{
  "title": "To Boost Growth: Employ More Women",
  "publication": "IMF Blog, September 14, 2016",
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2016/09/14/to-boost-growth-employ-more-women",
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  "summary": "Women’s employment supports macroeconomic growth; IMF studies show significant gains when women participate more fully in the labor market.",
  "sections": [
    {
      "heading": "Summary",
      "content": "- Women’s employment supports macroeconomic growth; IMF studies show significant gains when women participate more fully in the labor market.\n- A forthcoming IMF study suggests that a 1 percentage point increase in the labor force participation of women with an advanced degree would raise Canada’s overall labor productivity growth by 0.2 to 0.4 percentage point a year.\n- Eliminating the current gap of 7 percentage points between male and female labor force participation could make the level of real GDP about 4½ percent higher today."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Evidence and impact",
      "content": "- Tapping into Canada’s highly educated pool of women could:\n  - offset the shrinking labor force due to an aging population,\n  - boost growth potential in the medium term,\n  - raise living standards for all Canadians.\n- Canada’s labor productivity is about 20 percent below the level in the United States and is growing at less than 1 percent a year.\n- Since 1980, Canada’s female labor force (aged 25–54 years) has increased by 3.2 million, compared with a 2.1 million increase in its male labor force."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Canadian experience and past policy reforms",
      "content": "- Female labor participation progress:\n  - 1980: 60 percent of Canadian women aged 25–54 years were in the labor market.\n  - Four decades later: Canada’s female labor participation rate is over 80 percent.\n  - United States comparison: the rate has fallen since the mid-1990s to about 74 percent.\n- Two effective reform initiatives:\n  - Tax reforms (late 1980s and 1990s):\n    - Replaced deductions (including on income earned by secondary earners) with tax credits, broadened the tax base, and lowered the marginal tax rate structure.\n    - Introduced tax cuts and benefits for families with children in the 1990s, improving work incentives for secondary earners.\n  - Family-support policies (late 1990s onward):\n    - Lengthened maternity and parental leaves from a maximum of 37 weeks to 52 weeks in 2001.\n    - Established a national system of early learning and child care, supported by increased government spending on early childhood development."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Remaining gaps and policy recommendations",
      "content": "- Current gaps:\n  - 2015 participation rates: women 82 percent, men 92 percent.\n  - Despite more women receiving university degrees in 2015, their labor participation rate is 7 percentage points lower than men’s.\n  - Canada’s gender wage gap is well above the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development average.\n  - Women make up only one in four senior managers.\n  - Paid maternity and parental leave is the 7th longest in advanced OECD economies, but public spending on early education and care still falls short of many advanced economies.\n- Policy recommendations and directions:\n  - Narrow remaining policy gaps in family support and work incentives for secondary earners.\n  - Target family support policies to enhance incentives to work:\n    - The Canada Child Benefit (introduced in the 2016 federal budget) provides benefits to low- and middle-income families and is a step in the right direction.\n    - Consider better targeting of benefits toward increasing childcare subsidies for working parents whose parental leave has expired.\n  - Address the “invisible glass ceiling” to increase women’s representation in senior management:\n    - Provide incentives for women’s representation on corporate boards.\n    - Reform the parental leave system so more fathers are willing to take leave.\n  - Bold decisions are needed to change corporate cultures and shift social norms to encourage younger generations of women to pursue professional careers."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Key statistics (preserved exactly)",
      "content": "- 1 percentage point increase in labor force participation of women with an advanced degree → raises labor productivity growth by 0.2 to 0.4 percentage point a year.\n- Current gap between male and female labor force participation: 7 percentage points.\n- Potential increase in real GDP level if gap eliminated: about 4½ percent higher today.\n- Canada’s labor productivity: about 20 percent below the level in the United States.\n- Labor productivity growth: less than 1 percent a year.\n- Female labor force change since 1980 (aged 25–54 years): increased by 3.2 million.\n- Male labor force change since 1980: increased by 2.1 million.\n- 1980 female participation (aged 25–54 years): 60 percent.\n- Four decades later: Canada’s female labor participation rate is over 80 percent.\n- United States female participation rate (mid-1990s to 2015): about 74 percent.\n- 2015 participation rates: women 82 percent, men 92 percent.\n- Maternity and parental leave expansion: from a maximum of 37 weeks to 52 weeks in 2001.\n- Paid maternity and parental leave ranking: 7th longest in advanced OECD economies.\n- Women in senior management: one in four.\n- Canada Child Benefit: introduced in the 2016 federal budget.\n\nSource: To Boost Growth: Employ More Women, Christine Lagarde, September 14, 2016\n\n---\n\n\n References\n\n- IMF studies\n- Two Canadian reform initiatives\n- the IMF and Gender\n\nSource: https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2016/09/14/to-boost-growth-employ-more-women"
    }
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    "Authors: Christine Lagarde",
    "Published: September 14, 2016",
    "Women’s employment supports macroeconomic growth; IMF studies show significant gains when women participate more fully in the labor market.",
    "A forthcoming IMF study suggests that a 1 percentage point increase in the labor force participation of women with an advanced degree would raise Canada’s overall labor productivity growth by 0.2 to 0.4 percentage point a year.",
    "Eliminating the current gap of 7 percentage points between male and female labor force participation could make the level of real GDP about 4½ percent higher today.",
    "Tapping into Canada’s highly educated pool of women could:",
    "Canada’s labor productivity is about 20 percent below the level in the United States and is growing at less than 1 percent a year.",
    "Since 1980, Canada’s female labor force (aged 25–54 years) has increased by 3.2 million, compared with a 2.1 million increase in its male labor force.",
    "Female labor participation progress:",
    "Two effective reform initiatives:",
    "Current gaps:",
    "Policy recommendations and directions:",
    "1 percentage point increase in labor force participation of women with an advanced degree → raises labor productivity growth by 0.2 to 0.4 percentage point a year.",
    "Current gap between male and female labor force participation: 7 percentage points.",
    "Potential increase in real GDP level if gap eliminated: about 4½ percent higher today.",
    "Canada’s labor productivity: about 20 percent below the level in the United States.",
    "Labor productivity growth: less than 1 percent a year.",
    "Female labor force change since 1980 (aged 25–54 years): increased by 3.2 million.",
    "Male labor force change since 1980: increased by 2.1 million.",
    "1980 female participation (aged 25–54 years): 60 percent.",
    "Four decades later: Canada’s female labor participation rate is over 80 percent.",
    "United States female participation rate (mid-1990s to 2015): about 74 percent.",
    "2015 participation rates: women 82 percent, men 92 percent.",
    "Maternity and parental leave expansion: from a maximum of 37 weeks to 52 weeks in 2001.",
    "Paid maternity and parental leave ranking: 7th longest in advanced OECD economies.",
    "Women in senior management: one in four.",
    "Canada Child Benefit: introduced in the 2016 federal budget.",
    "[IMF studies](https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=40915.0)",
    "[Two Canadian reform initiatives](http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=18916)",
    "[the IMF and Gender](http://www.imf.org/external/themes/gender/index.htm)"
  ],
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