Skills-based approaches to close gender gaps

Here’s the hard truth: traditional hiring practices weren’t built with gender equity in mind. They often reinforce gender disparities — especially in industries where women are already underrepresented, like tech, AI, energy, and logistics. Here’s why: When we rely too heavily on degrees, past job titles, or linear career paths, we unintentionally close the door on highly qualified women — especially those who’ve taken nontraditional routes or gained skills in adjacent roles. Take this example: Women make up just 24% of Energy Engineers in the U.S. But when we widen the lens to include roles with similar skill sets — like Energy Analysts (41% women) and Energy Managers (26%) — the share of women in the talent pool increases significantly. By emphasizing what people can do instead of what their title says, we could boost female representation across sectors. Globally, a skills-based shift could expand the talent pool for women by 6.3x. Imagine what that could mean for our daughters, sisters, mothers. #SkillsFirst #SkillsBasedHiring #WomenInTech

Just after International Women's Day, the March Research Insights from The World Bank's World Bank Development Economics focus on more and better jobs for women. They highlight four recent research papers: 👩🏫 Megan Lang and Julia Seither find that a skills-based program in rural Uganda, which focused on business planning, record-keeping, and soft skills, increased women's likelihood of generating income from their own businesses by 17% after 18 months, helping them reinvest in their enterprises and maintain stable revenues during the COVID-19 lockdown. 💡 These findings highlight skills-based programs as an effective strategy for enhancing women’s economic participation and ability to withstand financial shocks. https://lnkd.in/g3Gyixmd 👷♀️ Florencia Devoto, Emanuela Galasso, Kathleen Beegle, and Dr. Stefanie Brodmann show that a public works program in urban Djibouti, designed to facilitate women's access to employment through job proximity, high wages, and flexible work arrangements, achieved a 77% take-up rate among eligible women but did not lead to sustained employment after the program ended. 📌 This underscores the need for policies that extend beyond short-term employment by expanding access to sustained job opportunities, addressing structural labor market constraints, and creating an enabling environment for women’s workforce participation. https://lnkd.in/gCXRNizF 🏠 Ivette Contreras, Lelys Dinarte, Amparo Palacios Lopez, Valentina Costa, and Steffanny Romero Esteban find that a survey experiment in El Salvador found that including a module with a list of activities in household surveys increased reported employment for women by 8.1 percentage points, as it helped them identify informal activities like preparing food or helping in a family-owned business as work, which are often underestimated in standard surveys. 📍 In low- and middle-income countries, where informal work is prevalent and employment gaps between women and men are significant, refining labor data collection is essential to designing and targeting interventions that help women and youth access better job opportunities.  https://lnkd.in/gtxJEDET 🕌 Federico Fiuratti, Steven Pennings, and Jesica Torres estimate that gender employment gaps in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) could significantly boost GDP per capita, with long-term gains averaging 50% across the region, though these gains vary widely by country and are expected to be smaller in the medium term due to slow physical capital adjustment. 🧷 This underscores the importance of reforms to facilitate female employment to accelerate economic growth in MENA, particularly in countries with the largest gender gaps. https://lnkd.in/gA5wYYER The Research Insights are available here: https://lnkd.in/geXYnXEZ

Traditional hiring methods often prioritise degrees over practical skills, potentially overlooking many talented individuals — especially women. New data from LinkedIn's Economic Graph reveals that a shift toward skills-based hiring can help bridge this gap. In Singapore, for instance, such an approach could boost female representation in traditionally underrepresented occupations by 10%. Read on to explore our latest article, where experts reveal the benefits of a skills-first strategy and outline the steps companies can take to build more inclusive teams. How should organisations rethink recruitment to open more doors for women? Let us know in the comments. #IWD25 Read more: https://lnkd.in/gkSZwnMm ✍️: Neha Jain Kale 📊: Silvia Lara (LinkedIn Economic Graph team)

Hiring based on skills sounds obvious, but it's not always the way things are done. Job titles and previous employers often get you in the door – but LinkedIn data shows that skills-focused hiring can open opportunities and expand the talent pool in many key sectors. I always enjoy getting the chance to write about LinkedIn's data, especially when it aligns so well with what people in the sector are telling me. The latest edition of the Workforce Report explores data analysis from Silvia Lara and shows the potential impact of skills-based hiring in the UK – notably, creating opportunities for greater representation of women in male-dominated sectors such as AI and construction. Dr Julia Stamm emphasised the importance of women in AI roles, pointing to transferable skills from various fields, including marketing and social impact. I'm also glad I had the chance to highlight a few inspiring women who won She Shapes AI awards for their work in AI. Many are sharing their insights in the comments – take a look at the full report and share your own thoughts on how hiring shifts could reshape the workforce. #IWD25 #WorkforceInsights