Competition Policy and Gender

This paper calls attention to the opportunity for competition authorities to contribute to the fight for gender equality, the fifth of the UN’s sustainable development goals. It argues that this can be done without compromising on the consumer welfare focus of many authorities, and indeed that adopting a gender lens can be helpful for those authorities in achieving their efficiency-based objectives. We also discuss the options for those authorities that do not focus on protecting consumer welfare and instead consider broader public interests when making decisions. We conclude by providing a menu of options regarding how competition authorities may integrate a gender perspective into competition policy practice and by identifying the scope for further work. It was prepared as a background note for a discussion on Competition Policy and Gender held at the 2018 OECD Global Forum on Competition.