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IDB: Closing gender gaps might expand region's GDP by 14%

14:19 | Lima, Oct. 23.

Closing gender gaps might lead to expanding Latin America's GDP by 14% percentage points, Inter-American Development Bank's (IDB) Gender and Diversity Division Chief Andrew Morrison said on Wednesday.

In this sense, Morrison recalled the McKenzie Institute had published a report on the economic gaps between men and women in Latin America.

"The study reached the conclusion that, if we close those gaps, the region's GDP might rise by 14%. That is an enormous bonus," he told El Peruano official gazette.

Likewise, the officer mentioned a report made by the Petersen Institute of the U.S. —which gathered information from over 22,000 businesses in the world— determined that more than 60% of the total did not have even one woman in their board of directors.

Within this framework, the IDB representative indicated that the problem is that women do not opt for some careers, as well as traditional patterns and biased recruitment.

Furthermore, he noted companies do not make the necessary efforts to recruit women, and that —when they get a well-paid job in a highly-productive sector— there are retention problems.

"In Peru, and on a regional scale, women already have a better academic level than men, but when they enter the labor market, they have less success, as their participation rate stands at merely 20%," Morrison expressed.

However, the officer explained there are three elements that can be developed in order to close the salary gap.

The first would be to encourage women to participate in productive sectors; second, improve inspections so equal pay laws are complied with; and third, carry out joint efforts between public and private sectors to incentivize the promotion of women.

(END) DOP/CNA/DTK/MVB

Publicado: 23/10/2019