Dr. Doom Nouriel Roubini warns on economic effects of gender inequality
“The case for having a stronger role of women in the business world is compelling,” Roubini said during a speech at The Next Billion: Women and the Economy of the Future conference.
“Lots of work has been done, but more needs to be done.”
“Women should lean it,” Roubini said, borrowing a phrase from the title of the popular book by Sheryl Sandberg, “but governments and corporations and businesses should also lean in to make sure that there is greater opportunity to empower women in the business world.”
Roubini listed six main areas where women face challenges in the global economy:
1. The female labour force participation rate is lower than men, which impacts both productivity and spending power.
2. More women are becoming entrepreneurs, but there are still too many barriers, including lack of access to financing due in part to discriminatory lenders, as well as too few mentors.
3. There are too few women on corporate boards and in executive roles. Studies have shown more women in these leadership positions help to improve the bottom line. “Supply isn’t static. It’s dynamic,” says Roubini. “You can do plenty to recruit, to nurture, to mentor, [and] retain women,” to become leaders.
4. The “persistence of a significant gender pay gap” both in developed and emerging economies.
5. Women influence roughly 80 per cent of consumer purchasing decisions, so should be more involved in the global economy.
6. Women need more support to be able to balance work and family commitments.
“There has been progress in the direction of gender equality, but it’s still very limited,” said Roubini, pointing to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2014.
The report shows the global gender gap for economic participation and opportunity is 60 per cent, up a mere 4 per cent from 56 per cent in 2006.
“Based on this trajectory, with all else remaining equal, it will take 81 years for the world to close this gap completely,” the report states.
While the trends are positive, “they are too slow,” Roubini says. “So much more can be done.”
Nouriel Roubini is an American professor of Economics at New York University`s Stern School of Business and chairman of RGE Roubini Global Economics
