The Foundations of Female Empowerment Revisited

This paper lays the foundations of the analysis of the relationship between gender equality and economic growth. The study of this long-run relationship aims at providing a better understanding of the mechanisms and determinants underpinning the development process which allowed economies to move out of a long period of stagnation into a state of sustainable economic growth. Our scientific objective is to check the validity of the central hypothesis that improving gender equality is a key ingredient of the demographic transition and of the process of socio-economic development.