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Former first lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made the economic case for women’s participation in the economy Thursday at Georgetown University. An oft-rumored presidential candidate, Clinton said policymakers shouldn’t ignore any solution that might work when it comes to encouraging more women in the workforce.
After a staggering rise beginning in the middle of the 20th century, the labor force participation of working-age women in the U.S. has steadily fallen since the year 2000. At 56.7 percent, it’s still well behind the rate for men, which is 69.1 percent, according to the Labor Department. Though about 4 in 10 primary bread winners are now women, women in the U.S. make about 78.3 percent of what men do.
“It’s very clear that the more women we can get to participate fully and get paid equal pay for equal work, the faster our economy will recover and economies across the world likewise,” Clinton said. “The GDP projections that have been calculated if we could get women’s labor force participation to equal men’s are really staggering.”
In developed countries like the U.S., closing the participation gap would result in an 8 to 10 percent of an increase in gross domestic product over the next 15 to 20 years, Clinton said. In less developed countries, it could be 30 to 40 percent and around the world, GDP would grow by nearly 12 percent by 2030.
“It is true that if more women have the opportunity to participate fully in the formal economy, they, their families and their communities will prosper,” Clinton said.
She also pointed to lessons the U.S. could learn from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose national agenda is focused in part on encouraging more women into the labor market and with whom she met a few weeks ago at the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting in New York.
“He spoke about the obstacles discouraging Japanese women, educated women, in a highly developed country, from entering the workplace, and the cultural shifts that are needed to break down those barriers,” Clinton said. “Expanding flexibility in the workplace, access to child care and elder care, and would boost productivity and allow more parents – men as well as women – to work full days without stress and heartache.
When workers aren’t performing to their full potential, the economy on the whole can’t either, Clinton said. Basic workplace policies can address some of the barriers for women.
“A lack of flexible and predictable scheduling, affordable child care, paid sick leave and paid leave – we are one of the few countries without it – keep too many women on the sidelines.”
Clinton stressed the need to measure the role of women in what she referred to as the “informal economy,” performing unpaid labor like housework and child care, which underpins stability of the formal economy. At the same time, she said, access to capital, markets, skills training, capacity building and leadership – all undertaken by the council Clinton founded as secretary of state called the International Council on Women’s Business Leadership – would encourage more women to head their own businesses.
The head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, took to the same stage at Georgetown less than a month ago to voice a similar message.
“We have pushed the envelope on the negative effects of excessive inequality on growth, the fiscal implications of climate change and – something very close to my own heart – the role of women in the work force and their powerful potential to boost growth and incomes,” she said in an Oct. 2 speech.
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