Women’s work the key to faster growth

It might be the world’s most dynamic region, but the AsiaPacific zone isn’t meeting its economic potential, and some of that has to do with gender inequality, says the McKinsey Global Institute.

Policies to boost women’s equality in Asia-Pacific economies could add US$4.5 trillion to the region’s combined annual gross domestic product by 2025, or 12 per cent better than if the status quo were maintained, the institute said in a report this week.

The researchers estimate that 58 per cent of that potential growth would be from raising women’s labour-force participation rate, a quarter from putting more women to work in higher-productivity sectors and 17 per cent from boosting women’s work hours.

The institute — a research arm of consultancy McKinsey & Co — judged 18 of the region’s economies for gender equality in work and in society. On the work measures, the Philippines was lauded for progress, followed by New Zealand and Singapore. India and Pakistan were judged furthest from gender parity in work.

While there are fewer than four women globally in leadership roles to every 10 men, the ratio is only one in four in the Asia-Pacific region, according to the report.

Women account for half of the combined Asia-Pacific population but contribute just 36 per cent of the US$26 trillion in GDP — the same as the global share, the report showed.

And while the region as a whole has shown “significant progress” on gender equality over the past decade — including on maternal health and adult literacy — much improvement is needed on boosting women’s workforce participation, says the the report. That was one of five measures the organisation used to measure gender equality in the workplace.

While Singapore has earned high marks on this count, boosting female participation to 58 per cent in 2016 from 28 per cent in 1970, even the city state’s relatively progressive policies haven’t prevented a wide gender gap in areas such as hours worked and productivity.

The institute’s authors suggest that encouraging women’s participation in the so-called STEM fields — science, technology, engineering and maths — and addressing skills shortages should help alleviate Singapore’s gender inequality.