Women in the workforce: Analyzing the gains and gaps

Alison: 25 years ago, Goldman Sachs research analyst Kathy Matsui wrote a report about the Japanese economy called womenomics. She argued that future potential economic growth will depend on increased female labor participation. So how much progress have we made since then in Japan and around the world? I'm Alison Nathan, and this is Goldman Sachs Exchanges. Today, I'm speaking with Sharon Bell, senior strategist on the European portfolio strategy team within Goldman Sachs Research and also with Asahi Pompey, Goldman Sachs's global head of corporate engagement and president of the Goldman Sach

We'll first turn to Sharon who's joining me remotely from our London office. Sharon, welcome back to the program.

Sharon: Hi, Alison. Thanks for inviting me.

Alison: So we mentioned Kathy's report. You recently published a new report called Womenomics, 25 years and the quiet revolution, And it looks at some of the progress that has and frankly hasn't been made since 1999. What are the biggest takeaways of your report?

Sharon: I think it's that the progress has been so stunning even if people don't realize it, it, which is partly why I called it the quiet revolution. If you take Japan as an example, we've gone from roughly half of women participating in the workforce to 3 quarters of women participating in the workforce in just one generation. That's a huge change. Italy is another really good example in the piece that we talk about. The workforce in the last 2 or 3 decades, all will be additions to the workforce have been women joining.

Had it been without those women, then the workforce would have been flat or even shrunk over that period of time.

Alison: So if we think about what's driving that massive increase in participation, and I agree with you. I mean, those numbers are absolutely stunning. I mean, take the case of Japan, for example. You know, what's really driven that? Has it been government policy?

Has it been cultural changes? What do you attribute that increase to?

Sharon: So for Japan, and I think, you know, you alluded to Kathy Matsui's note from 25 years ago, she noticed then how underrepresented women were in the workforce. And I think that, therefore, policy and culture really needed to change. And if I look at the last 25 years, you've had huge numbers of policy changes. In 2009, for example, shorter working hours were made obligatory in most professions because there was a huge long hours working culture in Japan for men in particular, and that made it very, very difficult for women to join the workforce. Men couldn't really share in home responsi