According to the World Bank, not including women in the labour market causes income losses from 10% to 37% of the GDP in every region of the world.

The international organization states that over one thousand million women lack access to financial services as they are not involved in labour.

The discouragement of female labour participation has become a serious threat for countries that face the chance of seizing the demographic bonus.

Eliminating the barriers that prevent women form working in certain areas or sectors would have immediate positive effects, reducing gender productivity gaps between one third and half, and increasing production per worker between 3.0% and 25% in different countries.

The sectors that hire female workforce the most experience a larger growth in countries where there is more equality between men and women. And vice versa: the countries with advantages in the manufacture of products that depend more on female workforce have reached greater gender equality.

According to data from ECLAC, for the past 10 years, female labour participation in Latin America has stalled at 53%. In other words, only 5.3 women out of women enter the labour market. And if we delve into that number, 78% of them work in areas of low productivity, which means worse salaries.

There are interesting indicators to follow. If we take Mexico’s case, the last Global Index published by the World Bank states that the financial gender penetration shows that, while 65% of men older than 15 years old have a bank account, only 58% of women own one.

These 7 points show a larger gap than the average global of 71% for men and 67% for women.

Nevertheless, Mexico’s figures are above the Latin American average, where 49% of women and 54% of men have a bank account.

Rising female labour participation produces faster economic growth.