THE COST OF (GENDER) INEQUALITY

Around the world, gender inequality has a cost,

not just to the women excluded from the workplace

or trapped beneath the glass ceiling.

The potential loss in earnings

has an economic impact on all countries.

Euronews met with World Bank CEO - Kristalina Georgieva

to get her take on gender equality and GDP

as the EU developments days kicked off.

Where are we standing now especially in Europe about the position of women?

Where we are is not where we ought to be.

Gender equality is still an aspiration and not a reality, even in the rich countries...

The world has a $160 trillion less wealth because of the fact

that women don't participate fully in the labour force,

in the labour market, and they are not paid equal to men.

I heard Christine Lagarde from the IMF, (that was saying)

one year ago, that she was mentioning Japan and she was saying

that if you don't improve the position of women in the labour market,

then you have to accept and receive migrants,

because of demographic reasons.

Same thing in Europe, same issue in Europe.

We are an ageing region and of course

if we do not expand participation of women in the labour market,

we are losing in terms of our capacity to meet the demands of our economies.

And of course we will have to compensate with more migration.

What should European countries or the EU do

in order to gain in GDP via women?

It is not really brain surgery, make sure that girls are in school

and that they learn the same things that boys learn,

in other words they learn maths, they are able to accept positions in science.

When they leave, make sure that they have equal access to finance,

so open up more opportunities for women to become entrepreneurs

and when they are entrepreneurs make sure

that there are gender sensitive instruments to support them

so they can succeed.

What is the problem in Europe?

When you talk to women, they uniformly say two things.

One, that they need more support systems in terms of dealing with a young family,

in particular when they have young kids.

Second, women say access to finance and entrepreneurial support

and recognition that women can lead in business.

That turns into another very heated debate here in Europe

on quotas for women and my view based on evidence...

(Do you agree with that?) I absolutely agree.

If we don't have quotas, it would take us decades,

if not centuries to reach gender equality.

June 2018.