Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Partners in prosperity

Foreign Affairs:

In 2008, Goldman Sachs launched one of the private sector's most ambitious initiatives: a $100 million commitment to provide 10,000 women in emerging economies, such as India and Nigeria, with a business education. The firm is not motivated by altruism alone: when Goldman's CEO and chair, Lloyd Blankfein, speaks about the program, he never fails to mention that the company's own research has shown that educating women leads to greater labor-force participation, higher productivity, and higher returns on investment. Put simply, directing resources to women is good for business.

"[T]he combination of female education and pervasive wage discrimination can create a pool of well-skilled but inexpensive female labor. In itself, this may lead to more investment in industries dominated by female labor. Higher returns to industries that fed on female-intensive light manufacturing played a role in the rapid growth rates seen in Southeast Asia."

-- Goldman Sachs, Global Economics Paper No: 164

3 comments:

Ethan said...

Yeah, and...?

Ethan said...

(I joke)

d.mantis said...

It took me awhile to think it was intentional...but these people ARE evil.

For christ's sake, the world is a big economic Risk game to them. We just keep restocking their armies so they can keep trying to take Asia...

P.S. I am aware that that was probably too dorkie of a metaphor.