Gender equity in work opportunities promotes economic growth

Gender balance in the workplace reportedly strengthens national economies as it increases job satisfaction and performance, according to economic experts. Professor at the School of Business and Economy in the University of Umea in Sweden, Asia Lofstrom, underlined that a gender-balanced labor market helps to boost the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) among the European Union member states by an average 20% to 25%. Lofstrom’s statement was made during the 59 session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. In another meeting of the gender equality commission hosted by the Norwegian Cabinet, Lofstrom said that balanced work conditions can reduce poverty among women and children and increases economic independence for both men and women. Similarly, professor Katrin Olafsdottir of Iceland’s Reykjavik University, pointing to the results of a survey on the issue, said a more balanced workforce with an equal mix of men and women encourages greater self and job satisfaction and higher productivity at work. She went on to say that the performance of men and women is improved when they work together. For her part, member of the White House Council of Economic Advisors, Betsey Stevenson, pointed out that a woman who works full time still earns only 78% of the salary of her male counterpart. Women’s employment in the United States, she said, has remained fixed at 57% in the past few years, adding that the “wage gap between both sexes varies greatly with the different phases in the life of women and becomes more visible during pregnancy when they stop working or apply for more flexible and less demanding jobs and which normally are less paid.”  (Al Diyar, 19 March 2015)