When we set out to develop our strategy, we started with a single question:
How do countries tend to progress towards women’s economic empowerment?
We define women’s economic empowerment (WEE) as the transformative process that helps women and girls move from limited power, voice, and choice at home and in the economy to having the skills, resources, and opportunities needed to compete equitably in markets as well as the agency to control and benefit from economic gains.
The approach outlined below is not an exhaustive representation of our research or the work that led to our strategy but rather a window into how we arrived at our perspective on what’s needed to increase women’s economic empowerment throughout the world.
- Access to income and assets: When women have a source of income, they are on the path to becoming a healthy, empowered economic actor.
- Control of and benefit from economic gains: Women who are able to decide where, when, and how to spend their income see improvements in their social and economic status and the level of resources devoted to their children.
- Power to make decisions: Decision-making is a core expression of agency and refers to the capacity of women and girls to take purposeful action and pursue goals free from the threat of violence or retribution.
There is evidence of strong positive links between women’s economic empowerment and foundational health outcomes for women and their families, including beneficial effects on nutrition, family planning, maternal mortality, and child mortality.
While more research is needed, a growing body of evidence indicates that increasing the share of household income controlled by women may produce other benefits as well, including greater investment in children’s education, delayed marriage, and reductions in gender-based violence.
Utilizing McKinsey Global Institute Power of Parity data, we regressed key gender equality elements against indicators of women’s economic empowerment using data from the 95 largest countries by GDP, which represents 93 percent of the world’s population of women. Expert interviews, a literature review, and country case studies supplemented this analysis and helped us better understand the importance of and interplay across the elements. From this research, 13 elements emerged as having strong links to WEE.
- Literature review: Our source material included case studies, natural experiments, controlled trials, correlation analyses, and evaluations of interventions funded by NGOs and governments.
- Identification of WEE outcomes and element linkages: We used information from our literature review to explore each element’s effect on WEE outcomes and connections to other elements. We included only those outcomes with clear, methodologically sound evidence of potential effect and prioritized element linkages with the strongest connections.
This additional research surfaced seven elements (boldfaced at left) based on the strength of evidence and strength of effect on WEE outcomes, based on available evidence.
- Access to income and assets: When women have a source of income, they are on the path to becoming a healthy, empowered economic actor.
- Control of and benefit from economic gains: Women who are able to decide where, when, and how to spend their income see improvements in their social and economic status and the level of resources devoted to their children.
- Power to make decisions: Decision-making is a core expression of agency and refers to the capacity of women and girls to take purposeful action and pursue goals free from the threat of violence or retribution.
There is evidence of strong positive links between women’s economic empowerment and foundational health outcomes for women and their families, including beneficial effects on nutrition, family planning, maternal mortality, and child mortality.
While more research is needed, a growing body of evidence indicates that increasing the share of household income controlled by women may produce other benefits as well, including greater investment in children’s education, delayed marriage, and reductions in gender-based violence.
Utilizing McKinsey Global Institute Power of Parity data, we regressed key gender equality elements against indicators of women’s economic empowerment using data from the 95 largest countries by GDP, which represents 93 percent of the world’s population of women. Expert interviews, a literature review, and country case studies supplemented this analysis and helped us better understand the importance of and interplay across the elements. From this research, 13 elements emerged as having strong links to WEE.
- Literature review: Our source material included case studies, natural experiments, controlled trials, correlation analyses, and evaluations of interventions funded by NGOs and governments.
- Identification of WEE outcomes and element linkages: We used information from our literature review to explore each element’s effect on WEE outcomes and connections to other elements. We included only those outcomes with clear, methodologically sound evidence of potential effect and prioritized element linkages with the strongest connections.
This additional research surfaced seven elements (boldfaced at left) based on the strength of evidence and strength of effect on WEE outcomes, based on available evidence.