The Globe and Mail, Toronto, on gender equity:
A recent survey of G20 countries found that the most developed economies also have the greatest gender equity. Canada tops the list, followed by Germany and the United Kingdom.
The study reveals, yet again, the strong correlation between sustainable growth and development, on the one hand, and gender equity on the other. A country cannot progress until it includes women in the labor market in a meaningful way, removes barriers to their advancement and offers them the same opportunities for education and health care as men.
Nowhere is this more true than in India, a vital democracy with an emerging economy which came dead last in the survey, conducted by Thomson Reuters Foundation in advance of the G20 summit... Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently noted that India's most underutilized resource is women, who compose only one-third of the labor force.
A panel of 379 experts ranked the 20 nations on several factors, including women's and girls' access to state resources, participation in politics, quality of health, freedom from violence and freedom from slavery and sex trafficking. ...
Also lagging in the survey are Mexico, China, South Africa and Indonesia. Saudi Arabia was second-to-last. Despite being an oil-rich country with good access to education and health, the participation of women in political and economic life is severely curtailed.
The best way to transform such a society is to convince government and the private sector of the business case for the advancement of women. Among other persuasive arguments is that educated and empowered women are better positioned to ensure that their own children - regardless of gender - are raised in a way that prepares them to succeed, helping to ensure the next generation is positioned to enhance productivity and competitiveness.
... Sustainable development isn't possible when half a nation's work force cannot fulfill its potential.
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