By Madison Akers

The author of “Equality for Women = Prosperity for All: The Disastrous Global Crisis of Gender Inequality” spoke to University of Maryland students and local residents April 18 in an attempt to expose the topic of gender discrimination not only as a human rights violation, but also as having negative implications on the economy.

As previous director of the World Bank’s global indicators and analysis, Agusto Lopez-Claros drew from the World Bank’s Women, Business and Law report, which studied women’s employment and entrepreneurship choices as a result of discriminatory legal barriers, as the basis for his argument.

Employees of the World Bank, including Lopez-Claros, were responsible for visiting 189 countries and gathering information about each country’s legislation that would reveal any gender-specific restrictions.

“We asked questions such as, ‘Does the constitution of the country identify gender as a protected category?’ ‘Is it guaranteed by the constitution?’ ‘Does the tax code provide benefits to men that it doesn’t provide to women?’ ‘Can a woman obtain a bank account or a passport the same as a man can?’” Lopez-Claros said.

As a result, the World Bank found that of the 189 countries surveyed, only 18 countries did not have any restrictions on women. The United States was not among those 18.

By comparing countries that did not have restrictions to the countries that do, Lopez-Claros found that “when women join the labor force and contribute to family income, there is a power shift from a husband and wife relationship, although when women have a say in the family spending, the money is being spent better, which helps the economy.”

Not only does family spending improve when a mother or wife joins the workforce, but the trend shows that when females are members of Congress or parliament, government funds are more likely spent toward public needs.

For example, Lopez-Claros said that in 1996, India gave its villages the option to implement a quota that would reserve a third of the seats in the village council to women of that village.  Of the villages that chose to implement the quota, more money was spent toward “education, health and water projects,” while the villages without the quota were spending money toward “sports facilities and celebrations,” Lopez-Claros said.

He said he discovered that in all governments, “when women sit at the table, topics like schools, reconstruction, jobs and a healthy environment for sustainable growth are discussed, but when only men share the table, they talk more about weapons and defense.”

Additionally, when young women see other women in powerful positions and in public policy, they feel more obligated to receive an education, join the job market and contribute to the economy, Lopez-Claros said. In contrast, legislation that restricts women deters them from obtaining an education, which Lopez-Claros said could have legal implications along with economic consequences.

According to Lopez-Claros, the common argument among the countries with the most restrictions was that they were “protecting their women” by forbidding them the same rights as men. 

“The common argument is that restrictions have been introduced in order to protect women.  They say, ‘We are going to protect you from the higher paying jobs because we respect and love you and therefore are going to marginalize you,’” Lopez-Claros said.

Patrick Fleming, a sophomore kinesiology and psychology major who attended the lecture, said that society’s perception of gender roles must change before the gender imbalance in male-dominated departments at the university can be dealt with.

“I think we do need to look at the engineering and computer science departments, which are more male-dominated, although I don’t think it is much of the university’s fault as it is society’s,” Fleming said.

The lecture was organized by senior communications major Radiance Talley, president of the Baha’i Club at the University of Maryland.

“The world of humanity has two wings – one is man and one is woman.  But not until both wings are equally developed can the bird fly,” Talley said, referring to Baha’i scripture.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the event was hosted by the Baha’i Chair for World Peace. The event was hosted by the Baha’i Club at University of Maryland. The story has been updated.