Gender Parity and Economic Development: A Guide

This paper focuses on this Adolescent Girls Initiative by the World Bank to help the transition of young women from school to stable employment. About 34% of young women in developing countries are out of the labor force and school. Studies show that adolescence is a crucial time when women often have increased restrictions in developing countries, including marriage and childbearing. The World Bank project is being implemented in 8 countries, including Afghanistan, Haiti, Jordan, Lao PDR, Liberia, Nepal, Rwanda, and South Sudan, reaching 17,000 girls. The project is being customized to each country, with the goal of promoting women’s economic empowerment by bringing more women into the labor force. The paper highlights reasons why young women’s participation in the labor force is low and the results the World Bank has seen in various countries by implementing skills training programs to help adolescent girls eventually find stable jobs.

Women in pastoral societies face many challenges, but NGOs often try to empower women, rather than finding ways women can empower themselves. The author suggests that gender equality should be taken at a pace that women are comfortable with and fully involved in. The paper analyzes the idea of power among women and men and suggests that empowerment can only be successful if both women and men understand why women should have more power. Reviewing over a hundred reports about social relations in pastoral communities, case studies were selected to form an assessment of women’s empowerment in pastoral communities. In terms of future recommendations for empowering women in these communities, the paper provides rough guidelines but concludes that action depends on the particular community as needs and conditions differ.

ActionAid’s report analyzes the magnitudes and costs of women’s unpaid work, disproportionate to men’s work. Women’s work includes caring for children, elderly, and the sick while maintaining households, and this work goes unnoticed though it provides a valuable function in the well being of a society. The report’s findings indicate that women in developing countries could be $9 trillion better off if they had equal access to paid work and equal wages. In addition, $1.6 trillion in output could be generated if women had equal employment opportunities. Using secondary data and primary research, the paper highlights the nature of women’s work, the unequal benefits from education, and a focus on voice, power, human rights, and choice to decrease gender inequality. The report calls for governments and businesses to create the conditions women need for economic opportunity.

Previous studies researched human capital in relation to assets observed including health or educational attainment as they correlate with economic outcomes. However, this study focuses on documenting the role of social-emotional capital in explaining education and labor market aspirations of adolescents in India. Previous studies have shown that young people with high employment aspiration are more likely to enter a professional career in adulthood. Though the connection of social-emotional or psychological capital and economic outcomes has been studied in developed countries, this idea is new to developing countries. This study focuses on self-efficacy, utilizing a World Bank survey of 3,942 adolescent girls in 3 low-income Indian communities in the state of Jharkhand. The key findings indicate that self-efficacy is one of the key determinants of aspiration among adolescent girls and young women (ages 15-24) in Jharkhand, both for education and employment. In addition, individual and household level factors like age, previous training experience, and an “enabling” environment or one where girls enjoy family/social support, feel connected and have empowered parents and other successful role models to look up to, appear to be important in boosting self-efficacy. Therefore, the findings suggest more programs in developing countries need to consider how to boost young girls’ self-efficacy in order to increase aspirations for the future.

This paper examines the history of women in corporate boards in Canada, the advantages of appointing women to boards, as well as the challenges to appointment. More women are earning higher degree and achieving high management positions, however, the percent of women holding corporate board memberships remains at 5%. Survey data from 66 male CEOs of Canadian corporations having at least one woman on their board was collected and analyzed relating to information about the effect of women on boards, preferred candidate profiles, current pool of business women, and their beliefs on why there aren't more women directors. Findings indicate that having women on boards seem to make a difference and develop positive attitudes from shareholders and other female employees. Finally the paper examines the benefits of having women on boards, reasons why they are not appointed, and future reform.

After the South African government enforced affirmative action through legislation to employ women in top management positions, there has been debate about the benefits and barriers of this legislation. This paper uses secondary research and comparative analysis to dissect the effects of this legislation. Findings indicate that it is still uncommon to find women in top level positions in South Africa and social constraints in organizations make it difficult for women to be perceived as equals. The paper recommends ways South Africa's organizations can become more gender-aware, implementing policies that make the workplace more female-friendly.

There is a social and individual need to improve women’s working conditions and enable them to reconcile work and family life. The paper highlights the economic and ethical need to benefit women and reconcile work and family life and also examines the views of some who consider the negative effects of entrepreneurship for women. It concludes that time will tell with the evolution of women and entrepreneurship but if women who reach power adopt different behavioral models from those of men, they can become an element for social change.

