Equality for Women = Prosperity for All
The Disastrous Global Crisis of Gender Inequality
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A groundbreaking book about the direct relationship between a woman's rights and freedoms and the economic prosperity of her country.
"The authors speak to hearts as well as minds." —Maud de Boer Buquicchio, UN Special Rapporteur
“Not only timely but profoundly important—a must-read." Jackie Jones, Professor of Feminist Legal studies
Gender discrimination is often seen from a human rights perspective; it is a violation of women’s basic human rights, as embedded in the Universal Declaration, the UN Charter and other such founding documents. Moreover, there is overwhelming evidence that restrictions and various forms of discrimination against women are also bad economics. They undermine the talent pool available to the private sector, they distort power relationships within the family and lead to inefficiencies in the use of resources. They contribute to create an environment in which women, de facto, are second class citizens, with fewer options than men, lower quality jobs, lower pay, often the victims of various forms of violence, literally from the cradle to the grave. They are also not fully politically empowered and have scant presence in the corridors of power, whether as finance ministers, central bank governors, prime ministers or on the boards of leading corporations. Why is gender inequality so pervasive? Where does it come from? Does it have cultural and religious roots? And what are the sorts of policies and values that will deliver a world in which being born a boy or a girl is no longer a measure of the likelihood of developing one’s human potential?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this convincing collaboration, World Bank economist Lopez-Claros and novelist Nakhjavani (The Woman Who Read Too Much) argue that the costs of denying women equal opportunities for health, education, legal protection, and employment are "just too high to pay any longer." From an economic standpoint that views women as human capital and gender inequality as "a waste of human resources," the authors demonstrate that full human rights for women is not only a moral and political issue but also "an issue of economic efficiency." They draw on hard-hitting statistics to illustrate the "female deficit" in the world population (in 2015, "there were some 101.6 males for every 100 females"), the lost productivity due to violence against women, and the numerous economic indicators that improve when women are granted equal voice and pay in the workplace (the authors note that according to research consultancy MSCI, companies with women on boards are "correlated with higher return on equity than companies without such leadership"). Practical, intelligent, and focused on solutions ("Whenever mothers are educated, there is a higher probability their daughters will be too"), this book combines sound research across several disciplines to prove the simple math of its title and make the pressing case that governments should prioritize gender equality for reasons of economic stability if nothing else.