The U.S. Economy Is Now Run By Women

Tyler Durden
Sat, 04/10/2021 – 13:15
The U.S. Economy Is Now Run By Women

So much for the patriarchy. 

At the top of the helm in President Biden’s economic cabinet are numerous women. For example, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and trade czar Katherine Tai all collectively help run the economy. Many of President Biden’s economic advisors are also women, Reuters noted this week.

The effects of having women in charge of the economy are already being noted. Biden’s $2.3 trillion spending plan includes $400 billion of support for jobs that take care of kids and seniors. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has pointed to a focus on “human infrastructure”. 

Yellen wrote on Twitter:

“In the end, it might be that this bill makes 80 years of history: it begins to fix the structural problems that have plagued our economy for the past four decades. This is just the start for us.”

Rebecca Henderson, a professor at Harvard Business School, says women can bring “fresh perspective” to policy: 

“When you’re different from the rest of the group, you often see things differently. You tend to be more open to different solutions. We’re in a moment of enormous crisis. We need new ways of thinking.” 

While women have taken the helm of countries as Presidents and Prime Ministers, “institutions that make economic decisions have largely been controlled by men until recently”, the report notes.

Now, women like Christine Lagarde at the ECB, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at the WTO and Kristalina Georgieva at the IMF, all call the shots.

Women run finance ministries in 16 countries and 14 of the world’s central banks, the report notes. 

The IMF’s Georgieva said in January: “When women are involved, the evidence is very clear: communities are better, economies are better, the world is better. Women make great leaders because we show empathy and speak up for the most vulnerable people. Women are decisive … and women can be more willing to find a compromise.”

U.S. states run by women also had less Covid-19 deaths, a new study by the American Psychological Association recently showed. 

Despite this, women only make up 2% of CEOs at financial institutions and less than 20% of executive board members. Institutions that women run “show greater financial resilience and stability”, according to the IMF. 

“I’ve been meeting with Treasury secretaries for 20 years, and their talking points have been entirely different. In every area we discussed, Yellen put an emphasis on empathy, and the impact of policies on vulnerable communities,” said Eric LeCompte, a UN adviser and executive director of a non-profit that advocates for debt relief. The men he formerly worked with focused on “numbers first”. 

“Women comprise 39% of the global workforce but account for 54% of overall job losses” as a result of the pandemic, Reuters notes. It’s estimated that bringing these women back to work could boost GDP by 5% in the U.S., 9% in Japan and 12% in the UAE. 

Okonjo-Iweala, the first African to head the World Trade Organization, concluded: “The lesson for us is (to) make sure … that we don’t sink into business as usual. It’s about people. It’s about inclusivity. It’s about decent work for ordinary people.”

Meanwhile, we are unsure what to make of this…

Stop interrupting women.
Stop interrupting women.
Stop interrupting women.
Stop interrupting women.
Stop interrupting women.
— Twitter Women (@TwitterWomen) April 8, 2021

Stop interrupting women
Stop interrupting women
Stop interrupting women
Stop interrupting women
Stop interrupting women
Stop interrupting women
Stop interrupting women
Stop interrupting women
Stop interrupting women
— UN Women (@UN_Women) April 9, 2021

Tyler Durden
Sat, 04/10/2021 – 13:15
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