Online Discussion – Empowering Women in Market Systems: Why Quality Jobs Matter

From Empower Women:
“Decent work is central to inclusive and pro-poor development strategies, empowering individuals, communities and nations. For women, specifically, access to good quality, paid work is one of the most important factors to their economic empowerment. It plays a critical role in enabling women to be financially autonomous and exercise greater agency in their lives. In turn, this can shift the distribution of resources and power dynamics within the household, as well as expanding economic opportunities outside the home.

Most market systems projects tend to focus on supporting self-employed poor women and men. Yet most women are wage workers or are employed by someone other than themselves for their main source of income. Market systems projects that do address employment tend to focus on job creation or skills development, and do not necessarily seek to improve the job quality. Specifically, women tend to be overrepresented in low-pay, low-productivity work with little security or protection. They also experience higher incidence of sexual harassment and exploitation. Moreover, the poorest women in many market systems, and agriculture in particular, are not formally employed, but contribute to enterprises as unpaid household or community workers.”

Get involved in the discussion, open from 27th May to 18th June.