Female economic empowerment is a key strategy for reducing poverty, raising incomes and minimizing social inequality in a country. It not only provides equal opportunities for a better life to half of a country’s population, but also has strong indirect effects on families and future generations. Moreover, gender equality has a significant impact on a country’s industrialization process and economic growth. It accelerates the pace at which a country industrializes, creates positive spillovers, and improves the manufacturing sector’s sustainability and inclusivity. Industrialization offers the promise of creating new, relatively higher-paying jobs compared to agriculture, thus fostering a virtuous cycle of economic growth and prosperity. Despite the potential benefits, women as well as minorities often struggle to participate and benefit equally from this growth. Women’s contribution to industrialization is frequently limited to low-wage work in certain export-led sectors, where competitiveness relies on cheap labour. Consequently, women in these sectors often face unfavourable working conditions and have limited opportunities for further development and growth. The stark differences in economic (and other) opportunities for women versus men is very evident in the manufacturing sector.
This tool offers a set of indicators to assist analysts in understanding female participation in manufacturing and structural change, as well as their key determinants. The goal is to enable policymakers to identify ways to make the industrialization process more gender-just. Ultimately, the objective is to ensure that both women and men have equal opportunities to contribute to, lead and benefit from structural transformation. While this tool is closely related to Tool 5, it specifically focuses on variables that can be studied separately for women and men.