Gender Equality As A Driver For Growth; in Sri Lanka

Amid prevailing gender inequality globally, this blog article focuses on the need to realign government policies to encompass gender-equitable economic growth in Sri Lanka.

The reinstated ban on selling alcohol to women in Sri Lanka sparked uproar in the general population. While the motive for such a ban is the defacement on the nations cultural values, it is only a step backwards towards reinstating equality. Globally too, gender equality and women empowerment is a topic of discussion in the limelight.

Achieving gender equality and empowering women has been listed as the 5th out of 17 goals set by the  UN as part of an envisioned sustainable development agenda. Improving the state of gender equality, which refers to the equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities of women and men and girls and boys has been a key concern addressed by world leaders, policy makers, and international organisations. Various studies have proven that gender equality is a driver for sustainable and inclusive economic growth.

How gender inequality curbs economic growth

Over the past decade, the topic of women empowerment and their role in the labor markets have been a key concern globally. It’s been identified that the disparity in access to opportunities by boys and girls results in adverse impact on the girls’ ability to build human and social capital, subservient job prospects and relatively reduced wages compared to the male counterparts. Despite advancements in economies globally, there is still underutilization and misallocation of skills and talents of females.

Gender equality impacts economic growth primarily by three channels;  female labor market participation, average human capital stock and fertility. While female labor participation will have a direct impact on the GDP of the country, improvements in access to education by girls will impact on the creation of the human capital for the next generation. In the long-term, gender equality will impact the quality of offspring.

The need for policies to be realigned to reduce gender inequality

Various studies have identified how gender gaps in society are detrimental to the economy and make the society less inclusive. In the Global Gender Gap report 2017, Nordic countries including Iceland, Finland, Norway, and Sweden top the list of countries scoring highest in the index. While regions including Western Europe, North America, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean have a gender gap of less than 30%. Regions such as East Asia and the Pacific, South Asia, the Middle East and North African regions have a wider gender gap. South Asia in particular has a gender gap of 34% which ranks ahead of the Middle East and North African regions.

Sri Lanka was ranked the 100th out of 144 countries in the Gender Gap index in 2016. However, a widening gender gap was discerned when Sri Lanka ranked 109th out of 144 countries in the Global Gender Gap Report of 2017 published by the WEF. This calls for  policies to be re-aligned to narrow the widening gender gap in the nation. Implementing  such policies and measures will make society more inclusive and result in economic dividends in the long term.

A publication by the Asian Development Bank that analyses the long term impact of gender inequality on economic growth recommends the following factors to be considered when implementing policies to reduce gender disparity;

1. Lowering gender biases in education
2.  Lowering time cost for child rearing
3.  Lowering discrimination in the labor markets
4. Higher government expenditure on inclusive education
5. More time spent by male counterparts on home production

Further, prevailing gender inequality in the country can be improved by encouraging female entrepreneurial talent, improving social norms that curtail gender equality, mobility of female workers across occupations and regions and adapting a more inclusive legal framework. Local policy efforts should be complemented by private sector action in order to be sustainable and more effective. Collaboration of the government and private sector stakeholders is crucial in improving the state of economic gender parity. While the degree of impact of such measures depend on other varying factors, improving the state of gender inequality in the country will result in gender-equitable economic growth.