The document highlights significant progress in women's rights, education, health, and labor outcomes, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, where improvements often occurred faster than in wealthier nations. Despite these gains, persistent gender inequalities remain, influenced by economic, social, and institutional factors, alongside external shocks that can reverse progress. The text emphasizes the need for integrated approaches to enhance women's economic empowerment and access to resources, addressing both existing inequalities and the impact of macroeconomic policies.

2. A WAVE OF PROGRESS
• In four major areas—women’s rights,
education, health, and labor force
outcomes—the gains in the second half of
the 20th century were large and fast in
many parts of the world. Improvements
that took 100 years in wealthier countries
took just 40 years in some low- and middle-
income countries.

3. TIMES ARE CHANGING?
Rising global consensus supporting formal
rights and guarantees of equality for women
have led to low- and middle-income countries
have seen unprecedented gains in outcomes
for women, both in absolute terms and
relative to men. More women are literate and
educated than ever before, and the education
gap with men has shrunk dramatically.

4. Economic growth has driven much of the
progress, through higher household
incomes, better service delivery, and new
labor market opportunities for women.
But it has not been the only factor—the
association between economic growth
and better outcomes for women has been
neither automatic nor uniform across
countries.

5. Changes in one domain of gender equality have
fostered change in others, influencing the next
generation, reinforcing the whole process. For
example, the expansion of economic opportunities
for women in service industries in Bangladesh and
India has boosted school enrollments for girls,
which feeds into higher labor force participation
and better educational outcomes for the next
generation.

6. RISING GLOBAL CONSENSUS FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS
The past three decades have seen great progress in
securing women’s formal rights and constitutional
guarantees of equality. The Convention on the Elimination
of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW),
which the United Nations General Assembly adopted in
1979, established a comprehensive framework for the
advancement of women. Today, the number of signatories
has almost doubled, to 187 countries.

7. GENDER AND THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT
GOALS
• Taking action to improve the number and active
participation of women in all political and economic
decision-making processes, including investing in
women’s leadership in local decision-making structures
and creating an even playing field for men and women
in political and government institutions.
• Expanding access to financial services for the poor,
especially women.

8. • Promoting and protecting
women’s equal access to
housing, property, and land,
including rights to inheritance.

9. BETTER OUTCOMES FOR WOMEN IN MANY DOMAINS
During the past quarter century, sustained
growth in many countries has reduced
disparities on some dimensions of gender
equality. And the pace of change in these
outcomes has been much faster in today’s
low- and middle-income countries than it was
in high-income countries..

10. • That can be seen in indicators as varied as
fertility, female education and literacy, and
female labor force participation.
• In most countries where broad-based income
growth has combined with better institutions
for service delivery and more economic
opportunities for women, the improvements in
these indicators have been dramatic—and in
some cases at rates never before witnessed.

11. THE PERSISTENCE OF GENDER INEQUALITY
• Severely disadvantaged populations.
Across and within countries, gender gaps
widen at lower incomes, and, in the
poorest economies, gender gaps are larger.
The benefits of economic growth have not
accrued equally to all men and all women
for some parts of society.

12. “Sticky” domains. Improvements in
some domains of gender equality—
such as those related to occupational
differences or participation in policy
making—are bound by constraints
that do not shift with economic
growth and development.

13. Gender disparities endure even in high-
income economies despite the large gains
in women’s civil and economic rights in
the past century. These outcomes are the
result of slow-moving institutional
dynamics and deep structural factors
that growth alone cannot address.

14. Reversals. External shocks—sometimes
economic, sometimes political,
sometimes institutional— can erase
hard-earned gains. In some instances,
improvements in gender equality have
been reversed in the face of unexpected
shocks that revealed or worsened
institutional or market failures.

