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Women’s Economic Empowerment

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Rwandan women peel pineapples at co-op

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.

Learn from our WEE programmes and practitioners

Become part of the WEE Knowledge Hub

Subscribe to the WEE Knowledge Hub Gender newsletter and connect directly with the work of our country teams working on women’s economic empowerment

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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