Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- List of Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Summaries
- Chapter 1 Air Pollution: Global Damage Costs from 1900 to 2050
- Chapter 2 Armed Conflicts: The Economic Welfare Costs of Conflict
- Chapter 3 Climate Change: The Economic Impact of Climate Change in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
- Chapter 4 Ecosystems and Biodiversity: Economic Loss of Ecosystem Services from 1900 to 2050
- Chapter 5 Education: The Income and Equity Loss of not Having a Faster Rate of Human Capital Accumulation
- Chapter 6 Gender Inequality: A Key Global Challenge – Reducing Losses due to Gender Inequality
- Chapter 7 Human Health: The Twentieth-Century Transformation of Human Health – Its Magnitude and Value
- Chapter 8 Malnutrition: Global Economic Losses Attributable to Malnutrition 1900–2000 and Projections to 2050
- Chapter 9 Trade Barriers: Costing Global Trade Barriers, 1900 to 2050
- Chapter 10 Water and Sanitation: Economic Losses from Poor Water and Sanitation – Past, Present, and Future
- Index
- References
Chapter 6 - Gender Inequality: A Key Global Challenge – Reducing Losses due to Gender Inequality
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- List of Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Summaries
- Chapter 1 Air Pollution: Global Damage Costs from 1900 to 2050
- Chapter 2 Armed Conflicts: The Economic Welfare Costs of Conflict
- Chapter 3 Climate Change: The Economic Impact of Climate Change in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
- Chapter 4 Ecosystems and Biodiversity: Economic Loss of Ecosystem Services from 1900 to 2050
- Chapter 5 Education: The Income and Equity Loss of not Having a Faster Rate of Human Capital Accumulation
- Chapter 6 Gender Inequality: A Key Global Challenge – Reducing Losses due to Gender Inequality
- Chapter 7 Human Health: The Twentieth-Century Transformation of Human Health – Its Magnitude and Value
- Chapter 8 Malnutrition: Global Economic Losses Attributable to Malnutrition 1900–2000 and Projections to 2050
- Chapter 9 Trade Barriers: Costing Global Trade Barriers, 1900 to 2050
- Chapter 10 Water and Sanitation: Economic Losses from Poor Water and Sanitation – Past, Present, and Future
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction to the Challenge
Gender inequality pervades the world. In considering the dimensions of economic gender inequality, women still make less than men in the formal work sector, are more likely to live in poverty, are less likely to participate in the formal work sector, and do a larger share of work in the household sector. The dimensions of political gender inequality include women’s lower representation in elected office and lower representation in political and corporate appointments. Social gender inequality has numerous dimensions, some of which are less favorable to men while others are less favorable to women: men are more prone to violence, imprisonment, and disability, while women are more likely to be the victims of domestic violence and sexual assault; in some countries men have lower educational attainment than women, while the pattern is reversed in other countries. Demographic gender inequality includes the fact that men live shorter lives on average than do women (65 years for men, 69 years for women) (CIA 2010), but there is also concern that many women are never given the chance to be born, and in the younger generations men now outnumber women, by large numbers in China and India in particular (with gender ratios respectively of 113 men and 117 men per 100 women in the under-15 age range) (CIA 2010).
While many of the costs of gender inequality are ultimately borne by particular individuals, they can also be calculated at a society or even worldwide level. If individuals of different genders are not given equal opportunity to develop their potential, then societies forgo the increased level of output and ultimately well-being that would derive from their higher productivity. If societies do not invest equally in educating and training men and women, do not give them equal opportunities to engage in more productive forms of work, and do not give them equal opportunities to advance to more productive positions over time, then the societies do not harness the full potential of their members.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- How Much Have Global Problems Cost the World?A Scorecard from 1900 to 2050, pp. 192 - 206Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013
References
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