15. Missing girls at birth and excess female mortality
Sex ratios at birth and mortality across countries in
1990, 2000, and 2008 reveal continuing
disadvantages for women in many low- and middle-
income countries (and disadvantages for men in
some regions for specific reasons).
First, the problem of skewed sex-ratios at birth in
China and India (and in some countries in the
Caucasus and the Western Balkans) remains
unresolved.

16. • Population estimates suggest that an additional
1.4 million girls would have been born (mostly in
China and India) if sex ratios at birth in these
countries resembled those found worldwide.
Second, compared with developed economies,
the rate at which women die relative to men in
low- and middle-income countries is higher in
many regions of the world.

17. MEN AND WOMEN IN DIFFERENT SECTORS AND
DIFFERENT OCCUPATIONS
women and men work in different sectors.docx

18. EDUCATION AND HEALTH: WHERE DO
GENDER DIFFERENCES REALLY MATTER?
Investments in health and education—
human capital endowments—shape the
ability of men and women to reach their
full potential in society. The right mix of
such investments allows people to live
longer, healthier, and more productive
lives.

19. • Systematic differences in investments between
males and females, independent of their
underlying causes, adversely affect individual
outcomes in childhood and adulthood and those
of the next generation. Left uncorrected, these
differences translate into large costs for societies.

20. PROMOTING WOMEN’S AGENCY
• Control over resources—measured by women’s ability
to earn and control income and to own, use, and dispose
of material assets.

21. • Ability to move freely—measured by women’s freedom
to decide their movements and their ability to move
outside their homes.
• Decision making over family formation—
measured by women’s and girls’ ability to decide
when and whom to marry, when and how many
children to have, and when to leave a marriage.

22. • Freedom from the risk of violence—measured
by the prevalence of domestic violence and other
forms of sexual, physical, or emotional violence.
• Ability to have a voice in society and influence
policy—measured by participation and
representation in formal politics and engagement
in collective action and associations.

23. ROLE OF WOMEN IN DEVELOPMENT
Women’s equal access to and control over
economic and financial resources including
microfinance is critical for the achievement
of gender equality and empowerment of
women and for equitable and sustainable
economic growth and development.

24. The importance of examining women’s access to
economic and financial resources in a broad
sense, including resources generated at
national level through budgets, trade, and
development assistance; financial services such
as savings, credit, remittance transfers and
insurance; employment; land, property and
other productive resources; and social
protection.

25. • There are significant development gains to be
made in ensuring women’s equitable access to
and control over economic and financial
resources, including in relation to economic
growth, poverty eradication and the well-being of
families and communities.
• The impact of inequality in access to resources
represents a global challenge with implications at
individual, family, community and national level.

26. • There is need for an appropriate gender-
sensitive response to the crisis which
minimizes the negative impacts and takes
advantage of the opportunity to develop
positive trends.
• Gender equality in the distribution of
economic and financial resources has positive
multiplier effects for a range of key
development goals, including poverty
reduction and the welfare of children.

27. • Both microlevel efficiency results through
increased household productivity and
macroefficiency results through positive
synergies between indicators of gender equality
and economic growth have been recorded.
• Development rationales for enhancing women’s
access to economic and financial resources
include women’s role as “safety net of last
resort” in economic downturns.

28. • Long-standing inequalities in the gender
distribution of economic and financial
resources have placed women at a
disadvantage relative to men in their
capability to participate in, contribute to
and benefit from broader processes of
development.

29. • Despite considerable progress on many aspects
of women’s economic empowerment through,
inter alia, increases in educational attainment
and share of paid work, deeply entrenched
inequality persists as a result of discriminatory
norms and practices, and the pace of change has
been slow and uneven across regions.

30. • Women continue to be absent
from key decision-making forums
shaping the allocation of
economic and financial resources
and opportunities, which further
perpetuates gender inequality.

31. • The manner in which countries respond to the
recession can have disproportionate impacts on
women and girls, possibly reversing gains made,
particularly through cuts in public spending on
health and education and through inequitably
designed safety nets. There is also increased risk
of reductions in allocations to gender equality
and women’s empowerment.

