THE BUSINESS CASE FOR WOMEN’S

ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT: GENDER

INEQUALITY

AHDA SABILA BINTI EDDY YUSUF

NADEERA AMIRA BINTI MAWARDY
SOE THADAR PHYU
KHIN PHYU PHYU SIN
LADY FEL PRIETO VILLACAMPA
Objectives of study
❖ To understand about the literature (or preceding studies) on women’s
economic empowerment
❖ To acknowledge the importance of women’s economic empowerment

❖ To identify the business reasons for women’s economic empowerment

❖ To identify issues related to economic gender gaps
❖ To gather information on current programmes across the world to enhance
women’s economic empowerment
Study Design: Systematic literature review

From year We look for the terms:

2010
‘WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT’

‘ECONOMIC GENDER GAP’

‘PAY GAP’

‘WOMEN AND EDUCATION

To 2017 ‘WOMEN AND BUSINESS’

‘EMPOWERING WOMEN PROGRAMMES’

 Content
I. Introduction: Women’s Economic Empowerment
● Why does women’s economic empowerment matters?
● Business reasons of empowering women
II. Issues on economic gender gap
● Pay gap
● Women on board
● Education
II. Women’s empowerment programme across the globe
● UN Women: Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs)
● EU: Transforming the lives of GIRLS and WOMEN
● Women’s Business Council of the Philippines
● Business for Social Responsibility
Introduction: Women’s Economic
Empowerment
“To participate in, contribute to and benefit from growth process in ways that the value of their
contributions is recognized, respect their dignity and to negotiate a fairer distribution of the benefits of
growth”

(Kabeer, Eyben, & Cornwall, 2008)

● Women’s economic empowerment allow women to have access to economic opportunities, and
control over economic inputs such as land and financial resources
● Achieving a greater and freedom ability to choose their own action to influence society
● 2 essential elements - agency and wellbeing
Why does women’s economic empowerment
matters?
- More than 40% of global labour force are represented by women; Women run majority of small and
medium sized firms
- However, majority are working in low-paying and low-productivity jobs (World Bank 239) lead to
gender pay gaps which persist even in developing country (OECD, 2012)
- As entrepreneurs, women tend to earn lower sales than men (World Bank 201)

Saudi Arabia Ghana

GDP: $16,423 (2010) GDP: $1,319 (2010)
Global gender gap rank: 131 out of Global gender gap rank: 70 out of
135 135

China India Bangladesh

Global gender gap rank: 61 out of Global gender gap rank: 113 out of Global gender gap rank: 69 out of
135 135 135
 - Women face gender-based job restrictions in 100 economies around the world; 18 economies husbands are
allowed, legally, to restrict their wives from working (International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development, 2015)
- Globally, women earn 24% less than men (UN women, 2015)
- When women are given the same standard of productive inputs, women are proven to be as productive as
men;
➔ Agricultural output increase from 2.5 % to 4%
➔ Improvement in productivity gap from ⅓ to ½
➔ Output per worker increase up to 25%

(World Bank, 204; World Bank, 237; World Bank 5)

- Country study was done from Mexico, South Africa, to United Kingdom show that women are likely to spend
their incomes on goods and services for their children such as food and health care
- Improvement in women’s education lead to improvements in educational attainment among children
 Women perform 66% of the world’s work,
produce 50% of food, yet only earn 10% of
income and own 1% of the property.
Regardless of the issues, empowering
women is a critical part of the equation

US former president, Bill Clinton, 2009

Business Reasons of Empowering Women

1. More inclusive growth, more productive societies

- Studies have shown that gender gaps in education and employment may hinder economic growth
- According to a study by Goldman Sachs, closing gender gaps could boost per capita income up to 14% by
2020 and rise by 20% or more in 2030.
- Economically empowered women are tend to grow broader societal progress; improve their status and
decision-making ability; more likely to invest more of their income for families’ health and children’s
education.

2. Enlarged talent pool

- Women constitute an overlooked source of talent at all levels of workforce.
- Employ women in a company therefore could be a sizeable competitive advantage; especially when half
of the region’s graduates are women.
3. Better corporate performance
- A study by McKinsey (2007) found that companies with a higher women representation in
management positions demonstrated better performance in organization and financial aspects cush
as return on equity (ROE) and stock performance.
- Another study done by the McKinsey (2008), women are more-likely to practice critical leadership
skills which lead to advance organisational performance.

