Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) Measurement in Financial Inclusion

Evidence suggests that women who use financial services have increased opportunities to earn income and exercise agency by accessing jobs, starting businesses, and gaining intra-household bargaining power. While financial inclusion experts and agents have begun to apply women’s economic empowerment (WEE) measures to understand the broader impact of greater financial inclusion for women, standards to define and measure WEE do not yet exist. To help fill this gap, the Center for Global Development, Data2X, and FinEquity offer a set of indicators to promote a simplified and harmonized approach to measure WEE in the context of financial inclusion programs and initiatives. This policy note aims to support stakeholders in understanding the outcomes of increased financial inclusion for women and how to achieve them, and to better identify what works and what does not in promoting WEE through greater financial inclusion.

Read the full policy note here.