U.S. Launches Global Strategy To Boost Women’s Access To Work, Education

The Biden administration on Wednesday introduced its first-ever strategy on global women’s economic security, an effort to boost women’s participation in the workforce across the world, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

Per the State Department, the whole-of-government strategy will aim to streamline and mobilize U.S. foreign policy, international programming and development assistance, trade policy and promotion, private sector development and partnerships to ensure women’s full and equitable participation in the global economy.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who announced the strategy at the Department, said the administration’s effort is aimed at breaking down barriers that stand in the way of women’s full economic participation.

Among four priority areas of work include efforts to “dismantle” societal, legal and regulatory barriers that prohibit or limit women’s participation in the workforce, Blinken said.

He cited data from the World Bank that only 12 countries have legal protections in place that give women equal economic standing with men, including through equal pay and legal protection in the workplace: “We’ll encourage countries to repeal discriminatory laws; we’ll advocate for reforms that promote gender equality, in part by showing the opportunity posed by closing these gender gaps."

Jennifer Klein, assistant to President Biden, and director of the White House Gender Policy Council, said that studies show closing gender gaps in the workforce would add between $12 trillion and $28 trillion in global GDP over a decade. “And expanding women’s access to markets and finance fosters entrepreneurship and innovation, with estimates suggesting that gender parity and entrepreneurship could add between $5 [trillion] to $6 trillion in net value to the global economy,” she said.

Per Klein, the strategy announced yesterday builds on $300 million commitments the administration made to the Gender Equity and Equality Action Fund, announced at the United Nations Generation Equality Forum in Paris in July 2021.

“Women’s full participation in the economy is essential to economic growth and the realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms for half the population,” she said.

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.