Doing It All—Women Boost the Bottom Line for Home, Firm, and Country
IMF Blog, March 7, 2016
Source details
- Canonical URL
- Doing It All—Women Boost the Bottom Line for Home, Firm, and Country
Other formats
Bibliographic details
- Authors: Christine Lagarde
- Published: March 7, 2016
Overview
- Author: Christine Lagarde
- Date: March 7, 2016
- Occasion noted: International Women’s Day—March 8
- Main point: Increasing female participation in the labor force and senior corporate roles improves firm profitability and national economic outcomes.
Key findings from the IMF staff study
- Dataset: 2 million firms in 34 countries in Europe.
- Corporate performance:
- One more woman in senior management or on a corporate board is associated with 8–13 basis points higher return on assets.
- Representation:
- Women now hold almost a quarter of senior management or board positions in the corporate sector.
- Women today make up almost half the European labor force aged 25-54.
- Historical change:
- In countries such as Spain and Ireland, the share of women who work outside the household doubled since the 1980s—from under 40 percent to more than 80 percent in the case of Spain.
Quantitative implications for the labor force
- Labor supply expansion scenarios:
- If women choose to participate in the labor market as much as men do, Europe’s workforce could increase by 6 percent.
- If they also choose to work as many hours as men, the workforce could grow by as much as 15 percent.
Policy-relevant determinants
- Individual determinants acknowledged:
- Women’s personal preferences and attitudes toward working are important determinants of their decision to join the labor force.
- Policy levers that the study finds influential even after accounting for individual characteristics:
- Removing tax disincentives for the second earner in a family.
- Providing sufficient childcare services.
- Allowing parental leave.
Channels through which more women boost the economy
- Direct labor supply increase (see Quantitative implications).
- Firm-level channel:
- Higher representation of women in senior managerial positions and corporate boards is associated with stronger firm financial performance (see Key findings), which could support corporate investment and productivity.
- Sectoral nuance:
- The positive relationship between women high on the corporate ladder and firms’ profitability is more pronounced in sectors where women form a larger share of the labor force.
- The positive association is also more evident in knowledge-intensive services and high-tech manufacturing sectors, where diversity can help meet high demand for creativity and innovative capacity.
Policy takeaway and conclusion
- Policies matter alongside changing preferences and social norms: legal restrictions to employment are largely absent in Europe, education gaps have narrowed, and family size has declined, but policy choices still influence employment outcomes.
- The results are clear: increasing female participation improves the bottom line.
- The potential benefits for firms and for Europe’s potential growth are large, and the opportunity should not be missed.
Source: Christine Lagarde, “Doing It All—Women Boost the Bottom Line for Home, Firm, and Country,” March 7, 2016.
Content in this bundle
- 女性能全面提高家庭、企业和国家收入; 作者：克里斯蒂娜·拉加德; 2016年3月7日
- 全てを行う－女性は、家庭、企業、そして国の最終収益を改善する; クリスティーヌ・ラガルド iMFdirect ブログ 2016年3月7日掲載
- 030716ge
- Le donne fanno tutto —Migliorano il bilancio di ogni famiglia, di ogni impresa e di ogni paese
- Executive Summary
- Успевая везде — женщины повышают отдачу для семьи, компании и страны