A tale of two global growth paths — the one with women and the one without
The Transatlantic Post | Love Letter N°33
Welcome to The Transatlantic Post an editorial on innovation and international growth. With occasional British satire. By Kajal
I have been writing about growth in several editions of the Post and ahead of International Women’s Day — I had to start asking the question on why women are missing from mainstream growth narratives.
We hear on repeat growth contributions from specific sectors, from increasing productivity with AI and from breakthrough innovation. However, the growth potential of putting in place the right policies, legal reforms and cultural change for increasing economic contribution from women is frequently underplayed.
This is despite hard evidence on the staggering costs to our economies as a result -
Increased participation in the workforce by women could add $20 trillion to the global economy by 2050 1
Of course this is not just about numbers — it is about basic rights and the dignity of equal access and choice. Our future depends on equitable societies and equal opportunities at work and becomes ever more critical as our populations age.
So why do we not dare to mention the “radical new idea” of levelling up women’s economic opportunities as a core engine of growth? Curious to hear your thoughts. In the meantime, I was keen to explore the global story of those missing trillions.
The global duality of growth….
At the current rate of progress between 2006–2023, it will take 169 years to close the Economic Participation and Opportunity gender gap for women according to the most recent Global Gender Gap Report.2 Of the 149 countries surveyed, more than half will take over a century or longer to reach parity.
While Europe and North America have made strong progress towards gender equality in the workplace, stubborn yet fixable challenges remain, including access to affordable childcare and reducing obstacles to advancing women into leadership roles. The infamous “drop at the top” reflects the enormity of the challenge — only 7% of Fortune 500 CEO’s and 4% of the FTSE 350 are women.
At the other end of the scale, South Asia and MENA have a longer journey ahead towards gender parity and a far deeper shift of cultural norms and attitudes towards women at work.
The overall region averages (below) do however mask significant variances between countries. The UAE for example, has achieved the highest parity in the Middle East. Within Europe, Iceland and Scandinavian countries far outrank other countries and are expected to fully close the gap within 30 years.
I will never forget a Swedish couple I met with a 6 month old baby casually mentioning that they had 1 year of fully paid paternity and maternity leave. Can you imagine? It still feels like fiction.
On both ends of the spectrum, it is easy to see the glass half empty but I will shift focus to positive government policies, grassroots initiatives and those pioneering change while acknowledging there is still so much more to be done.
The green shoots of policy change…
Reading through examples of countries that have made significant and accelerated shifts towards increasing women’s participation in the labour force, I was surprised at the impact from focused Government visions and policies.
In 2022 in Japan, the employment rate for women aged 25–39 surpassed 80% for the first time 3 Former prime minister Abe Shinzo’s “Womenomics” reforms were seen as key to bringing women back into the workforce especially after having their first child. Reforms that have worked include labour market changes to mandate equal pay for equal work, increasing the percentage of fathers who take paternity leave and expanding childcare capacity.
Against a backdrop of an ageing population in Japan, leveraging the highly educated female workforce did make a meaningful impact on growth. While not all plans worked, it still serves to show the rest of the world what is possible through proactive policies to address glaring workforce gaps.
Today in MENA, women’s economic opportunities form a key part of several Government Vision 2030 plans with the UAE and Saudi making the most significant changes in recent years. Active strategies have seen some good results — for example, Saudi women account for almost 45% of all SME’s and in the UAE women make up half of the workforce following a series of legal and policy reforms. 4
If the Forbes Middle East most powerful businesswomen 2024 is anything to go by, there is far more potential to unlock from women in the region as well as the MENA diaspora around the world. No one is more familiar with this than Sepideh Nasiri the founder and CEO of Women of MENA in Technology which operates across 20 cities.
Grassroots initiatives….
Recognising the high potential and educational attainment of MENA women, she founded the organisation to advance their careers in STEM and entrepreneurship while also being a leading voice for diversity and inclusion for this community.
“When we started, MENA women were not on the map — we pushed barriers and assumptions to showcase not only the MENA talent within companies but also an untapped, highly educated community they could hire from and market to”.
When asked about the changes she is seeing for women’s careers within the MENA region she noted the effect at a micro level from companies that enact changes, “Once larger companies start adopting policies on the ground to hire, advance and promote women, it creates a ripple effect in the entire ecosystem which others follow”.
Ripple effects are as true for companies as they are for countries in region. Once one country leads the change, others are likely to follow.
Waiting for superwoman…
As I noted earlier, there is much more to do to leverage the full economic potential of women around the world to sustain and accelerate growth. As I can attest to as a British Indian woman, it is the cultural and societal norms that are the hardest and take the longest to change.
I have a delivered a talk called “Waiting for Superwoman” in several countries to inspire more women to start their own businesses. In it, I talk about the skewed rewards in my culture for marriage and kids over educational and career achievements for women and the continuous fight and pressure that brings with it.
In addition, I also talk about ways to avoid them being mutually exclusive elements of our lives. Without exception, women from all over the world identified with this message far more than I could have imagined.
When I talk to executives who are expanding their businesses, all will ask about the availability of skills and talent in the new market. Less than one in ten will ask about cultural norms that will often need to be accounted for in their hiring strategy for a more gender-balanced workforce. Proactive initiatives to engage women from the outset make a huge difference to the outcomes.
I remain optimistic despite slower progress than we would like and look forward to sharing the stories of all the superwomen we have yet to see as the world catches up.
Sincerely, yours, Kajal
t: @kajalnyclon | w: transatlanticpost.com
References and Further reading
1 Women Could Give $20 Trillion Boost to Economic Growth by 2050, Bloomberg Economics
2 Global Gender Gap Report 2023, WEF
3 Married Women in Japan are re-entering the labour market, The Economist
4 UAE could achieve 7% Economic growth this year, The National News
About the Transatlantic Post
An editorial on innovation and international growth. With occasional British satire. Written and edited by Kajal Sanghrajka, founder and director of Growth Hub Global Kajal has worked with more than 250 businesses to support their international growth efforts to the US, Europe and MEINA regions. For previous editions go to the Transatlantic Post website. Subscribe below.
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