Empowering Women - A Path to Prosperity

It is a fact according to the World Bank that "Low gender gaps are directly correlated with high economic competitiveness." What does this mean for most of the world? Basically the higher the rates of gender equality a nation has, the higher the social and economic status that nation will have.


 January 5, 2011

"In many ways 2010 was the year of women in American politics: Female candidates were among the most visible in the midterm congressional elections, and more women became governors than ever before. In our country, women have a prominent voice in the debates that matter: political, economic and social.

But in much of the developing world the story is different...In these countries, women often lack essential legal and social rights, such as the right to own land or access credit on the same terms as men.
The key insight of the report is this: Empowering women is absolutely crucial in the fight against poverty.


When women are empowered to go to school, enter the workforce, be entrepreneurs, own property and get reliable access to credit, they not only invest in their businesses, they invest in their children's health, nutrition and education. In other words, they invest in the future.

According to the World Bank, "Only 20 out of 128 economies surveyed have equal legal rights for men and women in several important areas for entrepreneurs and workers." Of the 20 economies with equal legal rights, only one is located in sub-Saharan Africa: Botswana.

In a number of African countries -- including Rwanda, Cameroon and Togo -- men have the legal right to forbid their wives to work. This means that in virtually all of sub-Saharan Africa, and in much of the developing world, half the population has a more difficult and costly time starting and operating a business or a farm than the other half.

Taken together, these constraints help us understand why 70 percent of the world's poor are women.

Creating change is difficult, especially in the face of a hostile legal and regulatory environment or, perhaps more challenging, when confronted with tradition or other cultural obstacles that thwart women.

But there is hope.....placing women's empowerment front and center in the human development debate has the potential to pay large dividends, not only for women around the world but for their children. And that will contribute to a brighter future for us all." 

- Author Karol Boudreaux is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center, lead researcher for Enterprise Africa and board member of Indego Africa. Ben VanMetre is a master's fellow at the Mercatus Center and George Mason University.


http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/05/opinion-empowering-women-a-path-to-prosperity/


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