Empowering women and girls is not only the right thing to do: It’s also smart economics and vital to ending poverty and boosting shared prosperity—the World Bank Group’s twin corporate goals. For example, an extra year of secondary schooling for girls can increase their future wages by 10 to 20%. And evidence shows that resources in the hands of women boost household spending in areas that benefit children. But despite a range of significant advances, too many women still lack basic freedoms and opportunities and face huge inequalities in the world of work. Discriminatory laws and customs constrain their time and choices, as well as their ability to own or inherit property, open bank accounts, or access inputs such as credit or fertilizer that would boost their productivity. The World Bank Group has made strong commitments on gender, highlighting in particular the need for better data. We have, further, mainstreamed gender throughout our work: All World Bank Group country strategies prepared in the 2014 fiscal year drew on gender assessments, while 95% of approved lending operations integrated gender in at least one dimension—analysis, action, and/or monitoring and evaluation. Gender equality is also a key priority for IDA, the World Bank’s fund for the poorest, which enabled more than 194 million pregnant women to receive prenatal care from a health provider between 2003 and 2013, among other results.
Equality Means Business
More than 959 business leaders around the world have demonstrated leadership on gender equality through the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs).
Learn more about the business case to promote gender equality and how you can use the WEPs to empower women in the workplace, marketplace and community. Learn More | Join Now
Latest News
Share the 10-point WEPs Stakeholders’ Statement for Partnering for Women's Empowerment!
The Statement outlines how business, the UN and Governments can scale up engagement to deliver for women and the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more.
Hon. Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered keynote remarks at 2015 WEPs Event.
Secretary Clinton reflected on progress made in implementing the agenda set in Beijing two decades ago and outlined an agenda to accelerate the full participation of women and girls around the world. Watch the speech and all other event videos.
Stock Exchanges Around the World Ring the Bell for Gender Equality!
Stock exchanges around the world joined UN Global Compact, UN Women and the Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative to ring the bell in support of gender equality and the WEPs. Learn more.
The Principles
Establish high-level corporate leadership for gender equality
- Treat all women and men fairly at work - respect and support human rights and nondiscrimination
- Ensure the health, safety and well-being of all women and men workers
- Promote education, training and professional development for women
- Implement enterprise development, supply chain and marketing practices that empower women
- Promote equality through community initiatives and advocacy
- Measure and publicly report on progress to achieve gender equality
Q: How can women's empowerment promote economic stability?
A: Putting resources into poor women’s hands while promoting gender equality in the household and in society results in large development payoffs. Expanding women’s opportunities in public works, agriculture, finance, and other sectors accelerates economic growth, helping to mitigate the effects of current and future financial crises.
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