The Australian delegate to the W20Summit, Associate Professor Susan Harris-Rimmer, presented the final communique to Germany’s ChancellorAngela Merkel in Berlin this week.
She asked Merkel about the pledge made by G20 leaders at the 2014 Brisbane summit to reduce the gap in the labour-force participation rates between men and women by 25% by 2025.
“They said this would bring more than 100 million women into the workforce, increase global growth and reduce poverty and inequality,’’ Professor Harris-Rimmer said.
“Progress has been slow and opaque so what advice does Merkel have?”
Associate Professor Rimmer is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow at Griffith Law School and an Adjunct Reader in the Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy at the Australian National University. Her Future Fellow project is called ‘Trading’ Women’s Rights in Transitions: Designing Diplomatic Interventions in Afghanistan and Myanmar.
The W20 is the official G20 dialogue with NGOs, female entrepreneur associations and scientists pushing forward women’s economic development.