Micro-credit is being used by non-governmental organizations as a way of empowering women and alleviating poverty. Micro-credit program provide access to resources, increasing participation in household decision-making. However, there is a debate about how effective the tool is to empowering women and eliminating poverty. This study focuses on this debate by providing insights about the role of micro-credit in Sri Lanka’s Kandy district. Theoretical approaches as well as focus groups, interviews with 60 women, and participant observations were used in the study, combining quantitative and qualitative information to conclude that access to credit was not enough to alleviate poverty in this area of Sri Lanka, but many women felt empowered as their resources and confidence increased.

This paper examines the result of women’s empowerment due to mixed (male and female) savings and credit cooperatives in Nepal. Using planning theory, participatory and feminist research, including focus group discussions and interviews, a Nepal study concludes that women have less power than men in mixed cooperatives. Gender power relations that exist in homes continue in mixed finance cooperatives as women have inequitable access to most services and the opportunity to become a cooperative leader. Male members and leaders will support women’s empowerment if it provides tax benefits, improves growth, and does not increase women’s control in the cooperative.

Vocational training has been used by non-governmental organizations to provide more economic opportunity to marginalized groups. This paper uses secondary research along including internal interview data to examine the use of vocational training in Palestine for women and youth, including its limitations and possibilities. In particular, it focuses on two successful models of Vocational Education and Training (VET), drawing on human development approaches, including a rights based approach and capability approach. It describes the effects of VET with a human development approach in increasing labor force participation rates and income generation for youth and women. Overall, it illustrates VET as a way to respond to challenges and create choices for individuals, though the importance of including a gender lens is highlighted.

Governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations are investing in education as a means to economic development and eliminating gender gaps. This study uses data from a survey of more than 1000 households in Pakistan as well as earnings functions estimated for all types of workers to estimate the returns on the quantity and quality of school in different occupations by gender, using linear regression analysis. The analysis shows that women’s chances of being a part of the labor force increases after eight years of schooling. In addition, the market rewards for education and skills are greater for women than men, leading to higher economic outcomes. However, in the same occupation, women still earn significantly less than men. Therefore, there is a persistent gender gap that is to be addressed so that women can receive the rewards from their education.

In an attempt to measure and understand gender equality and economic empowerment, an analysis in Fiji and the Solomon Islands is performed through partnerships with organizations working on research projects. Labor is characterized by gender division and unpaid work in the Pacific countries. The analysis included workshops interviewing households to formulate ideas about gender equality and labor, including how well indicators of gender equality reflect the experiences of men and women. The analysis includes non-market transactions, forms of non-cash exchange, and recognizes the imbalance in women’s and men’s household work. The findings point to the need for organizations and government to recognize women’s work in the household, rather than solely giving them access to employment and paid work, but also realizing the need to address their value in the community and household, improving the way women and men work together.

This paper includes a literature review and discussion of the emergence of microfinance for women’s empowerment, the issues it poses for this goal, and measuring the tool’s outcomes. In particular, the paper focuses on how gender plays a role in financing and how the power relations within and outside of the household affect the outcomes of microfinance as a tool for empowering women. The paper calls for researchers to gather evidence on the gender dynamics in microfinance in order to build systems and processes that consider this dynamic in advancing gender equality.

Evidence has shown that increasing women’s employment, education, and earnings leads to a decrease in economic inequality. This paper explores the family dynamics in determining the effect of gender equality on income inequality in Denmark, Germany, Italy, the UK, and the US. In particular, due to the family's role in pooling and redistributing resources, increasing equality in different households may lead to favorable or unfavorable results. Analyzing data from five countries from the mid-1980s to the mid-2000s, findings shows that an increased similarity among partners does not augment inequality to a relevant degree and the inflow of women in employment contributed to reducing inequality among households rather than augmenting it. In all the five countries, increases in inequality are driven by increased polarization between high and low income families and income dispersion within family types, suggesting that social constraints are at play in addition to gender.

This discussion touches the effect of growing trade for women around the world. Trade is bringing in large gains, but a challenge is to find ways to distribute gains in order to alleviate poverty and income inequality. Certain social group, including women, do not benefit equally from increasing trade, further impacting poverty. Women often disproportionately lack access to employment opportunities with good earnings and instead occupy low wage jobs with few labor protections. Research findings show a correlation between increased female participation in society and improved economic outcomes. In addition, women-led businesses increase economic diversity and productivity. Therefore, women’s role in trade expansion is important to economic and social development.

