Challenging the norm – global stories of women’s economic empowerment

This report highlights the work of women’s rights organisations and feminist networks to increase economic gender equality and empower women economically in conflict-affected contexts. Many of the human rights that women are denied are economic rights. These include labour rights, house, land and property rights, the right to inherit, to register a company, to open a bank account and to apply for credit on the same terms as men. Globally, only 15% of farmland is owned by women, and in developing countries 92 % of the women workers are in the informal sector. To name two examples.

In this publication you can follow five stories of how women’s rights organisations work to overcome the economic inequalities in their own way. Some of the key lessons learnt are:

the crucial role women’s rights organisation play in promoting economic gender equality;
that women’s economic empowerment is rarely achieved in isolation, it is closely linked to other processes, such as preventing gender-based violence, increasing women’s decision-making power in the household, strengthening their inheritance, land ownership and property rights, etc;
how advocacy is necessary to draw attention to economic gender inequality, improve labour rights legislation, strengthen services and make budgeting more gender-sensitive.

Download the report in English (pdf)