A Guide to Womenomics

In rich countries, girls now do better at school than boys, more women are getting university degrees than men arc, and females arc filling most new jobs. Arguably, women are now the most powerful engine of global growth. In 1950, only one third of American women of working age had a paid job. Today two thirds do, and women make up almost half of America’s workforce. Since 1950, men’s employment rate has slid by 12 percentage points, to 77%. In fact, almost everywhere more women are employed and the percentage of men with jobs has fallen – although in some countries, the feminisation of the workplace still has far to go: in Italy and Japan, women’s share of jobs is still 40% or less. The increase in female employment in developed countries has been aided by a big shift in the type of jobs on offer. Manufacturing work, traditionally a male preserve, has declined, while jobs in services have expanded. This has reduced the demand for manual labour and put the sexes on a more equal footing. In the developing world, too, more women now have paid jobs. In the emerging East Asian economics, forever)’ 100 men in the labour force there are now 83 women, higher even than the average in OECD countries. Women have been particularly important to the success of Asia’s export industries, typically accounting for 60- 80% of jobs in many export sectors, such as textiles and clothing. Of course, it is misleading to talk of women’s “entry” into the workforce. Besides formal employment, women have always worked in the home, looking after children, cleaning or cooking, but because this is…