DailyDirt: Women's Work
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
The social challenges of reducing the employment gender gap isn't exactly new, but there could be a growing number of good reasons to reduce inequalities in the workplace. The economic benefits of more female employment might boost GDP statistics (though GDP is far from a perfect measure of an economy). It's a complex issue, but here are just a few interesting data points on this subject.- The often-quoted statistic that women are "paid 77 cents on the dollar for doing the same work as men" isn't as accurate or as simple as that single number. There's a gap (women *are* paid less), but the whole story should account for factors such as education levels, hours worked, and occupations. [url]
- The "Opt-Out Revolution" described the phenomenon of working women choosing to drop out of the workforce in the early 2000s to raise kids and lead more enjoyable lives. Apparently, a decade later, there weren't that many fairy tale endings for that choice, and nearly 90% of those SAHMs want to get back to work (but less than half find full time employment). [url]
- Japan could potentially boost its GDP by as much as 14% by adopting "womenomics" policies that would encourage more women to enter or stay in the labor force. In Japan, about 70% of women stop working after having kids -- nearly double the figure for countries like the US or Germany. [url]
- Womenomics could work for the rest of the world, too. However, the benefits might not be as large, with estimates that countries like France and Germany could boost their GDPs by 4% if more women were in the work force. [url]
Filed Under: employment, gdp, gender gap, happiness index, sahm, womenomics
