If women are educated at par with men and hold the same number of jobs, it’ll give a boost of $20 trillion to the global economic growth, Bloomberg reported quoting a recent study. In India, closing the gap between men and women could add more than 30% to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 2050.

For this study, undertaken by Bloomberg economists Adriana Dupita, Abhishek Gupta and Tom Orlik, the team examined 36 developed and emerging economies.

They found India at the bottom in terms of female participation rate among the countries analysed. Female participation in the jobs market is 16.6%, as per the report.

Globally, 58.4% of women between the ages of 25 to 64 work. The same of men stand at 92.1%.

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In the United States, where women steered through to propel the country out of the first recession, the country is witnessing a phenomenon dubbed by economists as the country’s first female recession.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, many women left the workforce amid services-industry setbacks. As schools and daycare closed last year, several women had to quit their jobs to take care of their children. According to the US Census Bureau, about 1.4 million mothers remained out of the workforce in January.

The report highlighted that policy changes regarding women’s education, child care and flexible work arrangements, have the potential to “light a fire” under the global economic growth.

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“Just as important, countries need to think and redesign their economies to make sure the economy will be able to welcome the additional labor force with productive jobs,” said Bloomberg economist Dupita.

“In many countries, barriers to women’s education and employment are deeply entrenched,” she added.