The terminology describing economic programs for women has shifted over the last decade.
With this shift, actions to ‘empower women economically’ have replaced efforts to ‘increase women’s economic participation and income.’
The new terminology enriches but also complicates the task of designing interventions and measuring outcomes. As a result, until recently, most project and measurement work around women’s economic empowerment overlooked the ‘empowerment’ dimension.
This report gives an overview of measuring women’s economic empowerment by:
- Exploring the theory of empowerment and agency
- Outlining current methods for measuring women’s economic empowerment
- Highlighting the role of ‘smart design’ in fostering subjective empowerment
- Mapping ways forward.