Gender Equality and Economic Growth: Is there a Win‐Win?

Abstract

To what extent does gender equality contribute to economic growth? And to what extent does the reverse relationship hold true? There are a growing number of studies exploring these relationships, generally using cross-country regression analysis. They are characterised by varying degrees of methodological rigour to take account of the problems associated with econometric analysis at this highly aggregated level, including the problems of reverse causality. Bearing these problems in mind, a review of this literature suggests that the relationship between gender equality and economic growth is an asymmetrical one. The evidence that gender equality, particularly in education and employment, contributes to economic growth is far more consistent and robust than the relationship that economic growth contributes to gender equality in terms of health, wellbeing and rights. From a growth perspective, therefore, the promotion of certain dimensions of gender equality may appear to offer a win-win solution but from a gender equity perspective, there is no guarantee that growth on its own will address critical dimensions of gender equality. Either growth strategies would need to be reformulated to be more inclusive in their impacts or redistributive measures would need to be put in place to ensure that men and women benefit more equally from growth.

Islamism and gender relations in the Muslim world as reflected in recent World Values Survey data

“…The typical verdict of one of these recent empirical studies on the low female labor force participation rate in the MENA region was that the U-shape hypothesis per se does not provide clear leads on why female labor force participation rates in the MENA region are so low (Verme, Barry and Guennouni, 2014). This gap in labor economics research about a vital tendency in the economic development in one of Europe's most important neighboring regions is all the more perplexing since there seems to be a growing agreement in recent literature (de Haan, 2015;Kabeer, 2012;Kabeer and Natali, 2013) that per se gender equality, particularly in education and employment, significantly contributes to economic growth (Gaddis and Klasen, 2014). The educational deficiencies in the region, plausibly leading to so low female participation rates in labor markets in addition are well-known in international labor economics and have been highlighted once more in a recent study by the Brookings Institution (Steer, Ghanem and Jalbout, 2014).…”

An Economy that Works for Women: Achieving women’s economic empowerment in an increasingly unequal world

“…91 Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development commits governments to ensuring that no one is left behind, and states that targets will only be deemed met if they have been met for the poorest groups in society. 92 It is clear, therefore, that these goals will not be met without increased attention to those currently in the most vulnerable forms of employment.…”

Women Employment in terms of Gender Inequality across the Provinces of Turkey

“…All these dimensions of inequalities are connected to each other and they effects economies in a significant way. A large body of studies shows that rising gender inequality has negative effects on economic development and growth especially in developing countries (Dollar & Gatti, 1999;Klasen, 1999;Blackden & Bhanu, 1999;Abu-Ghaida & Klasen, 2002;Klasen & Lamanna, 2009;Ward et al, 2010;Kabeer & Natali, 2013).…”