The COVID pandemic was a step backwards for women in China, as uncertainty pushed them out of the workforce. When the World Economic Forum released its first gender gap index in 2006, China ranked in 63rd place out of 115 countries. By 2023, China had fallen to 107th place out of 146 countries. (The WEF looks at four areas to measure progress towards gender parity: economic opportunity, education, health, and political leadership).
“During the pandemic, we saw that a lot of women went back to their families, right? Because if someone has to sacrifice in the family, it’s always the woman,” said Zhu Yanmei, executive vice president at BGI Group, a genomics company, at Fortune China’s ESG Summit in Shanghai on Nov. 2. Women in other economies, like the U.S., India and Japan, also left the workforce in droves during the COVID pandemic.
