There will be 5 million fewer jobs in the world by 2020, and women will lose out more than men, says a bleak new report from the World Economic Forum.

Transformations such as automation could mean millions of jobs lost in industries like manufacturing and mining, office and administrative work, the Women and Work in the Fourth Industrial Revolution report suggests.

Numerically, these job losses are split relatively evenly between women and men. But this is deceptive. There are fewer women than men in the formal economy, so even numbers means, relatively, women are much harder hit.

Compounding the problem, the bulk of newly created jobs will be in engineering, architecture and science – areas women are still structurally marginalised from.

“In absolute terms, men will face nearly 4 million job losses and 1.4 million gains, approximately one job gained for every three jobs lost, whereas women will face 3 million job losses and only 550,000 gains, more than five jobs lost for every job gained”, the reports says.

The report noted two major barriers women meet at work. First is the double burden of caregiving and working. The second is sexism. Whether it’s bias in hiring or the way people are channelled into gendered degrees at university, old-fashioned sexism affects women’s job prospects.  

The report was based on interviews with human resources managers at major employers. When asked why they would support more women coming into their workplaces, fewer than half felt compelled to tick a survey box for “fairness and equality”. A more honest 10 percent cited “government regulation”, 23 percent said they needed women staff to talk to women customers. Fewer than a quarter responded that they thought being inclusive of women would “expand the talent pool”.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Slightly more women have moved into the ranks of senior management, the WEF report gushed. Whether that is comfort to the millions of women and men out of work is another matter.