4. New and expanded markets

- Women prone to have a better control over their income and spend more on themselves, families
and their own business.
- Equipping women with entrepreneurships skills assist them to expand their business.
- A study by McKinsey (2012) shown that 58% of executives indicated that producing new markets or
expanding existing markets could be great investments in women which yield high profits.
5. Enhanced reputation and brand

- A company’s corporate practices focus on women, either its employees or its communities, may
enhance its reputation and brand.
- McKinsey (2009) reported that 59% of respondents were saying that enhanced reputation and
stronger brand as one of the most important ways that women’s empowerment projects will benefit
their companies

(CSR Asia, 2015)

ISSUES ON ECONOMIC GENDER
GAP
I. Gender Pay Gap(GPG)
Pay Gap

Adjusted pay gap Unadjusted pay gap

(working hours ,occupations chosen, (Victim women)

education,job experience,qualifications)
Gender Pay Gaps(GPGs)
Canada
-Men make $14,296 a year more than
women

U.K
-Men employee earned 9.1% more than
women employee

China
-In 2013,women earned 40.7% less than
men

U.S
In 2015,women earned 83% of what men
earned
Current issues of women in the workplace

➔ Women still take on the majority of care

duties
➔ Women are still more likely to be in low
skilled jobs
➔ Women continue to be underrepresented
in senior management and leadership
roles
➔ Fewer women work in high paid
sectors.(Engineering,IT,Technology)
Factors causing GPG

Women can’t spend much time in their work because

of their duties at home.

On the other hand,men don’t need to worry about

houseworking and they can give their full time to their
jobs.

The higher position jobs are tend to hire the workers

who have full time in their job.

Widest gender pay gap are in the high paid jobs like
business, Law and engineering which need much more
working hours
Factors causing gender pay gap

Women’s work inversely propotional to the largest GPG job

Factors causing GPG

Mostly women’s work are paid less jobs and caring positions

Society sees that women are less willing and having less ability
to negotiate salaries

They don’t want to take a risk far from what the other sees them
and don’t apply to the higher position jobs
 How can reduce the GPG

Parents Government

Student Individual GPG

Teachers Friends women Employer
How can reduce GPG
● The governments should awareness about the gender pay gap and work with business and public
service leaders to generate more urgency around closing the gap.
● There are many organizations such as workplace gender equality agency(WGEA) and UN women
which are trying to help women from gender discriminations.
● If the government organization and these organization cooperates to reduce GPG,it will be more
effective.
● The company should allow the parental leave to both men and women.
How can reduce the GPG?

The important person for reducing GPG is the

women themselves.

Women have to aside from what the society sees

them and do what they want even they need to use
strengths .

They need to be strong enough to embrace with th

men in the workplace
WOMEN AND EDUCATION
➔ Women have lesser opportunities to get quality education

➔ About two-thirds of the estimated 776 million adults who are

illiterate are women

➔ 131 million girls are out of school

➔ In developing countries, nearly 1 out of 5 girls who enrolls

in primary school does not complete her primary education

➔ Girls are 1.5 times more likely than boys to be excluded

from primary school

Sources: Global Partnership for Education,

World Bank Group, GEM Report
Sub-Saharan Africa 24 ‡
(2015)
Oceania
15 ‡ (2013)
Western Asia 13 ‡
(2015)
Southern Asia 7‡
(2015)
South-eastern Asia 6
(2015)
Caucasus and Central Asia 4
(2015)
Latin America & the Caribbean 4
(2015)
Eastern Asia 3‡
(2015)
WOMEN AND EDUCATION
➔ Women’s Learning Partnership (WLP):
for every year beyond fourth grade that girls attend school,
wages rise 20%, child deaths drop 10% and family size
drops 20%

➔ One additional school year can increase a woman's

earnings by 10% to 20%

➔ Some countries lose more than US$1 billion a year by

failing to educate girls to the same level as boys

Sources: UNESCO, UN Women, World Bank

WOMEN AND EDUCATION
● In business sections or employment:
Less educational background means lesser opportunities for
learning

● Women’s education focus on vocational classes and trainings

● Make up about 43% of the agricultural labour force. They could

increase yields on their farms by 20% to 30% and reduce the
number of hungry people in the world by around 12% to 17%.

● Almost 70% of employed women in South Asia work in

agriculture, as do more than 60% of employed women in sub-
Saharan Africa.

Sources: UNESCO, UN Women, World Bank

WOMEN AND EDUCATION
➔ 75 million children aged 3 to 18 live in countries facing
war and violence and need educational support.

