Double tax – why women pay it and what to do about it

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie sits down with economist Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman and Bruegel’s Marie-Sophie Lappe to discuss gender inequality and how economics can help to fix it. The data shows that it costs more to be a woman in society, especially a Black woman, in areas ranging from health care, to pension savings and workplace routines. These extra burdens drag the whole economy down – but this also means that progress towards gender equality can pull the whole economy up.

Related research:

• Christie, R. (2023) ‘Taking up space’, European Commission
• Christie, R. and M. De Ridder (2022) 'Closing the gender gap for self-employed women in the European Union’, Bruegel Blog, 20 July
• Darvas, Z. (2025) ‘How has Europe’s gender wealth gap evolved, and why?’, Bruegel Newsletter, 03 November
• Darvas, Z. and N. Ruer (2025) 'Gender wealth inequality in the European Union: a distributional perspective', Working Paper 26/2025, Bruegel
• Darvas, Z., Kreko, J., A. Laczkovich  and N. Ruer (2025) ‘Unequal wealth: Exploring socioeconomic disparities across the EU’, Eurofound
• Goldin, C. (2025) ‘Babies and the macroeconomy’, Economica, 93:1-26
• Lappe, M.S. and D. Pinkus (2025) ‘Europe’s savings debate should focus on the bigger picture’, First Glance, Bruegel, 11 September
• Opoku-Agyeman, A. G. (2025) The Double Tax: How Women of Color Are Overcharged and Underpaid, Penguin Random House
• Ostry, J. D. (2025) ‘Gender diversity and economic growth’, Working Paper 02/2025, Bruegel