This empirical qualitative research explores the texts of 14 free trade agreements (FTAs) concluded by Arab Gulf countries individually or as block. The objective is to evaluate if these documents are gender-responsive using an internationally recognised framework that qualitatively measures if...

Bank accounts are an essential first step towards formal savings and credit in most countries, yet their impact on women's control over resources remains underexplored. I investigate the effects of 2014 policy in India that provided free bank accounts and led to an unprecedented increase in...

This paper aims to make microfinance transparent, effective and secure with the help of the decentralized nature of blockchain technology. In doing so, it guarantees that microfinance enhances greater financial inclusion along with the economic empowerment of women. The research conducted a...

The Women's Economic Empowerment in Bangladesh: An Evidence-Guided Toolkit for More Inclusive Policies report provides an examination of gender disparities in economic empowerment in Bangladesh. It aims to shed light on the current state of gender inequality by analyzing rich microdata from...

This PFR Guidance Note on Fiscal Policy and Women's Economic Empowerment supports World Bank country teams in integrating a gender lens into the macro fiscal, revenue, and expenditure chapters of PFRs. Fiscal policy can play an important role in reducing gender gaps, enhancing women's economic...

Existing evidence from surveys and text analysis of social media suggests that women have more pro-environmental attitudes than men. However, there is little evidence of concrete gender differences in patterns of greenhouse gas emissions. We develop a new approach to structurally estimating...

Pakistan faces significant gender gaps in wage employment, entrepreneurship, and access to productive assets. Women in Pakistan also contend with critical issues related to safety, mobility, agency, and restrictive social norms. This report provides an in-depth analysis of these disparities and...

Women entrepreneurs in small to medium enterprises (SMEs) in emerging countries play an essential role in the economy of developing countries such as Indonesia. Drawing on the resource-based view and entrepreneurship effectuation theory, this study examines how women's entrepreneurial...

Achieving gender equality is an important EU objective. It is not just a matter of fundamental human rights, but also smart economics. As the European Union's investment arm, the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group aims to contribute to this goal. Its strategy, grounded in the EU policy...

This study examines the determinant factors of women's empowerment in Chepén, Peru, during 2024, analyzing how socioeconomic status potentially moderates this relationship. Using a quantitative approach with a non-experimental, cross-sectional design, the research surveyed 367 women aged 22-52...

This study examines the five-year impacts of a bicycle distribution program for adolescent girls in rural Zambia, implemented across 91 schools as part of a randomized controlled trial. While the program increased girls’ self-reported empowerment and reduced experiences of domestic and...

In poor countries, the interaction of early marriage, early motherhood, and low educational attainment disempowers women and limits their life opportunities. Even as countries grow richer, gender inequality is often sustained by social norms, thereby limiting welfare gains from women's...

This study examines the five-year impacts of a bicycle distribution program for adolescent girls in rural Zambia, implemented across 91 schools as part of a randomized controlled trial. While the program increased girls' self-reported empowerment and reduced experiences of domestic and intimate...

Specialization in labor-intensive export crops, such as organic cocoa, can exacerbate gender inequality if production and revenues fall under men's control and the additional labor burden falls on women. However, evidence on the implications for women's empowerment in value chains that combine...

This study investigates the determinants of women empowerment among refugee women living in Nairobi, Kenya. First, the study constructs an index to examine empowerment drivers using data from the Refugee and Host Household Survey (RHHS) 2021. A fractional logit regression model was employed in...

This study examines the effectiveness of a digital financial literacy intervention aimed at improving financial knowledge, confidence, and behaviour among rural women in Pakistan. Using a randomized controlled trial conducted in two selected villages in the Rawalpindi district, women were...

This research provides an up-to-date analysis of the latest data on gender equality, disability and social inclusion (GEDSI) in Chile, tracking key markers across political, economic, social and educational spheres. Drawing on a broad range of methodologies including a literature review, data...

This paper aims to explore the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on women's economic empowerment in Bangladesh. Based on the available literature, this paper develops a holistic framework for economic empowerment and measures how COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to changes in the framework. The study...

The objective of this study is to determine how perception of corruption affects the relationship between women's empowerment and gender inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa. To do this, it uses two estimators of the generalized method of moments on a sample of 45 countries between 2002 and 2021. It...

Domestic violence is a global phenomenon. We study the interplay of determinants of a woman's risk of facing intimate partner violence (IPV) for the case of India-using information from up to 235 thousand female survey respondents and exploiting state-level variation in institutions, law...

Public spending on gender equality and women's empowerment is rising rapidly in many countries. However, the unintended consequences of women's empowerment is rarely measured and remains poorly understood. We study the impact of female empowerment programs on male backlash through a series of...

Domestic violence against women is a pervasive public health problem in all countries regardless of cultural, economic, and political background. Yet, the prevalence of domestic violence is very high in Sub-Saharan Africa. In this paper, I examine the effect of women's employment on domestic...

This study assesses the dimensions and determinants of multidimensional women empowerment in Mali. It uses the Alkire Foster methodology and factor analysis to create different measures of multidimensional empowerment for 1691 consistent responses. Five indicators of empowerment are employed to...

Autocrats often control social organizations to disseminate their ideology. We examine the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile (1973-1990), where conservative military forces controlled female social organizations to promote traditional roles for women as mothers and housewives. Partnering with...

Discrimination against women in agricultural decision-making is a major threat to the empowerment of women in many developing countries where agriculture is not only the major source of livelihood, at times the only source of livelihood. It hampers their socio-economic status as well as the...