A skilled workforce cannot unleash its full potential without financial capital. Europe’s impressive economic recovery after World War II would have been inconceivable without its integration into the global economy and its concentration on highquality exports. Today, many Asian economies are benefiting from global economic integration. Investment in the appropriate technologies enables these countries to compete on the world market and increase welfare substantially.
That might be surprising to some people, given the overwhelmingly male-dominated mathematical professions today. A more recent example of what was once traditionally a ‘male’ occupation now employing many more women is the role of traffic management on roadwork crews. At a broader level, though, industry-level and occupation-level sex-segregation is remarkably stable from decade to decade.