Working towards gender equality can help the world economy recover more quickly from recent crises and drive more sustainable growth going forward, a senior International Monetary Fund official has said.
The Russia-Ukraine war, the Covid-19 pandemic, higher food and energy prices and climate change have widened already-large gender gaps, disproportionately affecting women’s jobs, incomes and security, Gita Gopinath, the IMF first deputy managing director, said in a speech on Tuesday.
"Eliminating gender disparities that hold women back is the right thing to do. Ensuring equality in opportunities and potential to participate in the economy can be catalytic for a faster recovery from recent shocks, and a strong engine of growth for more resilient, sustainable and inclusive economies going forward," Ms Gopinath said.
"Gender equality goes hand-in-hand with macroeconomic and financial stability, can stimulate economic growth, boost private and public sector performance, and reduce income inequality."
The comments come after the IMF in June adopted a strategy to better integrate gender policies into its work as global crises have disproportionately affected women and further exacerbated inequalities.
It will now take more than 130 years to close gender gaps worldwide, up from about 100 years before the pandemic, according to the World Economic Forum. The Middle East and North Africa had the second-widest gender gap in the world, ranking below only South-East Asia, with 115 years to close the gender gap.
The coronavirus pandemic, higher inflation, the climate change emergency and large-scale conflicts and displacement are stalling progress towards gender parity, the World Economic Forum said in its Global Gender Gap Report 2022 released in July.
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