‘Confidence in the Economy Is Driven by the Woman’

Economists trying to map the global economic recovery tend to focus on demography. The key players at the moment, says former Indonesian finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, are women, who may hold the most potential for jump-starting global growth. Indrawati, now managing director of the World Bank, sat down with NEWSWEEK’s Daniel Stone in Washington to talk about the role of women as key drivers of the recovery. Excerpts:

How do you view the role of women in global development?

So much research has been done showing that the woman is the most vulnerable but also the biggest strength leading to economic progress. This crisis alone is going to create an additional 50 [million] to 60 million poor people, which if you combine with the [global] target to reduce poverty by half by 2015, the woman alone is going to be a huge driver for many countries.

Because of their role within families?

Usually when you target [government money] for women, they’re really going to use it for their children. In much of my experience, the males, when they receive government money, buy something that mostly serves their own interests. This is very generally known by many development experts as well as policymakers.