Women’s Empowerment: When Women Work, Economies Grow

Women’s Economic Empowerment is central to realizing women’s rights and gender equality. This includes women’s ability to participate equally in existing markets, their access to and control over productive resources, access to decent work, control over their own time, lives, bodies and increased voice.

It is also critical women achieve agency and meaningful participation in economic decision-making at all levels, from the household to international institutions. The world economy needs more women in leadership positions; both in private sector and politics.

Benefits, Challenges and Facts about Women’s Equality

Benefits: When Women Work, Economies Grow

Women’s economic empowerment boosts productivity, increases economic diversification and income equality in addition to other positive development outcomes. For example, increasing the female employment rates in OECD countries to match that of Sweden, could boost GDP by over USD 6 trillion, recognizing, however, that. growth does not automatically lead to a reduction in gender-based inequality. Conversely, it is estimated that gender gaps cost the economy some 15 percent of GDP.

Women perform 75 percent of the world’s unpaid work — effectively subsidizing the global economy. They do 60 percent more household work than men and perform the vast majority of unpaid care work for children, the elderly, and the sick.

There is no evidence that inflation happened because women went to work. There are many factors that cause inflation but women working is not one of them. Women’s access to employment and education opportunities reduces the likelihood of household poverty, and resources in women’s hands have a range of positive outcomes for human capital and capabilities within the household.

There is strong evidence that gender equality can promote economic growth. Closing the gender gap in the workforce could add a staggering $28 trillion to the global GDP. Both advanced and developing countries stand to gain if women participate in the labor force at the same rate as men, work the same number of hours as men, and are employed at the same levels as men across sectors.

Even without full parity, countries can grow the global gross domestic product (GDP) by $12 trillion by matching the rate of progress toward parity of their region’s fastest-improving country states McKinsey & Company.

Women’s Economic Equality is Good for Business

“Companies greatly benefit from increasing employment and leadership opportunities for women, which is shown to increase organizational effectiveness and growth. It is estimated that companies with three or more women in senior management functions score higher in all dimensions of organizational performance.

CHALLENGES: Educational, Legal, Cultural Obstacles

The McKinsey Global Institute identified four primary issues that, if addressed, will help achieve gender equality at work more quickly: education level, financial and digital inclusion, legal protection, and unpaid care work.”

To be equal participants in work, women need to be equal partners in society: in schools, health services, financial systems, legal institutions, and families. Cultural beliefs from justifying domestic violence to considering it unacceptable for women to work outside the home need to shift for women to improve their status.

Education at the secondary level and beyond is critical to prepare children for the workforce: educated women are more likely to have professional and technical jobs, assume leadership roles, and share unpaid word equitably with men. Also, the longer girls stay in school, the more child marriage rates drop and family planning and maternal health improve.

More than a third of 50 recently surveyed Nobel laureates cited “population rise / environmental degradation” as the biggest threat to humankind. Second on the list was “nuclear war”, cited by 23 per cent of the laureates, while no other issue was selected by more than 10 per cent of respondents. With proper access to education and proper medical care, women could slow down this growth.

TAKING ACTION

According to John Gill, editor of Times Higher Education, “There is a consensus that heading off these dangers requires political will and action, the prioritization of education on a global scale, and above all avoiding the risk of inaction through complacency.”

At Population Matters we advocate for taking effective action on climate change, starting with smaller families. We also recognize the inherent benefits of global education and empowerment of women, both in bringing down family sizes as well as contributing to overall human rights and well-being.

Access to financial services like bank accounts and digital payments can improve women’s income-earning potential, making them more likely to invest in their health, education, and business, as well as better able to manage financial emergencies. Despite this, 190 million fewer women than men have a bank account.

The internet and mobile phones open up opportunities for financial inclusion and increase access to employment opportunities. Flexible and remote work, for example, can bring women into the labor force. In fact, when women have access to digital technology, they are more likely to hold professional and technical jobs and spend less time in unpaid care work.

Yet, even in developing economies, only 74 percent of women own a mobile phone, compared to 84 percent of men.

Most countries have policies that make it harder for women to work: more than one hundred countries have at least one gender-based job restriction, while fifty-nine have no legal protection against workplace sexual harassment, and eighteen require a husband’s permission for women to work outside the home.

Explore the first-ever global index that ranks 189 countries on gender equality in the workplace.

Women perform 75 percent of the world’s unpaid work — effectively subsidizing the global economy. They do 60 percent more household work than men and perform the vast majority of unpaid care work for children, the elderly, and the sick.

More time spent on unpaid work means less participation in the labor force. In countries where women average five or more hours per day on unpaid work less than 50 percent are employed or seeking formal-sector employment due to circumstance or culture.

Even after decades of progress toward making women equal partners with men in the economy and society, the gap between these two genders remains large. Globally, we acknowledge that gender parity in economic outcomes (such as participation in the workforce or presence in leadership positions) is not necessarily a normative ideal, (as it involves human beings making personal choices about the lives they lead). We also recognize that men can be disadvantaged relative to women in some instances as time sharing in the raising of a family could take away work hours from men.

However, we believe that the world, including the private sector, would benefit by focusing on the large economic opportunity of improving parity between men and women.

The FACTS: Women and Gender Still Suffer Inequality Globally

A proven studied fact is that Gender Inequality is not only a pressing moral and social issue but also a critical economic challenge. If women, who account for half the world’s working-age population—do not achieve their full economic potential, the global economy will suffer.

Gender gaps in opportunity start early — in many societies, families still prioritize boys’ school enrollment when they cannot afford it for all their children. Indeed, sixteen million girls will never set foot in a classroom, and women account for two-thirds of all adults without basic literacy skills.

Globally, women still have fewer opportunities for economic participation than men, less access to basic and higher education, greater health and safety risks, and less political representation. Women are still underrepresented in government.

Progress towards gender parity is stalling in several large economies and industries. This is partly due to women being more frequently employed in sectors hardest hit by lockdowns combined with the additional pressures of providing care at home.

The newest report state that Women will not reach parity with men until the middle of the next century as the COVID-19 pandemic has hit them hardest, according to a World Economic Forum (WEF). Global Gender Gap Report 2021 estimated that the gender gap will not be closed for another 135.6 years, versus 99.5 years previously.

INTEREST: What is the Most Gender Equal Country in the World?

For the 12th time, Iceland is once again the most gender-equal country in the world. Iceland tops in closing the highest proportion of its gender gap (89.2 per cent), which is 1.5 percentage points more than last year, and 3.1 percentage points ahead of the second-ranked Finland.

On a sad note, India has slipped 28 places to rank 140th among 156 countries, becoming the third-worst performer in South Asia.

At the end of the day, equality is about ensuring that every individual has an equal opportunity to make the most of their lives and talents. It is also the belief that no one should have poorer life chances because of the way they were born, where they come from, what they believe, or whether they have a disability; this includes WOMEN.