fluency increases

Education

Source: Accenture Digital Fluency Model, 2016Note: Chart depicts the statistical relationship (regression) between digital fluency and education. The steeper the slope of the line, the higher the effect of digital fluency on education.

Dots represent countries in our study – men (blue) and women (orange)


EDUCATION LEVELS FOR WOMEN ARE RISINGWomen are achieving more with each generation and aspirations for our daughters are high.Percentage of Women Earning a College/University Degree or Higher

Education

Base = Working Women; n=1,745

Respondent's Daughter(s)Survey RespondentRespondent's Mother(s)

80%

62%

35%

78%

59%

27%

79%

54%

23%

Millennials Gen X


0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 800

20

40

60

80

100

WomenDigital Fluency

Em

ploy

men

t

INFLUENCE OF DIGITAL FLUENCY ON EMPLOYMENTWomen’s ability to find and participate in work rises as digital fluency increases.• There is a strong positive relationship

between digital fluency and employment.• The impact of digital fluency on

employment opportunities is more pronounced for women than for men, evidenced by the steeper line on the graph.

• This is helping to close the gap between women and men in employment.

Employment

Source: Accenture Digital Fluency Model, 2016Note: Chart depicts the statistical relationship (regression) between digital fluency and employment. The steeper the slope of the line, the higher the effect of digital fluency on employment.

Women still score below men, but the gap closes as digital fluency increases



INFLUENCE OF DIGITAL FLUENCY ON ADVANCEMENT AT WORKDigital is beginning to accelerate women’s advancement in the workplace, but has not yet had an effect on the gender pay gap• There is a relationship, albeit a weak

one, between Digital Fluency and advancement. It is only beginning to accelerate opportunity for women in the workplace.

• Digital also has a positive impact on pay for both genders, HOWEVER, the pay gap between men and women is not yet closing.

• Interestingly, Millennials, the most digitally fluent generation, are doing worse, in terms of the pay gap, than the Baby Boomers.

Survey responses show that men are by far the dominant earners by household for all three generations

Gen XMillennials Baby Boomers

Advancement

Base = Working men and women (excluding those who live alone/single parent): 2,783

65% 70% 64%

22% 18% 23%

13% 12% 13%

Male highest earner Female highest earner Earn equal amounts


0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 800

20

40

60

80

WomenDigital Fluency

Car

eer A

chie

vem

ent

THE GENDER EQUALITY GAP AT WORK CLOSES AS DIGITAL FLUENCY INCREASESBy combining all three of the career achievement measures (education, employment and advancement) our model clearly shows the overall workplace gender gap closing as digital fluency increases.Career achievement (vertical axis) represents the combined score for education, employment and advancement at work and offers a holistic view of the influence of digital fluency on women’s equality in preparing for work, finding work and advancing at work.

Overall Model

Source: Accenture Digital Fluency Model, 2016Note: Chart depicts the statistical relationship (calculated through regression analysis) between digital fluency and career achievement on the vertical axis. The steeper the slope of the line, the higher the relationship.

Women still score below men, but the gap closes as digital fluency increases



DIGITAL HAS THE POWER TO ACCELERATE PROGRESS TOWARD GENDER EQUALITYIf governments and businesses double the pace at which women become digitally fluent, countries could significantly shorten the time to workplace gender equally.

Overall Model

Source: Accenture Digital Fluency Model, 2016Note: Estimates are based on regression analysis to forecast what would happen to the overall digital fluency scores (i.e. our measure of equality) if the current pace at which women acquire digital skills doubled.

20152015


PEOPLE ARE OPTIMISTIC ABOUT THE FUTUREOur survey shows that men and women alike believe that women will thrive as a wider variety of working arrangements, enabled by digital, replace traditional ways of working.

70%

70%

Women

Men

70% Millennial women

75%Millennial men (highest percentage among groups)

Base = Working men and women; n=3,528


www.accenture.com/gettingtoequalGet the Full Report

http://www.accenture.com/gettingtoequal


ABOUT US

About AccentureAccenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries and all business functions – underpinned by the world’s largest delivery network – Accenture works at the intersection of business and technology to help clients improve their performance and create sustainable value for their stakeholders. With approximately 373,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture drives innovation to improve the way the world works and lives. Visit us at www.accenture.com.

About Accenture ResearchAccenture Research is a global team of industry and digital analysts who create data-driven insights to identify disruptors, opportunities and risks for Accenture and its clients. Using innovative business research techniques such as economic value modeling, analytics, crowdsourcing, expert networks, surveys, data visualization and research with academic and business partners they create hundreds of points of view that are published by Accenture every year.

Copyright © 2016 Accenture All rights reserved. Accenture, its logo, and High Performance Delivered are trademarks of Accenture.

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