Women often excel at school and generally have longer life expectancy. But men frequently earn more and are more likely to hold positions of power in political and economic life. The OECD looks at the implications of such inequalities for economic development and what can be done to develop policies for parity. Barriers that prevent women from working or getting the training and education that they need to be more productive impose a cost on society as well as the individual.

Find out more about our work on gender.

Highlights

OECD takes up the torch of gender equality and women’s empowerment
On 21/5/08 the Swedish Minister for Development Co-operation Gunilla Carlsson presented MDG3 champion torches to the OECD’s Secretary-General, Angel Gurría, and to the Chair of the DAC, Eckhard Deutscher. The presentation was part of the Danish government’s MDG3 Global Call to Action to increase international support and investments in the achievement of gender equality and women's empowerment (MDG3). The last of 100 torches will be presented to the UN Secretary-General on 25 September.

Launch of Wikigender

On the occasion of International Women's Day, the OECD Development Centre will present a new interactive website to share and exchange information on gender equality issues. Wikigender (www.wikigender.org) will be launched in the morning of 7 March 2008.

Gender and Sustainable Development: Maximising the Economic, Social and Environmental Role of Women
06-Mar-2008

This report summarises the OECD's cross-cutting work on gender and aims to increase understanding of the role of women in maintaining the three pillars – economic, social and environmental – of sustainable development.

Brochure about women and men in OECD countries
Indicators are a first step in developing better policies for women and men: the next stage is to understand why differences occur and what we can do about them. This brochure describes OECD projects to help countries improve their gender policies.

ICTs (Information and Communication Technology) and gender (April 2007)
This document provides an overview of the gender distribution of ICT and ICT-related employment
in OECD countries, and ICT employment patterns are contrasted with overall employment to highlight
how different ICT employment patterns are. The document then focuses on participation in ICT-related
education and training, and differences in ICT access and use by gender.

Gender, Institutions and Development Database
Based on data from 161 countries, OECD researchers have developed an index on the position of women in societies, taking account both of fundamental rights of personal integrity and the legal position of women when it comes to marriage, divorce, the upbringing of children and property rights.

Gender differences in educational qualification rates are shifting in favour of women
Young women are studying longer than men in a growing number of OECD countries, according to data in the 2006 edition of Education at a Glance. Of those where men still study longer, only Switzerland and Turkey register differences of more than six months.

Family-friendly policies can help to boost employment levels, OECD study finds
Factors that help to boost employment include macroeconomic stability and strong product market competition. But family-friendly policies such as support for child-care are also important, especially when it comes to getting women into paying jobs.