This year marks the 10th anniversary of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science (IDWGS) established on 22 December 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly. It is an awareness day to emphasise the need for gender equality in science and to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
For this year, the theme is “Unpacking STEM Careers: Her Voice in Science” which aligns with the 2024 UNESCO Call to Action “Closing the Gender Gap in Science” and the International Decade of Sciences for Sustainable Development (2024 – 2033), proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 2023 in collaboration with UNESCO. This day is an opportunity to unlock the full potential for both men and women on scientific disciplines in pursuing sustainable development and addressing the complex challenges associated with the achievement of the SDGs. Today, a background in science can open doors to a wide range of career opportunities that extend beyond traditional academics and laboratory professions.
Measuring the gendered economy
The conceptual framework of SUSTAINWELL is the drastic change in gender roles over history and how a new equilibrium between the three allocation devices available to provide welfare – family, market, and state – might help to face the ageing process without worsening the gender gap. The “generational economy” (age-based transfers) alongside the “gendered economy” tells us important things about how economic life is organised. The data obtained and the models derived from it offer valuable insights on policies needed to forge more inclusive, diverse and equal societies. The sustainability of public finances in ageing societies can only be addressed by differentiating transfers by age and gender and by including time transfers, which are provided by women to a great extent.
SUSTAINWELL highlights aspects of gender in the national accounts by using National Transfer Accounts (NTA) data and considering the contribution of unpaid household and care work and the contribution of time transfers across age groups (National Time Transfer Accounts, NTTA). The combination of both methodologies allows us to compare gender differences in both market (NTA) and non-market (NTTA) production, consumption, and in the distribution of transfers over the life cycle. The analysis also identifies how time transfers flow between age and gender groups. The innovation introduced by SUSTAINWELL into NTA-NTTA methodology quantifies this by delving deeper at the micro level to consider additional individual characteristics affecting gender inequality.
With this research we are also contributing to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 5: Gender equality.
