Women’s Economic Empowerment

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At a glance

Seeking to change economic models so that women’s paid and unpaid work is valued and their rights and voices are stronger

Women’s economic empowerment (WEE) is critical to women’s ability to move out and stay out of poverty. It is fundamental to women’s ability to enjoy all other human rights and is directly linked to gender justice, racial justice and transformation of economic systems.

Women’s unpaid and paid work is undervalued. We work to influence governments and private sector to shift these social norms and policies. Women are stuck in precarious jobs, with limited access to decent work. We work towards women gaining more power in markets and more agency from their employers. And finally, we work towards a caring economy where heavy and uneven care work is not the norm and we better value all of women’s work.

Our programmes work with carers, producers, collectives, entrepreneurs, community leaders and suppliers, focusing on:

inclusive markets
enterprise development
financial inclusion
fiscal inequality
unpaid care
decent work

Find out more about some of our programmes that focus on WEE.

Indonesian young women rally for International Youth Day

Indonesian young women activists participate in #IWasThere Campaign for International Youth Day 2019 as part of Empower Youth for Work Programme

Husband helps wife with laundry work in The Philippines

Romulo Samson (husband) & Pastora Samson, (wife) walk back home from a local river where they did laundry together in the fishing community of Barangays Santo Nino, Quinapondan, Eastern Samar, Philippines. Romulo did Oxfam’s Rapid Care Assessment and helps his wife Pastora with housework when he’s not fishing.

An Ethiopian businesswoman shows her honey that is locally made as part of the Enterprise Development Programme, near Bahir Dar, Amhara Region

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Guidelines and toolkits

Oxfam’s Conceptual Framework on Women’s Economic Empowerment

23/05/2017

3 documents

52 pages long

Languages: English, French, Spanish

Keywords

Overview

Effective economic empowerment for women occurs when women enjoy their rights to control and benefit from: resources assets income their own time the ability to manage risk improve their economic status and wellbeing. However, for this to become real, women must also have the autonomy and self-belief to make changes in their own lives, including […]

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Research report

Caring in a changing climate: Centering care work in climate action

23/02/2022

1 documents

129 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

The global care crisis is being exacerbated by the global climate emergency, with interlocking impacts that threaten lives and livelihoods in all parts of the world. These impacts are particularly severe among rural livelihoods in low-income countries. Climate change intensifies the work involved in caring for people, animals, plants, and places. It reduces the availability […]

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Research report

Tackling Gender Inequality in the Cocoa Supply Chain: Are big chocolate companies delivering on their global commitments in Ghana?

11/02/2022

1 documents

50 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

In 2013, leading chocolate companies Mars, Mondelēz, and Nestlé made global commitments to reduce gender inequalities across their cocoa supply chain. This report follows up on these commitments and presents findings on the gender equality programs Mars, Mondelēz, and Nestlé – and their agribusiness suppliers – are implementing in the cocoa supply chain of Ghana, […]

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Research report

Gender-Responsive Budgeting in Agriculture in Ethiopia

29/12/2021

1 documents

65 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

The gender division of labor in Ethiopia hinders women smallholders’ efforts to improve productivity to close the gap with men’s farms. There is substantial evidence that where women have access to the same inputs and training as men, they can close that gap. The government’s national development plan identifies agriculture as the main driver of […]

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Research report

Gender-responsive Budgeting in Tanzania

29/12/2021

1 documents

51 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

The Constitution and laws of the United Republic of Tanzania require the use of gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) to promote gender-balanced and integrated national economic plans. It is at the village level where community budget needs are identified, though women’s needs are often marginalized. Although women are best at articulating their needs, their voices are seldom […]

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Research report

Social Norms Structuring Masculinities, Gender Roles, and Stereotypes: Iraqi men and boys’ common misconceptions about women and girls’ participation and empowerment

31/08/2021

1 documents

53 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

The limited participation of Iraqi women in community decision-making in Kirkuk and Diyala is the result of various intertwined factors. This study explores emerging opportunities for social transformation in the context of sedimented layers of male privilege and the questioning of restrictive gender norms in the two governorates. With this report, Oxfam and its partners […]

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Research report

Risk Factors for Gender-based Violence: The Case of Indian Agriculture

08/10/2021

1 documents

53 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

The study documents the incidence of domestic and workplace violence among Indian female agricultural workers, and the factors that put these women at risk of violence. Multiple years of nationally representative domestic violence data are analyzed, focusing on agricultural laborers. This analysis is supplemented by a literature review on working conditions for female tea plantation […]

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Guidelines and toolkits

Social Norms Diagnostic Tool: Young Women’s Economic Justice

20/12/2021

1 documents

35 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

The tool’s methodology is rooted in a feminist and youth-led participatory action research approach to diagnosing social norms. It uses participatory and transformative methods to engage young people and other community members not just as research participants, but as agents of change identifying solutions to arising issues. The exercises recognize and examine unequal power inequalities […]

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Guidelines and toolkits

Care Principles and Care-Responsiveness Barometer: Guidelines and toolkit for international financial institutions (IFIs)

06/12/2021

2 documents

84 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

The architecture of development finance lacks a care perspective despite strong commitments to gender equality goals. The Care Principles and Care-Responsiveness Barometer have been developed as guiding tools for international financial institutions (IFIs) to promote, measure and improve the care-responsiveness of all their operations.

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Case study

Towards a Gender-Sensitive Private Sector in the OPT

14/04/2021

1 documents

19 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

This learning paper describes Oxfam's experience of conducting a Participatory Gender Audit with private sector companies in the agriculture sector in the OPT. It highlights issues such as women’s limited access to the labor market, their weak representation both as staff and as decision makers, the absence of gender-sensitive working conditions and policies, and a lack of […]

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Photo captions and credit

Pineapples are peeled at the Tuzamurane pineapple cooperative processing plant in Eastern Rwanda, Kirehe District. Aurelie Marrier d’Unienville / Oxfam

Women’s Economic Empowerment

At a glance

Become part of the WEE Knowledge Hub

Learn from Oxfam Practitioners

Related resources

Photo captions and credit