Gender Gaps in Economic Participation and Opportunity: A Critical Analysis of Cross Country Experiences

In the present century, people are living in a world of inequalities in opportunity both within and across countries. Inequality is a threat to economic and social rights and threatens the realisation of all forms of rights everywhere. These inequalities perpetuate and provide inferior opportunities economic, social and political for some people than their fellow citizens. Inequality by gender, class and household produces divergent effects on growth and economic and political inequalities are one of the important channels through which inequality affects long-run process of development. The research revealed that the effect of inequality on growth depends on the measure used. Inequality in capabilities operates differently on growth than inequality in labour force participation and wages. The present paper presents a critical analysis of inequalities in economic participation and opportunity, which is one of the sub-indices for measuring gender gaps. The gender gap analysis in this paper is based on three concepts of this sub-index the participation gap, the remuneration gap and the advancement gap employed in The Global Gender Gap Report -2015 by selecting 10 countries around the globe. The data related to these three concepts for the sample 10 countries was collected from this report and also consulting some global reports primarily aiming at an analysis of performance of the sample countries in narrowing down the gender inequalities, with special reference to the sub-index economic participation and opportunity The paper concludes that effective government intervention is necessary if women are to experience the real essence of the empowerment process and to enjoy the fruits gender equality and sustainable development.