Main messagesOctober, 2011

EQUAL?

In low & middle income countries life expectancy among women has increased by 20 years since 1960

…. And yet, relative to boys and men, almost 4 million women die too early in the developing world compared with rich countries, almost 1 million in India

Equal?... Example…

Missing women

1990

2008

21%

30%

34%

29%

31%

27%

1990: 265,0002008: 257,000

1990: 388,0002008: 228,000

1990: 428,0002008: 251,000

What does the WDR do?

The Report asks 3 questions:

(1) Do these inequalities matter?

(2) Why do they persist?

(3) What do we do to eliminate them?

(1) Why should we care?

Is the right thing to do…

... is the smart thing to do

• economic costs

• shortchanges the next generation

• and leads to institutions and policies that are unrepresentative

Inequality has a cost

HOUSEHOLDS

Stable income

FORMAL INSTITUTIONS

Lower costs

MARKETS

Increasing returns to education ENDOWMENTS

ECONOMIC OPPS.

AGENCY

CCTs

INFORMAL INSTITUTIONS

How do we explain progress: The education example

Growth

Gend

er E

qual

ity

No Progress: Economic Opportunities

HOUSEHOLDSMARKETSAGENCY

INFORMAL INSTITUTIONS

ENDOWMENTS

FORMAL INSTITUTIONS

FORMAL INSTITUTIONS

Biased law/regulations,

and limited infrastructure

MARKETSDifferential access to

labor/credit/land markets, and

networks

INFORMAL INSTITUTIONSSocial norms on

care/market work ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES

HOUSEHOLSDifferential allocation

time/resources

GrowthGe

nder

Equ

ality

(3) What do we do to eliminate these gaps?

Focus on gaps that do not disappear with growth

Gender gaps in human endowments

Earnings and productivity gaps

Gender differences in voice and agency

The reproduction of gender inequality over

time

Target determinants of gender inequality

EQUAL!www.worldbank.org/wdr2012