LinkedIn's Sue Duke on how to close the gender gap in hiring

This approach requires moving away from traditional markers of experience, such as educational background and past jobs. Instead, the focus should be on the most critical question: Does the candidate possess the skills necessary for the job?

While women remain significantly underrepresented in STEM at just 29.2%, Sue Duke argues, “skills need to be the currency for the labor market, and that is especially true for women."

By focusing on experience, talent pools shrink and female representation suffers. For example, a search for engineering leads in Germany based on experience yields only 14% female candidates. However, searching based on skills increases that number to 35%.

The World Economic Forum's Global Gender Parity Sprint is an initiative aimed at accelerating progress towards economic gender parity by 2030.

For more information on this initiative, visit www.globalgenderparitysprint.org.