Gender equality has fundamental relevance not only as a nowadays universal
recognised human rights issue, but also as a key determinant for economic development.
From a human rights perspective, it is high time to dismantle gender stereotypes and
discriminatory practices that keep women in disadvantaged positions in societies and labour
markets all over the world. Not only women empowerment has been recently put at the top of
the international agenda, but it has also been recognised that, as long as such a consistent
part of the world population is prevented from enjoying equal rights and opportunities, the
concept of "sustainable growth" remains a mere chimera. As a matter of facts, women play a
central role in socio-economic development in the way their conditions influence those of
their children who are the future generations.
At the same time, sound economic arguments for gender equality have been
developed. At a microeconomic level, recent literature on time use and bargaining power in
the household showed how inequality in care work influences negatively labour market
participation (Borjas 2009). This is reflected at macroeconomic level, where labour market
gender inequality results in low efficacy of economies that do not employ all their potentials.
Despite the global efforts of the last decades, the race for gender equality has still a
long way to go. Women lag far behind men in access to land, credit and decent jobs in both
developed and developing countries.