Equality between men and women is more than a matter of social justice; it's a fundamental human right. It also makes good economic sense. When women have equal access to education and participate fully in business and economic decision-making, they are a key driving force against poverty. Women represent about 70 percent of the world’s poor, comprise two-thirds of the global illiterate population, are more likely to hold vulnerable jobs, and frequently earn lower wages than men. To be effective, any agenda aimed at promoting socioeconomic development should aim to promote gender equity.

As of 2017, PEP has supported 76 projects in 35 different countries that focus primarily on gender issues, including 27 projects in low-income economies or fragile/conflict situations. Many other PEP projects, although not concentrated on the gender aspect of an issue, also include analysis of gender dimensions.

PEP support includes training in cutting-edge methodologies for policy analysis and mentorship for policy outreach provided by international field experts.

The policy analysis methodologies allow researchers to investigate issues, such as gender disparities and women’s financial exclusion, at the household, community, and national levels.

As PEP researchers consult with policy actors at every stage of the research process, the studies explore priority issues for their country. PEP’s combination of scientific and policy outreach support works to link new and reliable knowledge to policy action.

The findings from several PEP projects focused on gender have already been taken up to inform policies in their targeted countries: 

• Female entrepreneurs facing barriers to credit access limits economic growth in Cameroon
   
• Improving female empowerment through microcredit schemes in Nigeria
   
• Find out more about PEP impact stories.
   

Some recent publications from PEP-supported research on gender-related issues:

• Does gender matter in adoption of sustainable agricultural technologies?
  A case of push-pull technology in Kenya
   
• Intra-household bargaining in rural India
   
• Female entrepreneurship, access to credit and firms' performance in Senegal
   
• Gender and ethnicity-related loan discrimination in Bolivia

Scroll down to find the full list of gender-focused PEP projects, lists of related publications and a list of PEP researchers involved in these projects. These lists are searchable.

A number of common trends emerged from the findings of these projects, summarized in the following articles:

• Female entrepreneurship hindered more by social and
  cultural contraints than access to finance
   
• Discrimination and low bargaining power:
  Sources of inequity forwomen in Asia
   
• The power of microcredit for women
   
• Teen girls choose education over childbearing
   
• Women at high risk of poverty in rural Africa
   
• Supporting female empowerment through business training

Women in PEP

Resources

In 2017, PEP organized a high-level Research Forum on integrating gender into economic policy analysis, gathering experts from around the world. Download the full report to find the key conclusions and recommendations, and the panelists' presentations are available on the conference webpage.

PEP also recommends the following publications from world-leading gender analysis expert James Heintz for researchers interested in Incorporating a Gender Perspective into Economic Research.