32. MACROECONOMICS AND WOMEN’S
ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT
• Macroeconomic policies impact on gender
equality through markets and state
interventions which distribute key economic
and financial resources.
• Gender equality perspectives have, however,
been largely ignored in formulation of
macroeconomic policies.

33. • Development of gender-responsive policies
requires an understanding of and attention to
the distributional consequences of economic
growth strategies and monetary, fiscal, trade and
investment policies, as well as the specific
constraints to women’s economic empowerment,
including in particular the unequal gender
distribution of paid and unpaid work and its
implications for access to economic resources
and opportunities.

34. • The positive changes in employment
associated with changes in growth
have been larger for women than for
men.
• Economic growth has had, however,
limited documented impact on
women’s life expectancy and women’s
participation in economic and
political decision-making.

35. • The importance of gender equality in education and
employment for economic growth is illustrated by
microlevel impacts and efficiencies generated by
optimal use of human capital.
• Monetary policies are likely to have gender-
differentiated impacts through the labour market. Tight
monetary policies, high real rates of interest and
deregulated financial markets affect the supply of credit
in the economy, including its availability to less
privileged economic actors.

36. • Women smallholder farmers and small-
and medium-scale entrepreneurs are
deprived of access to credit. Tax systems
can create and perpetuate gender
inequalities through influencing the
allocation of time to formal, informal and
unpaid work and through the burdens
imposed by direct taxes on consumption
goods and services.

37. • Budgets at national and other levels are
important mechanisms for Governments to
ensure women benefit from public-sector
expenditures.
• Gender-responsive budget initiatives can be
instrumental in promoting change in budget
policies, allocation and outcomes to ensure that
resources are allocated to the implementation of
commitments on gender equality.

38. • Trade policies impact on women through
employment, prices and incomes. Trade can
create employment opportunities for women in
export-oriented labour-intensive manufacturing.
• These opportunities may, however, not be
sustainable because of the shift to more skill- or
capital-intensive forms of production, the
relocation of capital and the relocation of jobs
from the formal to informal economy.

39. • The removal of tariffs and other trade
barriers can reduce government
revenues, leading to cuts in social
spending or increases in excise taxes,
which can disproportionately impact
poor women.

40. • Foreign direct investment has played a major
role in employment generation for women in
some regions, particularly in labour-intensive
export-oriented manufacturing.
• Competition to attract foreign direct investment
may, however, lead to a weakening of labour
standards, particularly in export-processing
zones, which can be disempowering for women.

41. • Although foreign direct investment is less
internationally mobile, there is a risk of relocation to
keep wages low and avoid labour regulation,
particularly in sectors with low levels of capital
investment where women are primarily located.
• Women make up an increasing percentage of
international migrants, migrating independently in
search of jobs and contributing to remittance flows.
There are gender differences in the propensity to remit,
reflecting differences in earnings, life cycle and family
responsibilities.

42. • While migration and the
possibility to remit may be
empowering for women, the costs
to the migrant women have to be
considered.

43. ACCESS TO FULL EMPLOYMENT AND DECENT WORK
• Despite women’s increased participation in the
labour market, there has been no significant
increase in the sharing of unpaid work, including
caregiving, between women and men, which
affects women’s employment choices.

44. • A number of countries have introduced policies
on working arrangements, including reduction
of working hours, flexibility of work-time and
location, and the option of part-time work to
assist both women and men in reconciling their
work and family responsibilities. Part-time
work, which is mainly taken by women, can,
however, involve a wage-penalty and long term
impacts on pensions.

45. ACCESS TO LAND, HOUSING AND OTHER PRODUCTIVE
RESOURCES
• Land reform processes, such as land-titling
projects and resettlement schemes, can play an
important role in addressing inequalities in
access to land and property.
• Land markets have, however, not been an
effective means of transferring land and
property to women in many parts of the world.

