Gender equality offers a sizable economic opportunity for any country. A government that hopes to achieve strong growth without tapping into women's full potential is essentially fighting with one hand tied behind its back.
In fact, new research from the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) finds that Asia-Pacific economies could boost their collective gross domestic product by $4.5 trillion per year by 2025, just by accelerating progress toward gender equality. That would be the equivalent of adding an economy the combined size of Germany and Austria every year. The opportunity is especially large for India, where GDP would grow by as much as 18 percent.
Gender equality contributes to growth in three ways. According to the MGI, 58 percent of the gains in the Asia-Pacific region would come from raising the female-to-male ratio of labor force participation, 17 percent from increasing women's work hours and the remaining 25 percent from having more women working in higher-productivity sectors.