Why do some nations, such as the United States and Sweden, have booming nonprofit sectors, whereas other economically similar countries, such as Japan and Italy, do not? A new study uncovers a surprising answer: It’s the women. The more empowered a country’s women, the more vibrant its nonprofit sector. “Other research shows that women tend to be more altruistic, more prosocial, and less corrupt [than men],” explains study author Nuno S. Themudo, an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. “Yet in many parts of the world, women cannot actively participate in civil society.” In countries where women can take their talents into the public sphere, he observes, the nonprofit sector employs more people, retains more members, and attracts more volunteers. For his research, Themudo uses the United Nations Development Programme’s Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM), which reflects how many parliamentary, management, and professional positions the women of a country hold, as well as the percentage of income they earn. Then with data for 40 countries from the Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project, he finds that the higher a country’s gem score, the greater its percentage of working-age full-time employees in the nonprofit…