Gender equality: Essential for sustainable growth

If we are to come out of this crisis in a sustainable way, we are going to need to use all the human talent available. As societies across the world face problems ranging from population ageing to massive youth unemployment to increasing pressure on the environment and scarce natural resources, we need all hands on deck to find solutions and meet new challenges.
We know that greater educational attainment has accounted for about half of the economic growth in OECD countries in the past 50 years – and that owes a lot to bringing more girls to higher levels of education. So when the Taliban shoot a girl on a school bus in Pakistan to deter girls from going to school, it is not just an unpardonable act of violence against one person or community; it is a blow against growth and development for a whole economy.
But once you have your education, you need to be able to use it to reap the full economic benefit, both personally and globally. In OECD countries, more women than men are now graduating from university, and yet women still earn 15% less than men and hold only 10% of boardroom seats in major listed companies -- even though more diverse boards can help improve corporate governance. Women also spend fewer hours in paid work than men, and many more hours in unpaid work – cooking, cleaning, caring for children and ageing parents – and are more likely to end their lives in poverty.