Political courage is required to achieve gender equality
Economic development and the empowerment of women are two fundamental variables for reaching gender equality and are linked one to the other, but are not sufficient in themselves. They need to be accompanied by targeted and resolute policies, which also imply difficult choices to be made, to guarantee a world of full equality between men and women.
This is the thesis illustrated by Esther Duflo, economist at theMIT awarded this year with the John Bates Clark Medal, which commends the best economist under 40, speaking at the first Bocconi Lecture, a new series of conferences in the Economy and the Open Society international forum, organized by Bocconi and Corriere della Sera.
After the welcome address by Piergetano Marchetti, President of RCS MediaGroup, the opening remarks by Mario Monti, Bocconi President, and the presentation by Maristella Botticini, Bocconi professor, Duflo illustrated first, thanks also to her results from studies in the field in Asia, the condition of inequality of women in developing countries.
"It certainly stands out," she explained, "that, where promoted, economic development plays an important role in reducing the inequality between men and women. But it is not sufficient to achieve complete equality." For example, cited Duflo, in the labor market, even in developed countries, women continue to earn less.
The empowerment of women, explained Duflo, also plays an important role in stimulating development and reducing inequality. "But women have different preferences to men and giving power to women has an impact on policy decisions. And it is not guaranteed that it is always for the best."
Between gender empowerment and economic development there is a strong two-way relationship, explained Duflo, which is also complex and if this link is not strong and stable in time the positive effects can decline.
"Neither gender empowerment nor economic development is the magic bullet we'd like to find," concluded Duflo. "To achieve equality between men and women it is necessary to take policy action, even action that favors women at the expense of men, with the political courage to stand for equity for its own sake."
"Duflo's work illustrates how important it is to have ideas which can make a difference in the real world, that there is no contradiction between excellence in research and resolving problems in a practical way, and, finally, the importance of being visionary in one's work and following one's dreams," commented Bocconi Rector Guido Tabellini before giving space to the questions from the discussants, all Bocconi professors, Martina Bjorkmann, Francesco Giavazzi, Eliana La Ferrara and Paola Profeta.