Empower women for sustainable development

Greater integration of women in the labor market — at all levels and in all sectors — is key to equitable, inclusive and sustainable development, and a legitimate right of women. Even though women constitute 50 percent of Asia-Pacific’s total working age population, their participation in formal employment is uniformly lower than that of men. In many countries in the region, the national female employment-to-population ratios are below 50 percent, which is not the case for men. In some countries, the female employment-to-population ratio is below 30 percent. Moreover, the contribution of women to the economies of Asia and the Pacific, through household and informal sector labor, is recognized but unrecorded in the national accounts.

Gender-based discrimination is pervasive and goes beyond labor force participation, as social and cultural taboos perpetuate discriminatory and restrictive traditional gender roles in different aspects of women’s and men’s lives. There is a cost to gender discrimination and inequality. UN estimates reveal that low participation by Asia-Pacific women in the labor market bears an opportunity cost of more than $89 billion a year.

In South Asia and Central Asia, for example, the lower employment rates of women result in an average national income loss of nearly 19 percent and 16 percent. A World Bank analysis illustrates that if women’s economic activity were on par with men’s, economic growth in many Asia-Pacific countries could increase by as much as 18 percent.

Equally disconcerting are trends in key Asia-Pacific social indicators. For instance, the region accounts for close to 40 percent of the world’s maternal deaths, and up to 70 percent of women in the region experience violence. Female literacy levels in some pockets of South and South West Asia are below 50 percent, and women’s participation in national legislatures is, in too many instances, below 10 percent.

The year 2015 marks the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which is the global agenda for achieving gender equality and advancing the status of women and girls. As part of the 20-year review, governments in Asia and the Pacific have identified women’s economic empowerment, political participation and the elimination of violence as fundamental to our future, and a priority for achieving gender equality in the region.