{
  "title": "Speech: Catalyst for Change: Empowering Women and Tackling Income Inequality by Christine Lagarde, IMF Managing Director",
  "publication": "IMF News, October 22, 2015",
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/en/news/articles/2015/09/28/04/53/sp102215",
  "canonical": "https://www.imf.org/en/news/articles/2015/09/28/04/53/sp102215",
  "overlayPath": "/en/news/articles/2015/09/28/04/53/sp102215/index.md",
  "summary": "Remarks by Christine Lagarde, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund; Oxfam America, Washington D.C., October 22, 2015. As prepared for delivery.",
  "publishDate": "2015-10-22",
  "sections": [
    {
      "heading": "Introduction",
      "content": "- Remarks by Christine Lagarde, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund; Oxfam America, Washington D.C., October 22, 2015. As prepared for delivery.\n- Launch of a new IMF Staff Discussion Note—“Catalyst for Change: Empowering Women and Tackling Income Inequality”, the Fund’s third paper on gender equity in the past 2 years.\n- Purpose: highlight key findings from IMF inequality work, focusing on why gender inequality matters and what policymakers can do about it."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Why Does Gender Inequality Matter?",
      "content": "- Inclusion is good for the economy; Fund research links distributional outcomes to growth.\n- Key empirical findings:\n  - A 1 percentage point increase in the income share of the poorest 20 percent can lift growth by about 0.4 percentage points in the following 5 years.\n  - Increasing the income share of the richest 20 percent can harm growth by about 0.1 percentage points in the following 5 years.\n  - Eliminating employment gender gaps could boost GDP by 5 percent in the U.S., 9 percent in Japan, and 27 percent in India.\n  - Using a multi-dimensional Gender Inequality Index (range 0–1), moving from 1 to 0 could reduce income inequality by 10 Gini points.\n- Scope of analysis: almost 140 countries over two decades, linking gender inequality in labor market outcomes and opportunities to income inequality."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Policies to Tackle Gender Inequality",
      "content": "- Main channels linking gender inequality with income inequality: gender gaps in labor force participation and education; importance varies across country groups.\n\n- For emerging market and low income countries — policies to expand opportunities:\n  - Investing in health and education:\n    - Increasing education spending by 1 percent of GDP in India could boost female labor force participation by 2 percentage points.\n  - Improving access to infrastructure and finance:\n    - In many low income countries, microfinance has helped to reduce the gender productivity gap.\n  - Removing legal barriers:\n    - An IMF staff paper found that constitutionally granting gender equity could increase the number of women in jobs by 5 percent; demonstrated in Peru and Namibia.\n\n- For advanced countries — policies to increase economic participation:\n  - Introducing paid parental leave for both mothers and fathers and providing high-quality, affordable childcare:\n    - Reducing the cost of childcare by half could increase the number of young mothers in the labor market by 10 percent.\n    - Japan has incorporated such measures into budgets; a million more Japanese women have joined the job market.\n  - Raising women’s pay:\n    - Currently, women earn just three-quarters of what men earn, even with the same level of education and in the same occupation.\n  - Replacing family taxation with individual taxation to reduce marginal taxes on secondary earners and encourage women to work.\n\n- Overall policy implication: creating opportunities for women and promoting their economic participation also helps tackle income inequality."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Conclusion",
      "content": "- Call for sustained growth and stability through strengthened inclusion and empowering women.\n- Suggestion of collaboration between Oxfam and the IMF on mutual interests related to gender inclusion and inequality.\n- Reference cited in the remarks: Causes and Consequences of Income Inequality: A Global Perspective. Era Dabla Norris, Kalpana Kochhar, Frantisek Ricka, Nujin Suphaphiphat, and Evridiki Tsounta. IMF 2015.\n\nSource: Speech by Christine Lagarde, Managing Director, IMF; Oxfam America, Washington D.C., October 22, 2015.\n\n---\n\n\n References\n\n- Japan and the IMF\n- India and the IMF\n- Namibia and the IMF\n- Peru and the IMF\n- Speeches\n- Christine Lagarde\n- PRESS CENTER\n- https://www.imf.org/en/home\n\nSource: https://www.imf.org/en/news/articles/2015/09/28/04/53/sp102215"
    }
  ],
  "bullets": [
    "[Markdown version](/en/news/articles/2015/09/28/04/53/sp102215/index.md)",
    "[Structured JSON version](/en/news/articles/2015/09/28/04/53/sp102215/index.json)",
    "[Bundle manifest](/en/news/articles/2015/09/28/04/53/sp102215/bundle-manifest.json)",
    "Published: October 22, 2015",
    "Remarks by Christine Lagarde, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund; Oxfam America, Washington D.C., October 22, 2015. As prepared for delivery.",
    "Launch of a new IMF Staff Discussion Note—“Catalyst for Change: Empowering Women and Tackling Income Inequality”, the Fund’s third paper on gender equity in the past 2 years.",
    "Purpose: highlight key findings from IMF inequality work, focusing on why gender inequality matters and what policymakers can do about it.",
    "Inclusion is good for the economy; Fund research links distributional outcomes to growth.",
    "Key empirical findings:",
    "Scope of analysis: almost 140 countries over two decades, linking gender inequality in labor market outcomes and opportunities to income inequality.",
    "Main channels linking gender inequality with income inequality: gender gaps in labor force participation and education; importance varies across country groups.",
    "For emerging market and low income countries — policies to expand opportunities:",
    "For advanced countries — policies to increase economic participation:",
    "Overall policy implication: creating opportunities for women and promoting their economic participation also helps tackle income inequality.",
    "Call for sustained growth and stability through strengthened inclusion and empowering women.",
    "Suggestion of collaboration between Oxfam and the IMF on mutual interests related to gender inclusion and inequality.",
    "Reference cited in the remarks: Causes and Consequences of Income Inequality: A Global Perspective. Era Dabla Norris, Kalpana Kochhar, Frantisek Ricka, Nujin Suphaphiphat, and Evridiki Tsounta. IMF 2015.",
    "[Japan and the IMF](http://www.imf.org/external/country/JPN/index.htm)",
    "[India and the IMF](http://www.imf.org/external/country/IND/index.htm)",
    "[Namibia and the IMF](http://www.imf.org/external/country/NAM/index.htm)",
    "[Peru and the IMF](http://www.imf.org/external/country/PER/index.htm)",
    "[Speeches](https://www.imf.org/en/news/searchnews)",
    "[Christine Lagarde](https://www.imf.org/external/np/omd/bios/cl.htm)",
    "[PRESS CENTER](http://presscenter.imf.org/)",
    "[https://www.imf.org/en/home](https://www.imf.org/en/home)"
  ],
  "alternates": {
    "markdown": "/en/news/articles/2015/09/28/04/53/sp102215/index.md",
    "json": "/en/news/articles/2015/09/28/04/53/sp102215/index.json",
    "bundleManifest": "/en/news/articles/2015/09/28/04/53/sp102215/bundle-manifest.json"
  },
  "generatedAtUtc": "2026-09-27T10:46:12.802Z"
}