Equality for All

• Author: Camilla Lund Andersen
• Position: Editor-in-chief
• Pages: 2-2

EDITOR'S LETTER

Equality

for All

IF YOU ARE born a girl, you will have to fight for your rights. Worldwide,

women still earn 63 percent less than men. Inequalities, big and small,

keep them from joining the labor force on an equa l footing with men. e

resulting loss of economic output is staggering. According to the IMF, it

ranges from 10 percent of GDP in advanced economies to more than 30

percent in South Asia and in the Middle East and North Africa.

Until recently, righting gender wrongs was considered a low priority in

most countries. But today, there is renewed momentum, as policymakers

wake up to the fact that it is not only morally right to empower women,

it also makes economic sense. Still, progress is painfully slow. Political

declarations mean litt le unless they are backed by measures t hat facilitate

access to education, affordable childcare, and the labor market. Deeply

entrenched stereotypes keep women trapped i n centuries-old caregiver roles.

Even in egalitarian Iceland, firm action was needed to put in place what

Prime Minister Katrí n Jakobsdóttir refers to as the “social infras tructure”

of gender equality.

It is easy to despair. And yet sma ll changes can be sur prisingly powerful.

Providing seed capital and t raining to women in India has allowed many

to break the cycle of poverty, with digita l financial services showing big

promise. On Wall Street, a concerted push by institutional investor State

Street to call out companies w ith no women on their boards has prompted

action by a fourth of female-deprived boards.

Brave young women, such as Malala Yousafz ai, who defends the rights

of girls to be educated, and Greta unberg, who ha s dared the financial

elite to act on climate change, give us hope that the next generation will

be forceful in making their voices heard. We should do what we can to

empower them. e world needs its women.

CAMILLA LUND ANDERSEN, editor-in-chief

ON THE COVER

Women help economic growth, and growth in turn helps women, the world is now

discovering. This issue explores the symbiotic relationship between women and growth,

subtly captured in artist Michael Waraksa’s March 2019 F&D cov er.

Placeholder

Coverline P.XX

Placeholder

Coverline P.XX

Placeholder

Coverline P.XX

MONTH YEAR

Placeholder

Coverline Coverline

The secret of

Iceland’s success P.12

Branko Milanovic

profi led P.30

Tech talent

scramble P.46

MARCH 2019

Women

and

Growth

FINANCE & DEVELOPMENT

A Quarterly Publication of the

International Monetary Fund

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF:

Camilla Lund Andersen

MANAGING EDITOR:

Maureen Burke

SENIOR EDITORS:

Glenn Gottselig

Natalie Ramírez-Djumena

Chris Wellisz

ASSISTANT EDITORS:

Marie Boursiquot

Bruce Edwards

DIGITAL EDITOR:

Rahim Kanani

ONLINE EDITOR:

Lijun Li

PRODUCTION MANAGER:

Niccole Braynen-Kimani

COPY EDITOR:

Lucy Morales

ADVISORS TO THE EDITOR:

© 2019 by the International Monetary Fund. All rights reserved.

For permission to reproduce any F&D content, submit a request

via online form (www.imf.org/external/terms.htm) or by e-mail

to copyright@imf.org. Permission for commercial purposes also

available from the Copyright Clearance Center

(www.copyright.com) for a nominal fee.

Opinions expressed in articles and other materials are those of

the authors; they do not necessarily reflect IMF policy.

Subscriber services, changes of address, and

advertising inquiries:

IMF Publication Services

Finance & Development

PO Box 92780

Washington, DC 20090, USA

Telephone: (202) 623-7430

Fax: (202) 623-7201

E-mail: publications@imf.org

Postmaster: send changes of address to Finance & Development,

International Monetary Fund, PO Box 92780, Washington, DC

20090, USA.

The English edition is printed at Dartmouth Printing Company,

Hanover, NH.

Finance & Development is pub-

lished quarterly by the International

Monetary Fund, 700 19th Street NW,

Washington, DC 20431, in English,

Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian,

and Spanish. English edition ISSN

0145-1707

Bernardin Akitoby

Celine Allard

Bas Bakker

Steven Barnett

Nicoletta Batini

Helge Berger

Paul Cashin

Luis Cubeddu

Alfredo Cuevas

Rupa Duttagupta

Thomas Helbling

Laura Kodres

Tommaso Mancini Griffoli

Gian Maria Milesi-Ferretti

Christian Mumssen

İnci Ötker

Catriona Purfield

Uma Ramakrishnan

Abdelhak Senhadji

Alison Stuart

2 FINANCE & DEVELOPMENT | March 2019