25 years ago, Goldman Sachs research analyst Kathy Matsui wrote a report about the Japanese economy called womenomics.

She argued that future potential economic growth will depend on increased female labor participation.

So how much progress have we made since then in Japan and around the world?

I'm also Nathan and this is Goldman Sachs exchanges. Today I'm speaking with Sharon Bell, senior strategist on the European Portfolio Strategy team within Goldman Sachs research,

and also with Asahi Pompeii, Goldman Sachs's global head of corporate engagement

and president of the Goldman Sachs Foundation.

We'll first turn to Sharon, who's joining me remotely from our London office.

Sharon, welcome back to the program.

Hi, Allison, thanks for inviting me.

So we mentioned Kathy's report, you recently published a new report called

Womenomics, 25 years and the Quiet Revolution, and it looks at some of the progress

that has and frankly hasn't been made since 1999.

What are the biggest takeaways of your report?

I think it's that the progress has been so stunning, even if people don't realize it, which is partly why I called it

the Quiet Revolution. If you take Japan as an example we've gone from roughly half

of women participating in the workforce to three quarters of women participating in the workforce in just one generation.

That's a huge change. Italy is another really good example in the piece that we talk about.

The workforce in the last two or three decades.

All the additions to the workforce have been women joining.

Had it been without those women, then the workforce would have been flat or even shrunk

over that period of time.

So if we think about what's driving that massive increase in participation and I agree with

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