Women´s economic empowerment is key to inclusive economic development and poverty reduction. Despite global commitments to gender equality and empowering all women and girls, including benchmarks set within broader development frameworks, not enough progress has been made. The World Economic Forum’s 2025 Gender Gap Report estimates it could take more than a century to close the global gender gap. While women's labour inclusion has grown, they still earn 77 cents for every dollar men earn, according to UN Women. This disparity stems from various causes, including social norms that funnel women into specific jobs, fewer women in higher-income STEM fields and their disproportionate representation in the informal economy and part-time work due to domestic obligations.

A disproportionate number of women take up care work throughout their lives, which brings them in and out of labour markets and makes it more difficult to attain senior-level positions. This is just one way in which unequal participation contributes to income inequality, and to greater numbers of women retiring into poverty. Understanding what is behind such gaps requires quality data analysed in enough granular detail to measure women’s experiences and needs. It is essential to look beyond averages to empower all women and girls, by accurately tracking their progress. Significant gaps exist within groups of women in a given society as a result of compounding forms of discrimination based on characteristics such as ethnicity, race, disability or class. Presently, however, data on such characteristics is insufficient. Governments and international, national and civil society organizations around the world, alongside the private sector, have increasingly recognized the need to collect and use disaggregated data. There are now data coalitions, platforms and portals to compile and make available more and better information. However, despite such efforts, much data about women and girls remains incomplete or missing. And where it is missing, women and girls are invisible. Addressing these inequalities requires development policies that tackle the structural barriers limiting women’s economic participation. This includes investing in affordable childcare, strengthening parental leave and workplace protections, improving access to decent and well-paid employment, and ensuring women have equal access to finance, skills and economic opportunities.

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