Women now have many of the jobs controlling the world’s largest economy. And they are trying to fix it. Some experts say women leaders can bring a new way of examining economic policy

Women now have many of the jobs controlling the world’s largest economy. And they are trying to fix it.Some experts say women leaders can bring a new way of examining economic policy.

Women's economic empowerment includes women's ability to participate equally in existing markets; their access to and control over productive resources, access to decent work, control over their own time, lives and bodies; and increased voice, agency and meaningful participation in economic decision-making at all ... The 20th century saw a radical increase in the number of women participating in labor markets across early-industrialized countries. The following visualization shows this. It plots long-run female participation rates, piecing together OECD data and available historical estimates for a selection of early-industrialized countries. Most of the long-run increase in the participation of women in labor markets throughout the last century is attributable specifically to an increase in the participation of married women.

The following visualization shows the experience of the US. It plots female labor force participation rates, differentiating by marital status. As can be seen, the marked upward trend observed for the general female population is mainly driven by the trend among married women. Heckman and Killingsworth (1986) provide evidence of similar historical trends for the UK, Germany and Canada.