By Ashleigh Jinjika
Empowering women is also absolutely critical to achieving economic stability, to promoting growth and indeed, to transforming entire economies. And that is at the core of the development of any nation.

Gender gaps remain significant around the world, both with respect to opportunities and outcomes. Whether these are legal restrictions or barriers in access to education, health and financial services; women do not fully participate in the global economy.
And women have borne the brunt of the economic disruption caused by the pandemic. In Zimbabwe, despite making up less than half of the workforce, they accounted for 55% of jobs lost due to the novel COVID 19 lockdowns.
From an economic standpoint, that is a significant lost opportunity, hence closing the gender gap in less developed countries with very low female labor force participation, could increase GDP and livelihoods of women.
At times of crises, such as the one we are in right now, gender balanced leadership is even more important, not just in terms of diverse decision-making, but also in avoiding measures that may disproportionately impact women. Hence, the need to seriously examine the role of women as finance leaders.