Anju Malhotra

Panelists at ICRW's "Women: An Emerging Market" had a wide-ranging discussion on women's economic potential and progress. Here are some highlights from their thoughts on a variety of issues, from global development strategies to the Arab Spring:

On women as an emerging market and how much progress they have made over 35 years ...

Anju Malhotra: "When ICRW started 35 years ago, we were trying to document that women had both productive and reproductive roles and that the productive roles are as important as the reproductive roles. And the very fact that it's taken 35 years for us to be having this conversation is disappointing. It's the kind of thing that we thought if we produce the evidence and we show the statistics, then people will understand. The fact that now people are starting to appreciate that women have to be part of the economic force everywhere is a good thing – but it's been a long day coming."

On obstacles for women in international development efforts ...

Nemat Shafik: "I think there are two big roadblocks. One is to solve the problem it takes multiple interventions, so the reason we've made progress on education to be honest is educational enrollment is bums on seats. You build the schools, you get teachers in there ... it's a pretty straightforward development intervention. And it's very donor friendly; you can estimate costs, you can estimate benefits.

"Maternal mortality is a lot more complicated because it's about where the health system works, it's about emergency obstetrics, it's about: is there a road, is there clean water. It's a multiple intervention problem that is much more difficult to solve. I think that's a key reason why we've made much less progress on maternal mortality than we have on education.

"The other issue is where there are deep-seated cultural norms that are very difficult and slow to change. I think

that's a big driver for the lack of political representation and some of those more intractable issues. And it's a big driver of the missing women and the fact that girls are aborted before they're born – those are sort of deep-rooted cultural issues and the second big obstacle."

On how to measure whether foreign assistance is making a difference ...

Gayle Smith: "This is where I give a shout out to USAID and the president of the United States. One of the things that I think we've been able to move very aggressively on in this administration is shifting from evaluating our foreign assistance on the basis of inputs and 'Dear Congress, did we spend the money in a way that is going to ensure that you can keep the budget level up'" – and it's easy to fall into that cycle because foreign aid is not the most popular thing in the budget.

"(USAID) now has a state of the art evaluation policy, something we try to extend across agencies ... This is something that is driven by the president's development policy that he announced last year where facts and evidence are a big piece of it. We will drive policy with evidence of impact. It sounds pretty basic, but it's a different approach that what we're used to ... We are institutionalizing ways of tracking (foreign aid impact)."

Anju Malhotra: "We really appreciate governments now being as careful to measure the bottom line as companies ... There are definitely markers of success at every level that you can measure, and it's equally important to measure that women are advancing economically but not just making more money, having more finance, but also being able to make decisions and have control over their lives, have agency to run things the way that matters to them.

"Part of the divide historically has been with this rights and instrumentalist approach -- economists are only measuring economy part and the gender folks are only measuring empowerment part. You need to bring the two together; they're both essentially important. We're not just talking about economic growth. We are talking about a woman taking charge of her two kids' education or being able to leave an abusive husband or being able to make ends meet."

On women's role in the Arab Spring and hope for their future in a new Middle East ...

Nemat Shafik: "This isn't the first time that women have been involved in revolutions in the Middle East ... But what's a little bit worrying is that if you look now in the post-revolutionary environment, they are not on the committees redrafting the constitution. And they are not in any cabinets. So we're at a very critical moment in the region as to whether these changes will be sustained or not."

Gayle Smith: "We've got to be mindful of what we know about revolutions, including very spontaneous revolutions. You can get this big leap and then the momentum settles, and a lot of institutions remain the same and a lot of cultural norms are still at play. So I think that the expectation that, as remarkable as events in Cairo were, and throughout the Middle East and North Africa, those convulsions alone were not sufficient." What happens now "needs to be a very deliberate effort.

"Remember that underlying Arab Spring has been the demand political freedom. But think about the demands that were also about an end to corruption, about the demand for jobs, about demand for transparency. So I think when you look there at the opening that is created by those revolutions and now the necessity of filling that on the economic front – there's a huge opportunity to target women entrepreneurs and to create that space."

MORE: View this video to hear the full conversation among panelists.

The business case for investing in the world’s women is strong, and data illustrate the powerful market potential of women living in low- and middle-income countries. Yet despite such evidence, women still are not seen as producers that can drive global economic growth, said panelists at an International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) discussion Oct. 19 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

“We’re still at a point where in the economic picture you still have discussions that say, ‘Here’s our economic strategy, and we should do this and this ... and we should do something with women,’” said Gayle Smith, special assistant to President Obama and senior director of the National Security Council. “I don’t think we’re quite where we need to be yet.”  

Smith was joined by Nemat Shafik, deputy director of the International Monetary Fund and ICRW’s Anju Malhotra, a leading expert on women’s empowerment, for “Women: An Emerging Market,” the third discussion in ICRW’s Passports to Progress 35^th anniversary series. BBC World News Anchor Katty Kay moderated the discussion, which focused on women’s economic progress and potential as well as the roadblocks they continue to face. 

While there have been notable accomplishments for women in the past three decades – such as ensuring that girls are educated – the panel said that much of the progress has been uneven. For instance, although more women are entering the labor force, wage disparities persist. In some parts of the world, life expectancy has increased; in others, women still die in childbirth. And in many developing countries women are heads of state, but that doesn’t necessarily “translate into higher status for the mass of women in those societies,” Shafik noted. 