The paper analyzes the region of Greater Latrobe Valley, Australia and the impact of the economic restructuring in the labor market on gender relations in the household and labor market. Quantitative data from the region is used to build an analysis of the labor market structure from 1996 to 2011 while qualitative interview information was collected from 25 households in the region to build an assessment of gender relations in respect to labor market changes. Overall, the findings indicate that the labor market continued to be lead by a ‘male breadwinner’ and occupational and industrial jobs are gender divided. Therefore, the gender structures in households continue to affect the labor market gender divisions, even with a changing labor market. There is a reciprocal relationship between gender relations in the labor market and in the household.

This paper discusses the labor market and its characteristics from a gender perspective through presenting research and data collected by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and its working papers. IMF builds a case for strengthening the economy with gender equality as an important part of building growth and stability in the labor market. The paper highlights gender-specific market characteristics, challenges with increasing female labor force participation, macroeconomic gains of gender equality, and recommendations for policies that support higher female labor force participation. IMF illustrates the work needed to be done for economic gender equality and recognizes that women continue to experience wage differentials, labor discrimination, and low leadership representation. Though the paper does not propose specific policies for these issues, it presents evidence for the economic impact increasing female labor participation can have on an economy and recommends policy that includes a gender perspective.

This report prepared by the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD highlights the benefits of gender diversity in business, analyzes policies used by governments and businesses to promote gender equality, and includes best practices for advancing women in business. The paper also gives public policy recommendations for businesses to facilitate gender diversity practices. In particular, the paper is a resource for organizations as they build their diversity statements and strategy, providing many cases of gender diversity statements and practices.

After preparing the “Putting all Our Minds to Work: Harnessing the Gender Dividend” paper and performing an assessment of 215 companies on their work to promote gender diversity, the Business and Industry Advisory Committee along with Deloitte focuses on the gender gap and entrepreneurship in this report. It offers best practices for all parties involved in the economic empowerment of women based on evidence from a workshop with senior representatives from the governments of France, Japan, New Zealand and the U.S. and executives from businesses. Some issues unique to women in entrepreneurship are highlighted, especially access to finance, financial literacy, management training, and self-confidence. The paper calls for specific policy interventions to increase female participation in entrepreneurship. In terms of access to finance, the paper analyzes how private equity institutions are often not operated with women entrepreneurs in mind, therefore, it is hard for women to enter the circle of trust needed to attract funding. Finally, the report offers case studies of businesses who have implemented programs that support women entrepreneurs, recommending public policies that facilitate the participation of women in entrepreneurship.

This study evaluates the gender inequality in access to land ownership, including the determinants, which are not well understood. Governments prioritize women’s access to land as a step towards opportunity and equality, but this paper explains how other factors play into women’s access to land in addition to laws. Based on qualitative fieldwork, this paper highlights the social norms that affect women’s access to land, breaking down the discussion to four levels including: household, community, the state, and the market. This paper uses Ghana as the example to apply this model, and illustrates how social and family dimensions limit women’s access to land. Recommendations to adapt policies for equal inheritance of land and distribution of land after divorce are highlighted, but the role of social conventions are recognized as a limiting factor for equality.

This study focuses on the question of whether after-school care promotes maternal employment, and therefore gender equality in labor supply. To address this question, the paper uses quantitative methods to analyze variations in labor supply in Switzerland where after-school care is provided in certain regions. Findings suggesting that after-school care provision does not have a significant effect on parental employment overall, but does have a positive impact on the full-time employment of mothers. Therefore, childcare can play a role in increasing gender equality in the economy.

This study examines the effect of female leadership on gender equity from a study on a plant closure. Using worker-plant matched panel data to measure difference in wage changes experienced by workers displaced from plant closing, it is observed that there are larger wage losses among women than men when considering workers who move from the same closing plant to the same new firm. However this study finds a significantly smaller gap in wages from hiring firms with female leadership. The results suggest that women in leadership positions encourage more female-friendly cultures inside their firms.

This paper reviews research on the role that women’s empowerment can play for rural development. Community development that focuses on social, technological, political, and psychological empowerment for the diverse needs of rural women can benefit these communities distinctly. Therefore, these findings can have important implications for the implementation of community development programs that focus on women's empowerment.