Women's economic empowerment and the G20 agenda

Abstract

In not a single country has gender equality yet been achieved in practice. Worse still, in 9 out of 10 countries laws discriminate against women's ability to be economically active. This despite all 193 UN member countries formally committing in 2015 to promote gender equality and empower women and girls. At current rates of progress, it will take another 217 years to reach economic parity. Yet the case for economic parity is compelling. As much as $28 trillion could be added to the global economy by 2025 if all countries bridged the gender gap, an amount equivalent to the combined US and China economies today. International fora such as the G20 are attempting to address this by establishing specialist dialogues such as the Women20, to provide targeted recommendations to government ministers and other policymakers.