Economic Empowerment

A woman from West Bengal in India harvesting her crops. In India, 74.5 per cent of rural women are agricultural workers but only 9.3 perc ent own the land.  Photo: UN Women/Ashutosh Negi
Photo: UN Women/Ashutosh Negi

UN Women Strategy

“When the land is in my husband’s name, I’m only a worker. When it is in my name, I have some position in society and my children and my husband respect me so my responsibility is much greater to my own land and I take care of my fields like my children”

– A farming woman in Maharashtra

UN Women’s work focuses on engendering macro economic analysis and national economies in the region, assisting to develop policy and praxis accountability and monitoring mechanisms for women’s economic empowerment, access and rights to land and productive assets, gender parity in wages and safe migration. To support women in reshaping conditions of economic vulnerability and marginality, UN Women’s programmes push for promoting rights of women farmers, migrant and informal sector women workers, ensuring equal participation of women in economy and expanding their access to markets, services and resources including renewable energy for farm and off farm livelihoods and building entrepreneurial skills and capacities.