Equality for Women = Prosperity for All

July 30, 2018
In this convincing collaboration, World Bank economist Lopez-Claros and novelist Nakhjavani (The Woman Who Read Too Much) argue that the costs of denying women equal opportunities for health, education, legal protection, and employment are “just too high to pay any longer.” From an economic standpoint that views women as human capital and gender inequality as “a waste of human resources,” the authors demonstrate that full human rights for women is not only a moral and political issue but also “an issue of economic efficiency.” They draw on hard-hitting statistics to illustrate the “female deficit” in the world population (in 2015, “there were some 101.6 males for every 100 females”), the lost productivity due to violence against women, and the numerous economic indicators that improve when women are granted equal voice and pay in the workplace (the authors note that according to research consultancy MSCI, companies with women on boards are “correlated with higher return on equity than companies without such leadership”). Practical, intelligent, and focused on solutions (“Whenever mothers are educated, there is a higher probability their daughters will be too”), this book combines sound research across several disciplines to prove the simple math of its title and make the pressing case that governments should prioritize gender equality for reasons of economic stability if nothing else.