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Coronavirus pandemic
This Week in AsiaEconomics

Women in the workforce can fuel Asia’s growth in post-Covid economy, says McKinsey partner

  • McKinsey’s research found Asia-Pacific economies could add US$4.3 trillion to their economies over the next decade by advancing workplace gender equality
  • Senior partner Kweilin Ellingrud says the largest growth in this area could come from China and India

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A woman walks through the Lujiazui financial district in Shanghai. In China, women make up 51 per cent of entry-level professionals, but only 22 per cent of middle management and 11 per cent of senior managers. Photo: Reuters
Alison de Souza
As a coronavirus-fuelled recession looms, Asian economies are sitting on a powerful and underutilised engine of growth that could help them pull out of the downturn: female workers.
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Management consultants McKinsey & Company found that if Asia-Pacific economies advance women’s equality in the workplace it could mean an extra US$4.3 trillion or 12 per cent of their collective annual GDP over the next 10 years.

This figure does not even assume full equality with men, merely that all countries meet best-in-Asia levels on several measures of workforce participation.

Kweilin Ellingrud, a senior partner at McKinsey & Company, who instigated research into gender parity and co-authored the 2015 Power of Parity report. Photo: Handout
Kweilin Ellingrud, a senior partner at McKinsey & Company, who instigated research into gender parity and co-authored the 2015 Power of Parity report. Photo: Handout

“This is such a big growth opportunity that it cannot be ignored, particularly now as we head into economic turmoil,” said Kweilin Ellingrud, the senior partner who instigated the research into the economic impact of gender inequality in nearly 100 countries and co-authored the Power of Parity report in 2015.

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But when McKinsey refreshed that research last year, it found scant global progress in its Gender Parity Score (GPS), devised to track 15 indicators of equality in both work and society on a scale of 0 to 1, with 1 being perfect parity.

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