Gender Equality and Development
In the past 50 years, significant progress has been made in both developed and developing countries to address the inequalities between women and men, girls and boys. The World Bank World Development Report Gender Equality and Development (2012) assessed the progress made in addressing gaps in equality that have discriminated against women’s and girls’ ability to exercise their fundamental human rights. The report demonstrated clearly that gender equality matters both as a core development objective and as a means to increase economic growth and development, which in turn produces other positive development outcomes in areas such as education and health for entire populations. The following are some examples of areas in which women and girls have made gains.
- Women now make up 40 percent of the global labour force, and 43 percent of the world’s agricultural labour force.
- Women account for more than half of the world’s university students.
- In one third of developing countries, there are more girls in school than boys.
Because inequalities and discrimination persist, the World Bank report indicated that more action is needed from governments through improved legislation and policy making, and adequately financed gender-responsive programming.
The World Bank report highlights four critical areas where gender gaps persist and where national government action is needed, particularly in developing countries:
- reducing excess female mortality and closing education gaps where they remain,
- improving access to economic opportunities for women,
- increasing women’s voice and agency in the household and in society, and
- limiting the reproduction of gender inequality across generations.
The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report (2015) is another document that annually examines the state of gender equality in the world. It uses a sophisticated “gender gap index” to measure gender equality on a global and national scale. The index covers four key areas: (1) economic participation and opportunity, (2) educational attainment, (3) health and survival, and (4) political empowerment. This annual report generates valuable quantitative benchmarks to track progress in these four areas. The quantitative data provides concrete evidence of where gaps exist and of progress being made to reduce them. It is an important reference for legislators and policy makers.
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