Investing in Women: a discussion with Sandra Lawson, Dina Powell and Lisa Shalett

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Highlights from Women Hold Up Half the Sky

• Education is key to gender equality. Educating girls and women leads to higher wages; a greater likelihood of working outside the home; lower fertility; reduced maternal and child mortality; and better health and education.
   
• At the macroeconomic level, female education is a key source of support for long-term economic growth. It has been linked to higher productivity; higher returns to investment; higher agricultural yields; and a more favorable demographic structure.
   
• Especially in emerging economies, greater investments in female education could yield a ‘growth premium’ that raises trend GDP growth. Narrowing the gender gap in employment—which is one potential consequence of expanded female education—could push income per capita in emerging markets as much as 14% higher than our baseline projections by 2020, and as much as 20% higher by 2030.