➔ 21.5 million children, 15 million adolescents, and 26

million youth that are out-of-school worldwide live in 32
countries affected by conflict (2014).

➔ Girls are almost two and a half more likely to be out of

school if they live in conflict-affected countries, and young
women are nearly 90% more likely to be out of secondary
school than their counterparts in countries not affected by
conflict.

Sources: UNESCO, UN Women, World Bank,

GEM Report
WOMEN AND EDUCATION
FINDINGS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND ACTIONS

➔ For out-of-school girls, the government should provide an act or law

that would force parents to send their children to school. They can
also give scholarships for financial support
➔ For women on the agricultural labour force, they should be given
protection against employers who give difficult and dangerous
working conditions and offers very low salaries. Proper work
introduction and trainings should also be offered
➔ For women living in natural disasters-, war- and conflict-affected
countries, they should be given enough protection against abuse
and violence. Governments and organizations should offer free
education to give them wider knowledge that can help end their
suffering.
 July 12, 1997
● Mingora, Pakistan to Ziauddin and Toor Pekai Yousafzai
● Welcoming a baby girl is not always cause for celebration in
Pakistan — but Ziauddin is determined to give equality.
● Malala shares Ziauddin’s love of learning

January 2007 - January 2009

● Taliban militants take control of Swat.
● Taliban issues an edict banning girls from going to school.
”Gul Makai” begins blogging for the BBC about life under
the Taliban

May - October 2009

● The Pakistani army moves in to Swat Valley;
● Residents flee
● The New York Times features Malala and Ziauddin in a short
documentary
Malala Yousafzai
November 2011
● Ziauddin’s school is able to reopen Malala Yousafzai
● Won Pakistan’s first National Youth Peace Prize.

October 9, 2012
● The Taliban target Malala
● Malala survives, but remains in critical condition

July 12, 2013

● Malala speaks at the United Nations on her 16th birthday
● U.N. declares July 12th “Malala Day”
● World’s most vulnerable girls’ spotlight

October 2013
● Malala and Ziauddin set up Malala Fund

December 2014
● Malala and Kailash Satyarthi win the Nobel Peace Prize
● Malala becomes the youngest-ever Nobel Laureate.

October 2, 2015
● HE NAMED ME MALALA
Women on Board

● Gender equality on board is the popular topic around the world.

● Although half of the women are graduated from colleges and perform very well in their education, they
don’t get higher position easily.
● Women don’t get equal opportunities with men in the workplace
● Many organizations focused on the topic of barriers for women’s career development.
Women on Board

➔ According to LeanIn.Org and McKinsey organization survey, women are underrepresented at US

Corporation from entry level to C-suite.
➔ Women experience an uneven playing field and get less access to senior leaders.
➔ On average, women are promoted and hired at lower rates than men, so far fewer women become
senior leaders.
Women on Board
Women on Board

➔ Nowadays, women at the workplace are active, smart and intelligent.

➔ However, women still face barriers in their attempt to the top.
➔ The barriers are:
◆ A prototype of a leader is a masculine man.
◆ Many standard organizational practices reflect men’s lives and situations.
◆ Women are expected to take up more family responsibilities than men.
Women on Board

● According to Asian Development Bank, 12.4% of women are at the BOD level in 20 Asia-Pacific
countries compared to Western countries where 30% of women at the BOD level.
● The representation of women at the BOD in Asia-Pacific countries is much lower than women role in
Western countries.
Women on Board
Women on Board

● Norway handles gender quotas (to increase the proportion of female candidates in various
professional fields) for public. Female representation in Norway has gradually grown, is followed by
other western countries.
● Among Asia-Pacific countries, Australia has the highest women representation on board. Australia
proposed mandatory quotas like western countries to have gender diversity in the workplace.
Although there is still need to improve for equal diversity, Australia is the one that change prominently.
Women on Board

● Although other Asia-Pacific countries adopted quotas, the processing is too slow because of cultural
biases.
● Women are employed in family business like taking care of children and husband all the time.
● As there is lack of educational opportunity in some countries, it is difficult to get high positions in the
workplace.
SUGGESTIONS TO OVERCOME THE
ISSUE
● Women should be on board because women have creative idea, understand what the female
customer’s wants and they can work specifically.
● Husband should help their wife with housework.
● Men should corporate with women and negotiate with women in their workplace.
● People should change their conservative idea.
 ● COO of Facebook
● Founder of leanin.org
● In June 2012, she was elected to the board of directors by the existing
board members, becoming the first woman to serve on Facebook’s board.
● Board Member of The Walt Disney Company, Women for Women
International, Center for Global Development and so on.
● In 2012, she was named in Time 100.

