I've provided a very brief overview and highlighted some of the interesting findings, so you don't have to read the full 452 page report yourself (although if you'd like to, you can find it here).
To begin with, the report highlights the relationship between gender equality and development. Gender equality is a development objective in its own right, and part of the Millennium Development Goals. Moreover, the report argues that development initiatives can contribute to greater gender equality, and that gender equality can enhance economic efficiency and improve development initiatives. The latter claim is derived from a growing body of microeconomic studies that demonstrate that you have to reduce social barriers and support women in order to profit from their skills and labor (i.e. ensuring that women who graduate from school have equal access to the workforce) and that women spend their money differently than men - choosing primarily to spend it on their families and children. Putting money into the hands of women can, therefore, have a direct impact on things like child nutrition and health or school enrollment.
The report features some of the ways we've made progress. The good news is:
-- In one-third of developing countries (45), girls outnumber boys in secondary education.
-- The average total fertility has declined from 5 births per woman in 1960 to 2.5 in 2008.
--There is little evidence of systematic gender discrimination in the use of health spending or health services.
-- Over half a billion women have joined the world's labor force in the past 30 years.
Now on to the bad stuff:
-- Nearly 4 million women go "missing" every year. They are either never born due to a preference for sons, die in early childhood due to a misallocation of resources (i.e. give more food to your son than your daughter), or die from a maternal-related cause.
--Over a third of women die in their reproductive years.
-- Women account for 58% of the world's unpaid labor.
-- Globally, only 10-20 of every 100 land owners is a woman.
-- Women are responsible for 60-80% of all house and care work.
-- Even though more women have joined the labor force, they still largely work in feminized professions, economic spaces that are deemed appropriate for women's labor.
-- Gender-differentiated patterns of employment mean lower incomes for women.
-- Many women still don't have equal control of household resources or equal access to resources. Some women lack access even to their own earnings.
The report helpfully includes a series of recommended policy actions. These include:
-- Eliminating gender disadvantages in education where they remain entrenched.
-- Ensuring women have access to more economic opportunities and that they are not confined to traditionally feminized, low-paying fields.
-- Increasing access to child care and early childhood development initiatives.
-- Increasing the number of women in politics.
-- Ensuring that women have access to and control of their own money and household resources, both in marriage and divorce.
In all, the report is full of fascinating data and a bunch of really interesting charts. Hopefully, the policy recommendations are observed, and the World Bank's next report shows even greater progress.
