IMF chief calls for gender parity in workforce

Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has called for countries to do more to get women into the workforce, describing it as an “economic no-brainer”.

In her keynote speech at the W20 summit in Turkey, Lagarde said a workforce with equal numbers of men and women can boost economic growth, pointing to research that shows India’s GDP could grow by 27% if it had as many women working as men.

Lagarde also said achieving gender parity in the workforce could grow per-capita income—by as much as 22% in the case of Turkey—and reduce poverty and hunger in developing countries.

The speech was on the theme of delivering the G20 target, established in 2014, of reducing the gap in women’s labor force participation by 25% by 2025. The W20 is a new group promoting gender equality among the G20 group of leading economies.

Lagarde called for a range of policy interventions to boost female employment, including investment in education, removal of legal barriers and other obstacles that prevent women entering the workplace, and better provisions for parental leave and childcare.

Sher Verick has written for IZA World of Labor about women’s labor force participation in developing countries. He argues that standard labor force participation rates paint only a partial picture of women’s work, and that understanding the quality of female employment is more important. He writes: “To achieve gains in employment quality, policies need to focus on both labor demand and supply dimensions. Expanding access to secondary and higher education is particularly relevant.”

Read more on this story at the Hindu. The full text of Christine Lagarde’s W20 speech is available at the IMF website.

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