Here’s how women are changing the way economies are run

Being open to new solutions, empathising, speaking up for the vulnerable are proving key to solving emerging challenges.

Women now hold many of the jobs controlling the world’s largest economy – and they are trying to fix it. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and trade tsar Katherine Tai hold top jobs in United States President Joe Biden’s administration and many of his economic advisers also are women, as are nearly 48 percent of his confirmed cabinet-level officials. This sea change may already be affecting economic policy – a new $2.3 trillion spending plan introduced by Biden last week includes $400bn to fund the “care economy,” supporting home- and community-based jobs taking care of kids and seniors, work normally done by women that has mostly gone unacknowledged in years past.