46. • Improved access to water and energy in
developing countries can reduce women’s
workloads, increase productivity and provide
more time for income generation, political
participation and leisure.
• Women face greater obstacles in accessing
irrigation for crop production and livestock
raising, due to insecurity of land tenure and
their exclusion or marginal involvement in
user associations.

47. • The user groups established to promote
greater community management of natural
resources, including forests, exclude women
through discriminatory rules and social
norms.
• Efforts to increase women’s participation must
address inequalities in governance structures
and membership requirements.

48. • Equitable access to infrastructure and
services are critical for women’s economic
empowerment. Transport improvements
can reduce women’s time-poverty in rural
areas in many parts of the world, as well
as increase access to markets, schools and
services, with resulting improvements in
productivity, health and well-being.

49. • The potential of information and
communication technologies (ICT) for
benefiting women through time-savings
and access to information, employment
and income generation has not been fully
realized and women’s access remains
limited in many parts of the world,
particularly in rural areas.

50. ACCESS TO FINANCIAL RESOURCES
• Women’s access to all financial services,
including savings, insurance, remittance
transfers and credit, is essential to allow them to
benefit fully from economic opportunities.
• Legal, institutional and sociocultural barriers
often, however, limit women’s access to these
services.

51. • Microfinance, which emerged in response to the
failure of the formal financial system to reach the
poor, has been successful in reaching poor women
through innovative measures to address gender-
specific constraints.
• There is lack of consensus on the extent to which
access to microfinance empowers women. While
there is evidence that microfinance has a positive
impact on income, there are limits to the income
gains.

52. • While women are found in a range of
entrepreneurial activities, many tend to be
concentrated in micro, small and medium
businesses as a result of their responsibilities for
unpaid work, limits on mobility, lack of
collateral and limited financial skills.
• Women can be more disadvantaged than men
in starting up enterprises, as they may be less
able than men to afford long and expensive
registration procedures.

53. • Initiatives have been taken by financial
institutions and Governments at national and
regional levels to increase the access of women
entrepreneurs to financial instruments, including
regular banking services, debt financing and
equity financing.
• Reform is also necessary in the microfinance
sector to ensure specific commitment to gender
equality and women’s empowerment in
organizational vision, mandates, objectives,
policies and practice.

54. ACCESS TO SOCIAL PROTECTION
• As a result of unequal property rights,
interruptions to their working lives posed by
childbearing, unequal sharing of unpaid care
responsibilities, location in less well-regulated
forms of work and lower levels of remuneration,
many women are unable to insure themselves
against contingencies arising from old age, ill-
health, disability, unemployment and other life
crises.

55. • The insecurities generated by global competition,
flexible labour markets and recurring financial
crises have given rise to strong demands for State
support for social protection.
• Income security for the unemployed remains a
major challenge, particularly in developing
countries where many low-income workers are
outside the formal social insurance system,
including the vast majority of working women.

56. • Strategies developed to expand coverage
include cash transfer programmes and
employment guarantee schemes, such as
public works programmes. Gender-
related constraints, which can be
reinforced by programme design,
including the type of work offered, have
in some cases restricted women’s
participation.

57. • Social health protection provides benefit
packages for protection against the risk of
illhealth and related financial burdens,
including through tax-funded national health
services, vouchers and conditional cash
benefits, and contribution-based health
insurance—including mandatory public
schemes, regulated private schemes and
community-based non-profit schemes.

58. CONCLUSION
• Ensuring women’s economic empowerment
and access to and control over resources
requires an integrated approach to growth and
development, focused on gender-responsive
employment promotion and informed by the
interdependency between economic and social
development.

59. • Economic growth strategies should give
attention to the real economy and focus on
creating a gender sensitive macroeconomic
environment, full employment and decent
work, access to land, property and other
productive resources as well as financial
services, and full coverage of social
protection measures.