Economic Growth and Evolution of Gender Equality

We present an evolutionary growth model where the degree of gender equality evolves towards the value maximizing social output. It follows that a woman's bargaining power should depend positively on her relative productivity. When an economy is less developed, physical strength plays a key role in production and thus, total output is greater when the man gets a larger share. As society develops and accumulates physical capital and human capital, the woman becomes relatively more productive, which drives the output maximizing social norm towards gender equality. Empirical results support these predictions of the theoretical model. Simulations show that in the long run, an economy with gender equality can outperform an economy where gender balance of power maximizes social output, although in the short run, it can lag behind.