Ignorance is not bliss - The case for Gender Economics

Keynote address delivered by Mark T. Jones

International Conference on the Restructuring of the Global Economy

Pune (Poona), India1st-2nd February 2012

C.D.Deskmukh

United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference(commonly known as the Bretton Woods conference)

1st-22nd July 1944

International Monetary Fund(IMF)

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade(GATT) International Monetary Fund(IMF)

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Christine Lagarde – Managing Director – International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Dr Eleni Gebre Medhin – CEO – Ethiopian Commodities Exchange (ECX)

Dambisa Moyo – Economist and author – Dead Aid and How the West was Lost

Indra Nori – Chair & CEO – Pepsico

“Reducing gender inequalities in education and the labour market alone can add as much as two percentage points to GDP growth per annum” (World Bank, 2012).

In India, if the ratio of female to male workers were increased by 10%, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would rise by 8%.

DAC Guiding Principles for Aid Effectiveness, Gender Equality and

Women’s Empowerment

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, December 2008

Economic pump priming

Women reinvest 90% of their income in their families and communities, compared to men who reinvest only 30 – 40%.

  Phil Borges - Women Empowered: Inspiring Change in the Emerging World,

Rizzoli, New York (2007)

Former New Zealand Cabinet Minister and Professor of Public

Policy at the University of Auckland

Waring writes of the; “patriarchal economic paradigm...”

A seminal work first published in 1988 later re-titled: If Women

Counted

Female economic activity by country calculated on the basis of data on the economically active population and total population.

(International Labour Organisation, Geneva, 2002)

1st Mozambique 82.8%

2nd Rwanda 82.6%

3rd Burundi 82.0%

4th Solomon Islands 81.2%

5th Cambodia 80.4%

57th USA 58.8%

79th UK 52.8%

115th India 42.1%

Women's skills ‘worth billions’

Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities Theresa May said: 'For too long we have been overlooking the skills, experience and talents of women.'Better use of women’s skills could be worth billions of pounds to our economy each year so that is why this government is opening up more opportunities. This support package will help those who want to start or grow their own business. 'This is real, practical help, at a time when we need to find new ways of boosting enterprise and growth. 'This will be good for the economy and good for women.‘ (04/11/2011)

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/media-centre/news/women-economy

Women Members of Parliament around the world (2010)

Data collated by the International Parliamentary Union (www.ipu.org)

Rwanda 56.3% 1st

Sweden 46.4% 2nd

South Africa 44.5% 3rd

Cuba 43.2% 4th

Iceland 42.9% 5th

UK 19.5% 73rd

USA 16.8% 91st

India 10.8% 128th

Source: Grant Thornton (2009)

Useful sources

http://www.dambisamoyo.com/

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTGENDER/Resources/GAPNov2.pdfhttp://www.economist.com/node/6800723

http://nikeinc.com/pages/the-nike-foundation/

http://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/

http://www.res.org.uk/society/women.asp

Last Word

“Forget China, India and the internet: economic growth is driven by women.”

Women in the workforce – The Importance of SexThe Economist – 15/04/2006

Mark T. Jones – Contact details

• Email: marktjones500@gmail.com

• Website: www.marktjones.com

• Twitter: @marktjones500