Gender Equality (Also) Makes Business Sense

Advancing equality for women is arguably one of the big opportunities for inclusive growth in the coming decade. A new research paper from the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) released at the Women Deliver Conference in Copenhagen builds on an earlier report and speaks of the six indicators that could deliver parity.

The report calculates that achieving the economic potential of women and making progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) would need investing of an additional $1.5 trillion-$2 trillion in annual spending on essential services in 2025. The potential economic gains, could be 6 to 8 times this outlay, the report says.

The Hidden Subsidy

The new report builds on last year’s report and deep-dive reports on India and the United States. While every region has much to gain, India stands at the top of the ladder when it comes to the global GDP opportunity, in the best in the region scenario in 2025 — India at 16% whereas the world at 11%. Vivian Hunt of the McKinsey MGI underlines how gender data points to women, “who are about half of the population, contributing to about 37% of GDP.”

The opportunities to advance gender parity vary by region, but among the large global opportunities are services to help manage unpaid care work. Paid parental leave, networked child care, shared programs — all can address the problem of unpaid child care, that developed countries like the United States are yet to take head on.

In what the report calls ‘regional opportunities’ education, maternal and reproductive health are particularly important and focus on them could unpack greater potential. Anu Madgavkar, a Partner at MGI spoke to CNN-News18 mentioning how global opportunities shine on an important realisation, “Even in countries that are developed, issues of gender based violence that are fundamental, in a sense and women in leadership positions have not been addressed. So while the regional priorities may include more focus on health care and women’s reproductive rights there are larger issues that need addressing all over the world”.

(Anubha Bhonsle is in Copenhagen at the invitation of Women Deliver. This article was first published on Medium.com.)