SADC women's equality

The member states of the Southern African Development Community reportedly have agreed to introduce new legislation domestically to grant greater equality for women in their constitutions. The SADC website hasn't yet posted any information on the change, so the information is second hand which is never a good sign but oh well.

If equality is enforced in the workplace, then it should be good for economic growth. Empirical evidence suggests that increased women's equality is associated with increased economic growth, although there are questions to what extent causality applies since women's equality could be increased by the pressures of economic expansion or it could be acting as a proxy, at least initially, for pro-capital measures such as the suppression of union rights. On theoretical grounds, the link between greater equality and short term per capita growth is compelling.

The link above argues that female protection should be extended into the domestic environment as well. In a high HIV environment, another argument could be used to link economic robustness with such protection.