Fighting gender inequality essential to curbing growing wealth gap, IMF report shows

Oxfam applauds today’s report by the International Monetary Fund, which argues that tackling gender inequality is not only an objective in itself, it's a key part of reducing the huge wealth gap between the rich and the poor.

Nicolas Mombrial, head of the Oxfam International office in Washington D.C., said:

“When women are denied equal access to healthcare, education, jobs, or financial services, it’s not only unfair, it’s a huge blow to a country’s economy and society. The IMF report shows that working toward women’s economic equality should be a no-brainer for governments, since it leads to higher growth and reduces inequality."

“As evidenced by the recent Credit Suisse report, inequality is growing faster than we thought. To fix this, we must tackle deep-rooted, structural forms of gender inequality.”

The report, “Catalyst for Change: Empowering Women and Tackling Income Inequality,” proposes several positive solutions, such as gender budgeting, fostering women’s participation in the labor force, and improving their access to quality health and education.

Mombrial said: “Beyond that, we urge governments to curb violence against women, encourage their political participation, and help ease the disproportionate responsibilities they shoulder when it comes to unpaid care work as women’s economic equality requires parallel progress in all areas of women's lives.”