as a result in of girls have been married before their th birthday the eight highest number of child brides in the world unicef the participation of women in the labour force is crucial for promoting and sustaining economic growth and the gains are largest in countries where large gender gaps persist like mexico in mexico halving the current gender gap in labour force participation among to yearolds by could potentially add percentage points to the projected average annual rate of growth in per capita gross domestic product gdp for the period boosting the projected average growth rate to per year by this extra growth would translate into an increase of around usd in gdp per capita relative to the baseline scenario