Christine Lagarde: A Global Imperative to Empower Women
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Bibliographic details
- Authors: CHRISTINE LAGARDE
- Published: March 1, 2019
Overview
- Publication: F&D Magazine
- Author: CHRISTINE LAGARDE (former IMF managing director)
- Date: March 2019
- Context: March 8 marks International Women’s Day; the article reflects on persistent gender-equality challenges—including sexual harassment and violence, unequal laws, and workplace unfairness—affecting women’s participation in the economy.
Policy recommendations (roles for policymakers)
- Design policies that help women and girls access:
- education
- health services
- safe transportation
- legal protection against harassment
- finance
- flexible working arrangements
- Use policy design to reduce marginalization and increase women’s participation as productive individuals contributing to society and the economy.
IMF role and approach
- The IMF recommends and works with member countries to examine how policies affect women.
- The IMF has increased emphasis on women’s empowerment because it represents a missed opportunity for macroeconomic stability and inclusive growth—areas of IMF expertise.
- The IMF’s 189 member countries face different challenges, but empowering women is framed as a common denominator and a global imperative.
Research findings and key statistics
- For the bottom half of countries in the IMF sample in terms of gender inequality, closing the gender gap in employment could increase GDP by an average of 35 percent.
- Of this increase, 7–8 percentage points are productivity gains due to gender diversity.
- Adding one more woman in a firm’s senior management or corporate board—while keeping the size of the board unchanged—is associated with an 8–13 basis point higher return on assets.
- Increasing the share of women in senior positions in banks and among financial supervisors would make the banking sector more stable.
Framing and conclusions
- Empowering women is presented as both an ethical imperative and an economic opportunity: greater gender equality contributes to fairness, diversity, productivity, and more inclusive growth.
- The payoff from gender-equality policies is shared: “If we can achieve this, we all gain.”
Christine Lagarde: A Global Imperative to Empower Women – IMF Finance & Development Magazine | March 2019
Content in this bundle
- حتمية عالمية
- Empowering women is critical for the world’s economy and people
- Un imperativo mundial ● Finanzas y Desarrollo ● Marzo de 2019
- Un impératif mondial
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