This March 8th marks International Women’s Day. An emblematic date that encourages reflection on the situation of women in Mexico, where their economic participation is fundamental.
In the last decade, the economic participation of women in Mexico increased from 43% to 46%, however, it is below the average of the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which reaches 67 percent.
The Mexican Institute for Competitiveness, A.C. (IMCO) warned that if timely strategies are not designed to accelerate the incorporation of more women, it would take Mexico 56 years to reach the rate of economic participation that these countries have today.
On the contrary, if greater economic participation of women is promoted, Mexico’s GDP could increase by 6.9 trillion in the next decade, that is, around 630 billion pesos (mmdp) per year.
To reach the level of participation that the OECD maintains today, the IMCO pointed out, Mexico would have to incorporate 18.6 million women into its economy by 2035.
In addition, it estimates that between 2025 and 2035, an additional 6.9 billion pesos could be added to the GDP if the target scenario is achieved. That is, if the country chooses to accelerate the inclusion of more women, in 2035 the GDP could be 3.7% higher compared to the base scenario. In addition, the economic value of women’s work would increase by 35%, going from 3 billion pesos to 4.1 billion pesos.
To reach an economic participation of 67%, Chiapas and Tabasco would have to increase their population of economically active women by more than double, while Mexico City or Colima need to increase it by less than 40 percent.
“The entities with the lowest economic participation of women are those that would benefit the most from including them. In Mexico City and Querétaro, entities with the highest rate of economic participation of women, the state GDP in 2035 would increase between 2% and 4%, compared to the current trend,” explains IMCO.
In contrast, the GDP of Chiapas could be up to 32% higher, while that of Oaxaca, Hidalgo and Tlaxcala would increase around 11% in this scenario. She added that for the states it is an opportunity to boost their local economy, since, by approaching the goal, the federal entities could increase their GDP by an average of 8.4% in 2035.
Describing how taking advantage of women’s talent in the labor market is key to sustainable and inclusive economic growth, she pointed out that it could reduce informality and improve productivity.
“Between 2014 and 2024, women’s economic participation in Mexico grew at a slower pace than the average for OECD countries, so the country is increasingly moving away from the international trend of reducing the gender gap in the labor market,” says the research “More women, greater growth.”
Thus, the OECD estimated that, on average, the increase in women’s economic participation drove an annual growth in GDP per capita of 0.37 percentage points (pp) between 2000 and 2022. Men contributed less than half of this proportion (0.14 pp). The study shows that those countries with the lowest rates of women’s economic participation (such as Italy, Mexico and Turkey) are those with the greatest potential for economic growth.
Source: informador
