Gender equality depends on women having power, not just “empowerment”

Economic progress for women is stalling worldwide—and COVID-19 is not the only reason why.

This is an excerpt from the 2022 Goalkeepers Report. Read the full report here .

The truth is, we were never on track to reach SDG (Sustainable Development Goal) 5—global gender equality—by 2030. Development experts knew this before they even finalized the goals. But today, halfway to our deadline, progress remains slow, even stalling. Our data partner Equal Measures 2030 now estimates the world won’t reach gender equality until at least 2108—three generations later than we’d hoped.

Of course, metrics like “years to gender equality” are imprecise numbers, but they’re based on hard, undeniable data about things like health outcomes and economic participation, political representation, and secondary education. And today, that data is screaming one thing: Gender equality is falling further and further out of reach.

Why? One explanation is that big, global shocks like the pandemic disproportionately destroyed women’s livelihoods.

But frankly, blaming COVID-19 alone would be a cop-out. We have to ask harder questions: Why do gender-neutral events like pandemics have gendered effects? And why, after decades of high-profile efforts to improve the lives of women and girls, is equality still generations out of reach?

Here’s the honest answer: It’s because the world still hasn’t focused enough on gender equality—and when it does, it treats symptoms, not the cause.

If you dig beneath the “years to gender equality” metric, you’ll see that economic inequality is one of those root causes. The World Bank reported that the difference in expected lifetime earnings between women and men amounted to $172.3 trillion globally even before the pandemic—twice the size of the world’s annual gross domestic product.

Over the years, efforts (including our foundation’s) to close this gap have centered around “women’s economic empowerment,” a shorthand for providing women with jobs or cash. These are proven ways to lift measures of economic equality—but even so, true economic power continues to elude millions of women.

So we’ve got to keep asking questions:?Once women have this money, can they actually spend it? Or do their husbands hold that power?

When a woman secures a job, can she actually work and care for her children? Or is she set up to fail?

These questions illustrate the difference between theory and reality. Because when we create policies to change economic indicators, we might not be changing actual lives. We can’t just talk about empowering women without making sure they are actually gaining power in their families and communities.

The difference between having money—and being able to spend it

One of the surest ways to build economic resilience is through cash transfers from governments to citizens. During the early days of the pandemic, 1.3 billion people worldwide received emergency cash from their governments.

These emergency transfers are often doled out without regard to gender—which means that men, who are more likely to have government ID or appear on tax rolls, are much more likely to receive the cash. But it’s women who usually have the greatest financial need.

Many women in low-income countries earn a living through informal work, which means they have to weather economic crises without a regular paycheck, paid leave, or unemployment insurance. Many of them resort to survival strategies that entrap them in poverty: A 2021 study of women in the informal workforce found that 52% had drawn from savings, 46% borrowed money, and 17% sold or pawned assets to survive the pandemic.

A health care worker signs up for government digital payments by mobile phone in Mangobo, DRC. ? Gates Archive/Junior Diatezua Kannah

Digital financial tools like mobile money accounts are an efficient way for governments to provide effective gender-intentional cash transfers. And those mobile payments give women more control over their money than a cash payment—because when money is deposited directly into her own online account, it’s harder for her husband or anyone else to claim it for themselves.

We’ve seen what happens when women get the opportunity to spend microfinance loans with less spousal pressure: In Uganda, women who invested these disbursements in their businesses saw 15% higher profits compared to those who received their loans in cash. And in Niger, distributing cash transfer payments through mobile money instead of cash meant women were more likely to visit the market, sell grains, and participate in the economy in other ways.

Digital payments pay dividends in surprising ways, too: The World Bank found that a person who receives a digital payment from their government is more likely to take advantage of other financial services, such as saving or borrowing money. And women can use digital tools like smartphones and mobile money accounts to open up avenues to new economic opportunities: getting credit to start or grow a business, accessing knowledge about new products, and connecting to local and global marketplaces.

For example, our foundation is working with India’s Ministry of Rural Development to digitize the country’s Self Help Group program for women. Across India, there are thousands of self-help groups—they’re often called “women’s empowerment collectives”—where women come together in pursuit of their personal or economic goals. Sometimes, they pool their money to purchase assets and equipment that support their livelihoods and economic growth. The new digitization process will bring this experience online, allowing women to do bookkeeping, access credit, and even reach new customers via their smartphones.

Digital tools will have the most impact if they’re provided along with support, such as digital financial literacy training. A 2019 Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab study in India found that when women were trained to use financial accounts they controlled, they were 7% more likely to earn income, had 30% higher earnings, and were more likely to make purchases.

The difference between a job being available—and being able to take it.

But even with the opportunities that digital tools unlock, there remains a systemic barrier for many women who want to earn money of their own.

In June, I visited the Institut Pasteur de Dakar in Senegal, where I met Dr. Billo Tall, the Institut’s director of clinical research and data science. She told me that she wouldn’t be where she is today if not for the university where she studied making special accommodations to help her care for her infant son.

Dr. Tall’s story illustrates a fundamental truth: Women will never have full economic power without real caregiving infrastructure in place. In virtually every society, women are expected to care for children, family members, and homes without getting paid to do it. It’s an essential yet undervalued responsibility that has stopped countless women from entering and thriving in the workforce. In low- and middle-income countries, unpaid caregiving makes up more than half of women’s total working hours, meaning they have less time available to earn an income.

Now imagine a world in which a generation of unpaid caregivers became paid entrepreneurs running child care businesses of their own.

During the pandemic, I spoke with Sabrina Habib, the co-founder of Kidogo, a Kenyan social enterprise organization that partners with Kenyan women running informal daycares. It offers a triple dividend: child care for Nairobi’s low-income families, better livelihoods for the “mamapreneurs” providing the care, and more efficient and profitable child care businesses throughout the community. Everyone wins.

What might be possible if similar child care models spread not just throughout the country, but throughout the world?

Business owner Thia Camara Sy (right) with her staff at WIC Capital, in Dakar, Senegal. ? Gates Archive/Carmen Yasmine Abd Ali

For starters, it would reap huge economic rewards. Investing in child care infrastructure at scale isn’t just essential for a woman’s sense of autonomy or even her family’s bottom line—it’s the smart thing to do for our economies. When our data partner Fraym conducted large, nationally representative surveys in Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa, they found that if better government child care policies and funding were in place, nearly 15 million women would enter or re-enter the labor force.

The key to the future of progress

True equality depends not only on a woman’s ability to access a livelihood, but also on her ability to control it fully. It means not just putting food on a kitchen table, but also being able to make decisions for her family around that table. It means not just benefiting from a government policy, but designing those policies. It means not just empowerment, but real, lived power.

Because when women have power—over their money, over their own bodies, and in society—we all benefit. Women are force multipliers: An extensive body of research shows that when women can control their own money, their sense of self changes. So do the expectations of those around them. Their children are more likely to attend school. Their families are healthier. Their household income grows—and so does the global economy.

So when it comes to the future of progress—not just on the global goals related to gender equality but on those on good health, quality education, ending poverty, and more—there is one engine that can drive them all: women’s power.

Read the full 2022 Goalkeepers report.