Closing gender gap could add $12 trillion to global GDP by 2025

New research by the McKinsey Global Initiative has found closing gaps in work against women could add some $12 trillion into global gross domestic product by 2025. The Parity Report, launched at the Women Deliver Conference in Copenhagen, found large potential economic gain from closing gender gap if all countries matched any country with the […]

New research by the McKinsey Global Initiative has found closing gaps in work against women could add some $12 trillion into global gross domestic product by 2025.

The Parity Report, launched at the Women Deliver Conference in Copenhagen, found large potential economic gain from closing gender gap if all countries matched any country with the best gender parity progress in their region.

McKinsey’s managing partner for the UK and Ireland, Vivian Hunt, said the major areas of target include family planning, maternal child health, financial and digital inclusion, and unpaid care work.

In each of these areas, we concentrate on delivering millions of people—women and men, boys and girls—improve access to services, building a platform that we think in the next decade could make real progress toward the SDGs [Sustainable Development Goals].

For that to happen,

• 58 million more girls and 60 million more boys would need to enrol in school to raise enrolment rates in line with the SDGs
• 224 million more women will need access to a bank account
• 29 to 57 million working women, and an equivalent number of men, will need to be covered by annual paid leave
• 445 million more people will need improved access to safe water supplies, considered an important lever for reducing the unpaid care work performed by women in developing countries.

“Realizing the full potential for women and girls is an ambitious agenda and would require collaborative action with governments, private sector and [nongovernment organisations] and that would require prioritization,” said Hunt.