
Women's and girls' economic empowerment
Gender norms that limit the access of women and girls to economic resources, training and skills development, and confine them to less lucrative work opportunities are particularly hard to change. This may be because gender norms about economic activity intersect with broader gender norms around, for example, women’s care responsibilities, whether they should be working at all and, if so, what kind of jobs are ‘suitable’. It may be because sharing economic power and resources is particularly threatening to gender norms in some contexts.
Even so, norms about women’s and girls’ economic activity are extremely varied and they can shift, for example when new economic opportunities arise, or when policies actively promote new norms. Economic empowerment initiatives can help to speed this process, but must also take into account norms that constrain women’s economic activity.
ALIGN will be developing a set of resources on gender norms and women’s and girls’ economic empowerment in 2020. To contribute or suggest ideas, please contact us.
Recommended reading
The World Economic Forum’s 2020 Gender Gap report highlights the enduring (and in some cases, widening) gaps in women’s economic participation, representation in emerging fields and in economic decision-making, and the persistent gender pay gap. One reason for these ongoing inequalities is the persistence of gender norms that limit women’s economic participation and advancement. ALIGN recommends the following resources to better understand the impact of discriminatory norms and effective ways to address them, for more effective economic empowerment of women and girls:
Report
1 July 2016

Published by: BEAM Exchange
Report
7 November 2018
Published by: IDRC
Briefing paper
1 July 2017

Published by: The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor
Book/Book chapter
31 January 2019

Published by: International Food Policy Research Institute
Report
18 May 2018
Published by: ALIGN
Report
1 September 2013

Published by: United Nations, Exxon Mobil
ALIGN published resources on economic empowerment
Briefing paper
22 July 2021

Published by: ALIGN, Tariro Youth Development Trust
Blog
1 July 2021

Published by: ALIGN
Briefing paper
24 June 2021

Published by: ALIGN, Viable Helpers Development Organization, Viable Knowledge Masters
Blog
1 June 2021

Published by: ALIGN
Blog
15 October 2020

Published by: Care, CARE International in Viet Nam, ALIGN
Biblio/Lit. review
1 June 2020

Published by: ALIGN
Economic empowerment content from the ALIGN community
Book/Book chapter
1 March 2021

Published by: IDRC, Government of Canada
Blog
26 April 2019

Published by: The Urban Institute
Report
7 November 2018
Published by: IDRC
Toolkit
1 October 2021

Published by: CGAP
Briefing paper
20 September 2021

Published by: US AID
Report
1 August 2021

Published by: Investing in Women
Briefing paper
1 July 2021

Published by: Social Norms Learning Collaborative, Nigeria Learning Collaborative