Gender

Unlocking the full potential of women and girls is a priority for the World Bank Group. Evidence shows that their full participation in society drives economic productivity, reduces poverty, strengthens social cohesion, and improves wellbeing across generations.

While women and girls have made major strides in education and health, these gains have not fully translated into economic opportunities. Women’s human capital remains underutilized, as barriers such as unpaid care responsibilities, restrictive social norms, and limited access to finance and digital tools continue to constrain their participation in the workforce and broader economy. Globally, women’s labor force participation has remained stagnant at 53% since 1990—compared to 80% for men. More than 710 million women are kept out of the labor market due to family care duties, and millions more face exclusion from financial and digital services.

The World Bank Group is working to close this gap by helping translate women’s human capital into meaningful employment, entrepreneurship, and income-generating opportunities. Removing these barriers not only empowers women—it boosts productivity, innovation, and job creation. In India alone, eliminating obstacles to female entrepreneurship could create 25 million new jobs and significantly accelerate GDP growth.

Guided by our 2024–2030 Gender Strategy, we are connecting evidence to action to ensure that women’s human capital translates into more and better jobs. We invest in foundational enablers like education, health, safety, legal and digital inclusion and social protection. We also support legal and regulatory reforms that expand women’s access to jobs, capital and entrepreneurship—addressing constraints such as labor laws, tax systems, and social protection policies that can limit women’s economic opportunities. And we are sharing cutting-edge research, scalable solutions and hands-on support with governments and the private sector.

Consistent with the World Bank Group’s mission, the 2024–2030 Gender Strategy expresses the bold ambition to accelerate gender equality to end poverty on a livable planet. The strategy prioritizes three strategic objectives:

End gender-based violence and elevate human capital

Expand and enable economic opportunities

Engage women as leaders

The World Bank Group's Gender strategy is currently in the implementation phase. Through the strategy, the World Bank Group is enhancing strategic country engagement, delivering results at scale, engaging differently by mobilizing concerted action through data, knowledge and advocacy with partners and mobilizing for impact.

To assist clients to achieve better gender equality outcomes at scale, the World Bank Group has set Gender Strategy targets to distill and replicate what works at scale, is working toward ambitious and transformative gender equality results, and is monitoring gender equality indicators in alignment with the World Bank Corporate Scorecard and the Gender Strategy Results Framework.

The World Bank Gender Strategy 2024-2030 was informed by an extensive consultation process and by a series of  thematic policy notes and causal evidence briefs, along with data, research, global knowledge, and lessons from experience.

The World Bank Group is strengthening women’s and girl’s human capital, advancing women’s employment and entrepreneurship, tackling gender-based violence and promoting women’s leadership. Some examples:

In Nigeria, more than 460,000 women have joined affinity groups that promote financial inclusion, leadership, and access to markets through the Nigeria for Women project. The Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi Code) and IFC’s Nigeria2Equal are further expanding support.

In Mozambique and Madagascar the East Africa Girls Empowerment and Resilience Program “EAGER” has supported 611,000 girls to stay in school with engagement of over 2 million community members, including men and boys.

In Jordan, the Enhancing Women’s Economic Opportunities Project is addressing the barriers to women’s labor force participation through childcare grants, subsidies and policy reforms.

Since 2012, the IFC Banking on Women program has invested over $10 billion in 307 financial institutions across 83 countries to fuel private sector growth by financing women and women-led enterprises.

Since 2018, We-Fi (Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative) has facilitated $7.8 billion in financing for 600,000+ women-led businesses across 81 countries.

World Bank Group Gender Innovation Labs (GILs) are using evidence to improve outcomes in operations and policies.

The World Bank Gender Data Portal provides sex-disaggregated statistics and access to over 1,000 indicators covering demography, education, health, economic activities, assets, leadership, gender-based violence, and more.

Investing in Foundational Wellbeing

Ending gender-based violence and elevating human capital protects individuals and lays the foundation for healthier, more productive societies.

Jobs, Finance & Entrepreneurship

Women and girls are more educated and skilled than ever but still face barriers that keep them from reaching their full economic potential. We are focused on unlocking women’s economic potential through through skilling, jobs and finance.

Evidence & Solutions

Generating knowledge, building on evidence and supporting innovation to unlock the full potential of women and girls.

Gender Contact

Dani Clark