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Summary: A tremendous global surge of female workers is likely to happen soon.
Key Take Aways:
- The presence of many more women is likely to add cultural value to the workplace.
- The effects of the surge could be generational.
- It is difficult to predict what will happen, but active research will illuminate the value of the trend.
A research study conducted by Booz and Company concluded almost one billion women across the planet could enter the global economy in the next ten years. One major implication of this tremendous surge in female workers is the direct impact on GDP. The study found for the United States raising female employment to the level of male employment could increase GDP in the US by 5%. In Japan the GDP increase would 9%. Twelve percent would be the increase in the United Arab Emirates and in Egypt it would be 34%.
The implications of such a surge could be tremendous and generational. For example, women tend to spend money to support their families, such as investing in their children's, and grand children's educations. They also may help support the education of other relatives. Of course, they might also invest in their own education, completing degrees they started before entering the workforce and beginning new programs.
When women work they are less dependent on others for their income and health insurance. They also can gain greater access to the community of work, rather than staying at home most of the time and therefore make more business connections. It may seem irresponsible to speculate about the potential impact in workplaces, but there has been some research showing some impressive benefits of having women in the workplace. For example, having female police officers present can help defuse tension and lessen the potential for conflict.
As the National Center for Women and Policing wrote on their website, "Women police officers are therefore much less likely to be involved in occurrences of police brutality, and are also much more likely to effectively respond to police calls regarding violence against women, which today remain the single largest category of calls to police agencies nationwide." Even though they provide an obvious benefit to law enforcement women are still very under-represented in that field.
The value of having many more women in the workplace could stem from a particular outlook of inclusion, collaboration and communication. The President and COO of Martha Stewart Living explained, "Women have tended to prefer searching for common interests, solving problems, and collaborating to find win-win outcomes." (Source: Fast Company)
Undoubtedly, there are also some males who employ a similar outlook, but it doesn't appear to be the norm. One effect of adding many more women in employment situations might be increasing this outlook, which is attached to more emotional awareness. Future research may confirm that emotionally aware workplaces are happier and have lower stress levels as well. In the next ten years, there will be ample opportunity to observe and research what the impact of adding nearly one billion female workers will have.
Image Credit: Milei.vencel, Wiki Commons
