Promoting gender equality in the job market and economic growth

Over the past two decades, gender issues have become increasingly important in the labor market of developing countries. This study examines the effect of promoting women into formal employment on economic growth in Africa. To examine this relationship, we used data from 40 African countries over the period 2000 to 2019. The Granger causality test procedure of Dumitrescu and Hurlin (2012) and the GMM model are applied to the data. The results reveal a causal relationship between women's rate of access to formal employment and GDP per capita. The GMM model results show that investment, trade openness and women's access to formal employment have positive and significant effects on economic growth. The results suggest that African countries need to invest more, develop regional integration and promote women's formal employment for sustainable and inclusive development.