妇女权益增强有助提升国家经济实力

    全球妇女权利这个话题总让我想起电影《欢乐满人间》（Mary Poppins）中的班克斯先生。这位英国父亲愿意忍受班克斯太太系着象征妇女权益的饰带趾高气扬地穿过大厅——前提是， 6点钟必须准时准备好晚餐，同时不要用婆婆妈妈的废话干扰男人经营一个帝国的庄严责任。

    在今天这样一个独裁者掌握核武，经济陷于崩溃的世界上，我们依然很难让世界领导人把注意力放在这个最柔软的软实力事务上。但美国国务卿希拉里•克林顿至少找到了一个恰当的切入角度。她声称，妇女的地位事关一个国家的经济命运。针对妇女的法律和文化歧视“正在抑制经济的发展。”希拉里在亚太经合组织（APEC）工商领导人檀香山峰会的讲台上接受采访时，对我说了这样一番话。这次峰会的与会者是来自21个太平洋沿岸国家政商领袖。

    希拉里私下里也向与会的外交部长们表达了同样的看法。十余年来，她一直坚持着这样的做法。但直到今天，她的话才受到了应有的重视，因为越来越多的证据显示妇女参与经济有助于推动一国的GDP、竞争力和生产力。

    高盛公司（Goldman Sachs）的一份研究报告显示，在包括中国、俄罗斯、菲律宾、越南和韩国在内的几个APEC经济体中，缩小性别差距有可能促使人均收入于2020年之前增长14%。“这样做同样也可以让欧元区的人均收入提高13%——这正是它们所亟需的，”希拉里补充说。

    Talk of global women's rights always makes me think of Mr. Banks in the movie Mary Poppins. The British father puts up with Mrs. Banks marching through the foyer in her suffragette sash -- as long as dinner is served punctually at 6 o'clock and no female folderol intrudes on men's grave duties running an empire.

    In today's world of nuclear-armed tyrants and economic collapse, it is still hard to get the attention of world leaders on this softest of soft-power issues. But Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has at least figured out the right angle: The status of women, she argues, is linked to the economic fates of nations. Legal and cultural discrimination "is holding back economies," Clinton told me during an onstage interview at the APEC CEO Summit in Honolulu, a gathering of business and government leaders from 21 Pacific Rim countries.

    Clinton made the same case in private to a gathering of foreign ministers, as she has for more than a decade. Only now, because a growing body of evidence shows that female participation in economies boosts GDP, competitiveness, and productivity, she's getting a serious hearing.

    According to a Goldman Sachs report, narrowing the gender gap could lead to a 14% rise in per capita incomes by 2020 in several APEC economies, including China, Russia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Korea. "It would increase the eurozone's by 13% -- and they need it," Clinton adds.

    Kathy Matsui, partner and co-head of Asia investment research at Goldman Sachs (GS), notes that the countries where the gender gap is widest -- like Pakistan and Nigeria -- have struggling economies. By contrast China -- where women have relatively strong economic and educational standing -- is enjoying a "growth dividend." Japan's growth, Matsui's research found, has been impeded by women dropping out of the workforce.