Sheryl Sandberg

“ A truly equal world would be one where women ran half our countries and companies
and men ran half our homes. “
 Women’s Economic
Empowerment Agenda
I. UN Women: Women’s Empowerment
Principles(WEPs)
- Launched in 9 March 2010 by UN Women and UN Global Compact Office
mainly for enterprises based upon the Global Compact adopted in 1999.
- Set as practical guidance to empower women mainly at workplace,
marketplaces, and communities.
- WEPs is a useful tools to assist the governments in engaging business in
order to establish gender equality .
- There are 39 lead signers of the CEO Statement of Support for this
programme, including;
➔ Yves Saint Laurent, Global
➔ Novartis International AG, Switzerland
➔ Aitken Apence PLC, Sri Lanka
➔ Avon Products, Inc., Global
- In 2015, there are CEOs from more than 1074 companies signed up for the WEPs. From the latest signings, China has the
largest number of signatories from Asia-Pacific region with 16 companies. The first Chinese company to sign is PROYA
Cosmetics Co. Ltd. (UN Women, 2015).
- Up until today, over 1450 companies signed onto WEPs from across the globe;
7 Women’s Empowerment Principles
●Principle 1: Establish high-level corporate
leadership for gender equality
●Principle 2: Treat all women and men fairly at
work – respect and support human rights and
nondiscrimination
●Principle 3: Ensure the health, safety and well-
being of all women and men workers
●Principle 4: Promote education, training and
professional development for women
●Principle 5: Implement enterprise development,
supply chain and marketing practices that empower
women
●Principle 6: Promote equality through community
initiatives and advocacy
●Principle 7: Measure and publicly report on progress
to achieve gender equality
Coca-Cola’s 5by20 initiative: Empowering
Women Entrepreneurs across the Value Chain
- One of the program of Coca-cola company to support women’s empowerment y UN women
- Aim: Enabling economic empowerment of 5 million women entrepreneurs across its value chain by 2020.
- Coca-cola company is trying to overcome common economic barriers due to lack of business skills,
financial supports, peer networking and mentoring.
- Coca-Cola company began to work 5by20 since 2010 in Brazil, South Africa, India and Philippines
- Since then, 300,000 women have participated from 12 countries (e.g. Brazil, China, Egypt Philippines,
Thailand, South Africa, Mexico) (Jenkins, Valikai, & Baptista, 2013)
- By the end of 2013, coca-cola successfully reached 550,000 women in 44 countries
- Involving “Golden Triangle” principle - partnership and collaboration between business, government and
civil society to deliver the most impact, innovative and the most effective programme
(Jenkins, B., Valikai, K., & Baptista, P., 2013)

Producers
Project Nurture in Kenya
and Uganda, aims to bring
more than 50,000
smallholder mango and
passion fruit farmers into
coca-cola value chain
01
Distributors
Distribution Center Model in
Tanzania, aims to build 170
independent, small scale
distributors to distribute
product to small scale retail.
Artisans
Colectivo Artes in Brazil, aims
to build self-esteem and
capacity for 100 cooperatives
of artisans and increase their
05 sales and income
Recycles
04
Value Chain
Colectivo Recycling in Brazil,
Stage
aims to build self-esteem
capacity of 500 cooperatives
of waste pickers to increase
their sales and income
02 03
Retails
The STAR program in Philippines,
aims to empower 100,000 women
small-scale retailers to help them
grow their business
(Jenkins, B., Valikai, K., & Baptista, P., 2013)
The STAR Programme in the Philippines
- Improve management business skills of 200,000 women
Objectives - Increase access to financing
- Increase access to coca-cola products and merchandising

Business Increase sales by developing long term relationship with new

case and existing coca-cola retailers

Coca-cola Philippines (CCP), local bottling partner

Partnership (FEMSA), and the Technical Education and Skills
Development Authority (TESDA) of the Philippines

