ABSTRACT
Over the last two decades, women’s economic empowerment (WEE) has become increasingly recognised as a key development outcome by governments and key policy and research institutes. The term ‘WEE’ is defined in many ways, but almost always encompasses female labour force participation as a variable to gauge its progress. Hence, WEE is viewed as both an end in itself and as a means to promote economic growth by adding human capital to the labour market. This chapter reviews research findings on the linkages between WEE and economic growth, with special attention paid to the portfolio of research projects funded by the Growth and Economic Opportunities for Women (GrOW) programme dealing with macroeconomic issues. Research outputs from the GrOW programme bring valuable insights to the topic of WEE by adding a large body of research and empirical evidence on the topic. This includes studies that examine the impact of economic growth and structural change on WEE, and those that investigate the impact of gender inequality on economic growth. In addition to investigating these linkages, the GrOW research portfolio includes studies on enabling factors that help directly link growth to WEE such as education, childcare, and financial inclusion, among others.
