Kirkwood Daniel - Economic Opportunities for Women in the East Asia and Pacific Region

Economic Opportunities for Women in the East Asia and Pacific Region

Amanda Ellis, Daniel Kirkwood, and Dhruv Malhotra

2010 The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank

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ISBN: 978-0-8213-8300-1
eISBN: 978-0-8213-8308-7
DOI: 10.1596/978-0-8213-8300-1

The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data has been applied for.

Cover photo: Curt Carnemark/World Bank
Cover design: Naylor Design, Washington, DC

East Asia and the Pacific is a region of dynamic growth. Women have contributed significantly to this growth and have benefited from it through active participation in the labor market. However, women are still disproportionately represented in the informal sector and in low paid work. Efforts to identify barriers to womens business and entrepreneurial activities in the region are critical not only to facilitate inclusive growth in a national context but also to counter the increasing trend of female migratory flows in the region.

Highlighting both the challenges and the economic opportunities for businesswomen in the region offers some useful potential pointers for reform.

James Adams
Vice President
East Asia and the Pacific
World Bank

Economic Opportunities for Women in the East Asia and Pacific Region was prepared by a team led by Amanda Ellis and comprising Daniel Kirkwood and Dhruv Malhotra. Nina Bhatt, Beth Delaney, Mary Hallward-Driemeier, Maria Beatriz Orlando, and Cindy Wiryakusuma provided valuable comments and suggestions as peer reviewers. Gillian Brown, Gabriela Byrde, Roger Coma-Cunill, Simeon Djankov, Alfons Eiligmann, Marie-Claude Frauenrath, Stephane Guimbert, Meg Jones, Prince Pheanuroth Sisowath, and Hans Shrader provided helpful advice on the gender dimensions of the legal and regulatory framework in the countries reviewed.

For more information on the World Banks work on gender, visit www.worldbank.org/gender.

A considerable body of international evidence now suggests that gender equality matters for economic growth and that gender inequality can exact substantial costs in terms of lost growth ( shows.

The gender-growth nexus is increasingly being recognized by the private sector, too, both in terms of its own operations and as a macroeconomic relationship. According to analysis by global investment bank Goldman Sachs, closing the employment gender gap in the BRIC countries (Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, and China) and in the next-11, or N-11, countries (the Arab Republic of Egypt, Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Turkey, and Vietnam) could push per capita incomes 14 percent higher than current projections by 2020 and 20 percent higher by 2030 (). As Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein stated, We are disciplined in our investments, and when you get to the topic of trying to invest and create GDP, there is no better or more efficient investmentno lower hanging fruit in the world to pickthan the investment you make in women.