[Analyse] The place of women in the economy


This text is taken from Courrier de l’économie. Click here to subscribe.

Do you want your economy to do well? Make sure women have equal space. Which does not automatically mean that women, for their part, will be better off.

International Women’s Rights Day, which will take place on Wednesday, often serves as an opportunity to take stock of their degree of advancement, particularly economic. “It is recognized that simply reducing the gaps in women’s participation in the labor market in countries with greater gender inequalities could increase economic output by 35% on average”, reminded the end of the summer the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

This gain is mainly due to two mechanisms, explained a study by its experts a few years ago. The first comes from the diversity of perspectives and approaches that women bring to business, organizations and the economy in general. A greater presence of women benefits everyone: it translates into an increase in growth that goes beyond the simple increase in the size of the labor force, which economists have long attributed, wrongly, to the effect of technological progress.

The second mechanism is due to the fact that the greater participation of women in the economy feeds a virtuous circle, explains the IMF. By increasing household income, it promotes the development of the service sector which traditionally has a large female workforce.

Unfortunately, there are still many obstacles to women’s equal participation in the labor market. These barriers amount to a tax on female labor ranging from 4%, on average, in Europe and Central Asia to over 50% in the Middle East and North Africa.

The World Bank searched 190 countries, but found only 12 (including Canada) where even the legal rights are the same for men and women to participate in economic life. . On average, women still have only three-quarters of the rights granted to men, she reported last year, but this proportion can be even half as much in Iran (31%), Qatar (29%) or in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (26%).

Canada, and particularly Quebec, does quite well in terms of the participation of women aged 15 to 64 in the labor market with rates of 77.4% (compared to 83.3% for men) and 79% respectively. .6% (85.3%), reported Statistics Canada in January, far ahead of the average of 65% (81%) within the club of rich countries in 2019, according to the OECD.

Not enough

But access to the labor market is not everything, noted in a study last fall a researcher from the European University Institute, Ariane Aumaitre. In fact, even if the degree of economic independence of women has increased significantly over the last decades in several countries thanks to a higher rate of participation in the labor market, an increase in the level of education and an increase in the number of households headed by women, their economic well-being has barely changed in 30 years and has remained below the average for all workers. At least in the eight countries of Western Europe on which the expert leaned, including two which were resulting from the social-democracy of Northern Europe.

However, these averages are misleading, warns Ariane Aumaitre. On closer inspection, three different stories emerge.

The first story is one of emancipation. That of women belonging to the richest 20% of households, whose high level of education and the fact that they share their life with a spouse who also earns a good living has made it possible to improve their material well-being.

The second story is one of compensation. It corresponds to women whose household has an average income and whose participation in the labor market has made it possible to offset the real decline in the incomes of male workers over the past decades.

The third story is more disappointing and tells of a betrayed promise. It is that of those women who belong to the fifth of the poorest and whose household is not “traditional”, because they are at the head, in particular, of a single-parent family. For them, the new access to the labor market and the greater economic independence have translated into a deterioration in the standard of living.

Conclusion, says the researcher: equal access for women to the labor market is essential for those who want to improve not only their economic fate, but that of society as a whole. But it is not enough for everyone to really benefit from it, in particular less qualified workers, heads of single-parent families and women with more modest incomes.

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