In the midst of these paradoxical landscapes, significant changes are currently underway that hold promise for women in poverty: Global development and private sector priorities are shifting to tap more into women’s economic power – not only because it’s the right thing to do, but because research shows that it’s also good for the collective bottom line, panelists said. Discussions about policies and international aid to support women’s economic growth also are shifting to focus more on designing efforts based on evidence of impact. 

Meanwhile, the world is more connected than ever through technology and it’s also churning with transformative events such as the economic downturn and revolutions in the Middle East. Women, the panel said, have a role to play in fueling stability and prosperity. 

“In an economic moment globally that is something of the likes of which we’ve really never seen, I think there’s potentially an opportunity,” Smith said. “(We) have working out there a group of (women) that, in the aggregate, are in fact an emerging market. Think of the power of that market.” 

Malhotra agreed. “You can’t have human progress without a majority of human beings being part of ... the economic growth, the economic equity,” she said of the world’s women.

The challenge for policy-makers and decision-makers, however, is to view women – and invest in them – as producers of economic growth, not just consumers of goods and services. “It’s getting that kind of thinking into the bloodstream,” Smith said, “as opposed to still having it as an ‘add-on,’” when designing economic development strategies. 

“We’re only just beginning to understand the role women can play in the macro economy,” Shafik added about women’s economic potential. “And there’s now some evidence on how investing in women policy contributes to higher economic growth.” 

Looking ahead, the panel was generally hopeful about the future. 

“I’d be willing to venture that in about half the world we’ll be in a place where gender equity will be pretty close in education and employment outcomes,” Shafik said. “But I think there will still be big parts of the world where we’ll have quite a lot to do particularly on political rights, employment, and in the productive sectors.” 

Malhotra was more optimistic. She said she believes the world is on the cusp of "exponential change."

“The global world is so connected…none of the business of the world is going to be able to run unless women are part of that process,” Malhotra said. “Thirty-five years ago, we plotted towards this change, and in the last five years we’ve leapfrogged.” 

“And frankly, I think we’re going to (continue to) leapfrog.” 

MORE: Read excerpts from the conversation and view a video of the full discussion.

Gillian Gaynair is ICRW’s senior writer and editor.

A growing number of organizations are committed to strengthening women economically, but few understand exactly how to make it happen. Nor are they clear how to evaluate whether their efforts are successful. To help address this need, ICRW today launches its latest report, “Understanding and Measuring Women’s Economic Empowerment.” One of its authors, ICRW’s Anju Malhotra, highlights below a few findings from the research that guided the document. Malhotra responded to questions via email.

ICRW: Our latest report lays out a framework to guide the design, implementation and evaluation of programs that aim to advance women economically. How did researchers determine there was a need for this?

Anju Malhotra: In the past few years, and especially the last few months, ICRW has been approached by a number of organizations seeking clarity and guidance on this point. We responded to this demand by developing the framework featured in our report. An increasing number of organizations and individuals understand the importance of advancing women economically. But they are less clear on the exact steps to take in bringing it about. And they are seeking markers of success: How will they know empowerment has been achieved? Based on ICRW’s research and programmatic experience in this area, we felt that clarity on these points would be welcome by a large number of stakeholders committed to economically empowering women.

ICRW: What must governments, corporations, donors and nongovernmental organizations consider if they want to include women more in the global marketplace and help strengthen them economically?

AM: Recognize that women are both producers and consumers in an economy. Consider women in the full range of their productive activities and the contributions they make. Like all entrepreneurs and workers, women need resources and skills to thrive and help economies grow. They need access to banks, markets and companies. They need policies that will create an environment for them to progress economically. Unfortunately, the reality for most women is that their opportunities and access to money and power are often limited. So we need to ensure equal access.

Women also are important to economies as consumers. They buy staples like food, shelter and clothing. As their buying power rises, they are increasingly a market for education and health services as well as goods such as scooters, cars and cell phones. Companies with products and services to sell need to cater to women’s preferences and consumption needs. And governments and the private sector need to recognize that providing opportunities to the female workforce can strengthen the business bottom line and help economies grow.

ICRW: What are some common misconceptions practitioners and organizations have about building economic empowerment programs?

AM: The biggest misconception is that because women’s economic empowerment is a complex concept, we need to undertake complex and comprehensive programs to bring it about. But no one organization or program can effectively address all the dimensions of women’s economic empowerment in a single stroke. We don’t advise that they do. Rather, it is important for professionals to “choose their slice.” By that I mean choose the women, locations and contexts where the interventions they are best equipped to undertake have the greatest chance of being successful. For example, while many women can benefit from acquiring business skills, it may be best to invest in such skills for women who are in environments where policy and economic circumstances are favorable for women’s business growth. In environments where these factors are lacking, such an intervention is less likely to lead to desired results.

ICRW: How would you like to see this latest report from ICRW used in the field?

AM: Our hope is that the report will facilitate more effective allocation of resources and effort among initiatives that are aiming to economically empower women.  We also hope that it will make the task of devising and assessing such programs much easier for those committed to opening up opportunities for women to contribute more equitably in the global economy.

Related content: Measuring Women’s Economic Empowerment