(Bloomberg) -- Improving gender equality could significantly boostgrowth in advanced economies over the coming decades, according toCitigroup Inc.

Tackling the factors excluding women from work would achieve more than structural reforms currentlyproposed in the U.S. and Europe, Citi researchers includingchief global political analyst Tina Fordham and head of globaleconomics Ebrahim Rahbari said in an 84-page report publishedThursday.

Such factors include the burden of unpaid care work, genderdiscrimination and violence, a lack of legal protection and reducedaccess to financial services, they said. Removing thosebarriers could boost OECD growth by between 6 and 20 percent, theyestimated.

“It’s about the sheer scope for growth -- 6 percent is what wearrived at for advanced economies, for emerging market countriesit’s even higher. So why aren’t we going for it?,” Fordham toldMark Barton in an interview on Bloomberg Television. The proposalsin the report would contribute “significantly more than themonetary-fiscal policies that are under discussion.”

Female participation rates are often significantly below thoseof men, even in advanced economies. The share of women working oractively looking for work in OECD countries averaged 64 percentlast year, compared with a male participation rate of 80percent.

That gap is particularly large in Italy and Japan. The gulf ismore than 10 percentage points in the U.S. and the U.K., and it’sonly slightly lower in France and Germany.

Policies reducing gender inequality are vital given relativelysluggish growth prospects in advanced economies and the morelimited potential of other reforms, the report said.

The European Commission estimates that if all of its possiblestructural reforms -- including those on tax, unemploymentbenefits, product markets, human capital and R&D investments --were implemented, they could lift EU growth by about 6 percent over10 years. U.S. President Donald Trump’s fiscal stimulus couldpotentially boost U.S. GDP by 1 to 1.5 percent over 2018-21.

“I’d suggest that the Trump administration have a look at thisreport,” Fordham said on Bloomberg TV. “Many of the ways to removebarriers to women are pretty easy to implement -- and you can seethat in the case where we compare the U.S. and Canada.”

Female labor force participation in Canada has risen graduallysince 1990, helped by tax reforms, family support and wage andincome equalization, the report said.

The public sector has made gender diversity an objective, andprivate firms and institutions have started to collect metrics totrack and reduce wage discrepancies.

But progress in the U.S. has stalled. There are few U.S. federalmandates that support equal pay between men and women, no laws thatguarantee paid family leave and tax rules continue to penalizemarried couples.

Both Canada and the U.S. nevertheless have a gender wage gapthat exceeds the OECD average.

“Constraints on women’s economic empowerment are rooted inunaddressed gender inequalities in society,” the report said.“Layers of disadvantage -- including those related to poverty,ethnicity, disability, age, geography, and migratory status --remain powerful obstacles to equal rights and opportunities forhundreds of millions of women.”

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