- 30,000 women were trained to date

Outputs - Sari-sari store training programme targeting
200,000 women by 2020
- Sari-sari store training and access to resources - can be found on almost street which represent a major point of
sale for coca-cola products, called as sari-sari store
- Aim to equipped women owners of small neighbourhood stores with better business skills and access to financing,
merchandising, and peer mentoring.
- Over 20 NGOs, Microfinance institutions (MIs) and local government entities participate in this programme.
- TESDA have a good network connection with local NGOs and Microfinance institutions (MIFs) to ensure the
programme achieve its target by reaching 200,000 own women sari-sari stores.
- According to Atty. Adel A. Tamano, Coca-cola vice president for public affair and communications, on May 2017,
coca-cola gathered over 1,000 women entrepreneurs in Danao city, Cebu for STAR program recruitment. The
training will be done every saturday or sunday of the week, depending on the participants schedule, for 12 weeks.
Women who join will get connected with Coca-cola bottling partners, take advantage of promo and discounts, and
get access to microfinance programs.
- Now, there are 390 accredited facilitators to train women retailers in over 47 locations throughout Philippines
(Limpag, 2017).
“From earning P2,500 to P3,000 daily ($50 to 60$), after
implementing what i learned from the program, my store now earns
an average of P5,000 daily (more than $100)”.

Testimony from Carmencita Aspira who runs a sari-sari store to

cover her family’s expenses including children’s allowances and
college tuitions (“Coca-Cola 5by20 STAR Program Impacting
Businesses and Lives of Women Entrepreneurs in the Philippines,”
2016)
Project Nurture in Kenya and Uganda

Involving The Coca-Cola Company, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Overview and TechnoServe to help more than 50,000 small-scale mango and passion
fruit farmers in Kenya and Uganda to double their fruit by 2014.

TechnoServe provide trainings in agronomy best practices to help

farmers improve their productivity. Their advisors will work with farmers
Strategy to improve business skills and strengthen farmer business groups in
order to access inputs and finance, sell fruits collectively and improve
bargaining ability.

- In 2015, TechnoServe recruited nearly 54,000 farmers in

Results Kenya and Uganda who were successfully organized

into 1,100 business groups and sole more than 132,000
tons of fruit
 - Trained more than 70 community extension service
Results providers and 48,500 farmers in agronomic practices
- The project increased producer income up to 142 percent

(OECD, 2012)
II. EU: Transforming the lives of GIRLS and
WOMEN
There is a focus on thematic
pillars for the first time. This
means that four pivotal areas
have been identified which could
transform the lives of women
and girls if action is taken
The EU wants a world where the rights of girls and women are claimed, valued and respected by all, and where
everyone is able to fulfil their potential and contribute to a more fair and just society.

The EU is therefore fully committed to break the vicious cycle of gender discrimination by supporting partner countries
to establish a more enabling environment for the fulfilment of girls' and women's rights and to achieve real and
tangible improvements in gender equality.

The EU wants to assist partners in effectively using this significant transformative potential.
III. Women’s Business Council of the Philippines
Action Plan
● WomenBizPH seeks to support women’s empowerment both within the Philippines and globally.
● Participates in several international dialogues and educational missions.
● WomenBizPH has partnered with the Asian Institute of Management, the UNDP and the UN Office of Project Services, to
provide research on women in business in Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.
● WomenBizPH has also worked with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to develop programs that support
women entrepreneurs.
● WomenBizPH co-organized the ASEAN Women’s Business Conference and related events as part of ASEAN’s 50th
anniversary in 2017, which was hosted by the Philippines.
 Future actions

Following an ASEAN meeting hosted by the

Philippines in 2017, the Philippine Women’s Economic
Network (PhilWEN) was created. PhilWEN, which will
be permanently chaired by WomenBizPH.

Facts about Women’s Business Council of the Philippines;

● The Philippines is ranked 7th out of 145 economies in the Global Gender Gap Index, and is the highest-
ranked within the Asia-Pacific region.
● More than 37% of senior management and board positions are held by women.
● The creation of PhilWEN (see above ‘Future actions’) was a significant recent accomplishment.
● On March 30th, 2017, WomenBizPH members were honored at the 2017 Go Negosyo Inspiring Filipina
Entrepreneurs Awards. These awards are offered to Filipina entrepreneurs who are catalysts for change and
progress in the Filipino economy.
IV. Business for Social
Responsibility

rbus Social Responsibility

Action Plan

» Act: Taking action within a company’s direct control is an essential starting point for promoting women’s
empowerment.

» Enable: Investing and partnering to enable NGOs, community organizations, and business partners to
promote women’s empowerment along the value chain is another component of effective business action.

» Influence: Engaging in research, advocacy, and communications campaigns to build an environment that
promotes gender equality and opportunities for women is the third component of effective women’s
empowerment approaches.
References
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http://www.csr-asia.com/publications.php
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