Wikigender

Wikigender made its debut in Paris right in time for International Women’s Day (March 8). The new online portal modeled after the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, was introduced by the OECD Development Centre to share and exchange information on gender equality.

The international community is becoming increasingly aware of the link between legal, social and cultural norms on the status of women and economic progress. Quite often women find themselves forced into the informal sector in countries that do not strive to achieve gender equality in education and other sectors and where the female population is underutilized as an available human resource.

Women’s participation in the economy brings growth and builds global competitiveness. At the same time, higher economic development does not always mean more gender equality. Evidence has shown that some higher income countries may have greater gender inequality, while gender equality can be less prevalent in countries with lower incomes. The OECD Development Centre has acknowledged that discrimination against women is a multi-faceted and complex phenomenon, and in response has launched two online tools: OECD Gender, Institutions and Development Data Base and Wikigender to assess the current state of affairs in this area and serve as guidelines in efforts to reduce gender inequality.

Closing the gap of gender inequality will be easier as it becomes more visible and engages the aspirations of the international community. Wikigender hopes to be a tool that will foster an open forum to promote a dialogue on obstacles to women’s economic and social empowerment. The interactive nature of the portal hopes to tap into the expertise and knowledge of users worldwide to contribute to the growing content of the database filling it with articles, reports, research, and data. This exchange of information aims at strengthening the willingness to reform by serving as a resource of information that can bring about change. Public awareness of relevant issues for women could very well be the key strategy to tackle gender discrimination.

In line with these efforts, the Doing Business project is conducting a research effort to identify legal and regulatory barriers to equal opportunity to women in business. Stay tuned - later this year a database of legal provisions that affect how women do business around the world is to be launched. Following the wiki-trend, the database will engage lawyers and informed people across the world to upload comments and reference laws and regulations impacting women's ability to become full economic partners.