For centuries, women’s contribution to economy has been limited to shopping, summed up in stereotypes of men handing over their hard-earned income to splurge-happy dependents.
This decade has witnessed a world rudely jolted out of gender jokes as research says that raising female employment rates to the level of men can contribute to up to 5 per cent of GDP growth in economies such as the US. In developing countries the effect is even more pronounced, according to a recent Booz and Company’s report, Empowering the Third Billion: Women and the World of Work in 2012.
Increased efficiency
“Female labour participation directly impacts labour productivity,” Carrie Lennard, Government, Labour and Education Manager, at the research firm Euromonitor tells GN Focus. “Turkey, which has the lowest female employment rate in Western Europe in 2012, also has the lowest labour productivity. On the other hand, there is a direct correlation between high female employment and high per capita consumer expenditure levels.”
The coming years will see large corporations and governments promoting gender balance. Women-centric financial products already exist. One example is a Sharia-compliant investment fund targeted at women in the GCC being launched by UK-based DVK, a commodity trading and finance boutique company. Another example is credit cards catering to women, not just as supplementary spenders. “Most cards so far have been focused on men,” says Catharina Eklof, Vice-President/SBL, Global Merchant Development, Enterprise Development at MasterCard International.
“With research and segmentation it is understood that women’s interests in spending will be different from men,” adds Eklof. “Many European banks are now developing affluent products for women.”
Women employees
Some of this has to do with corporate flexibility, which empowers women to do project-based work and keeps them employed at will, while maintaining a work and life balance. “We are focusing on women,” says Loulou Khazen Baz, UAE-based founder of Nabbesh.com, a skills marketplace that matches ability with opportunity. “Out of our 6,000 registered users, about 40 per cent are women — a number that we are keen to increase. More women are graduating from universities than men. The culture that said that women don’t want to work is not correct. Otherwise they wouldn’t spend so much time and effort in getting a university degree. Due to life choices women drop out of work. If we create opportunities for project-based work, they are not restricted to a nine to seven culture.”
The UAE is one of the best places in the region for women, with its governmental policies and women’s-only floors in business hotels. “A key difference is that the UAE welcomes female employment and women do not struggle to find employment,” says Lennard. “Its female employment rate in 2012 was 60.5 per cent, predominantly made up of expat female workers. Part of the reason is the higher employment in service industries such as finance and business, which are easier for women to find employment in.”
