Street Food (Georgia) -- Tatiana Sharapova, 2016 CGAP Photo Contest Photo by Tatiana Sharapova, 2016 CGAP Photo Contest

Women's Financial Inclusion: Closing the Gender Gap

    Despite overall progress in financial inclusion, the gender gap has remained stubbornly persistent at nine percentage points since 2011, according to Global Findex. The reasons are complex, often interwoven with greater social exclusion for women than men, and driven by social norms, which are not well understood or tackled by financial inclusion programming.

    CGAP places a priority on the economic empowerment of women through financial inclusion. We are investigating what prevailing social norms constrain women’s uptake and usage of financial services, and how financial service providers and policymakers can work towards alleviating such constraints. We also look at how financial inclusion programs can incorporate gender-based insights.

    Greta Bull image
    Publication

    FinEquity Interview with Greta Bull

    Greta Bull, CEO of CGAP, sat down with FinEquity ahead of International Women's Day to review ways to accelerate progress in women’s financial inclusion and why it matters for improving opportunities and resilience of the poor. "The persistent gender gap is a problem, and it matters because if we want to get to full financial inclusion, we can’t do it with 50% of the population excluded," she said in the interview.
    Selected CGAP Blog Posts
    Photo: Moksumul Haque, 2015 CGAP Photo Contest
    Blog

    3 Trends in Women’s Financial Inclusion Funding

    Funding for women's financial inclusion is on the rise, but just 10 percent of financial inclusion programs are identified as having a gender component, according to the CGAP Funders Survey.
    Woman doubles income by selling shirts online in Bangladesh. Photo: Pi STRATEGY
    Blog

    Hiding in Plain Site: Informal E-Commerce Among Women in Asia

    Millions of women are buying and selling goods online across Asia — but, at least in Bangladesh, Myanmar and Pakistan, they’re not transacting on e-commerce platforms. They’re using social platforms instead, often without digital payments.
    Photo: Yavuz Sariyildiz, 2012 CGAP Photo Contest
    Blog

    Social Norms and Women’s Financial Inclusion: The Role of Providers

    Financial services providers are a part of the societies in which they operate, and their decisions can bolster gender norms that restrict or expand women’s access to financial services.
    A worker at a silk thread factory in Turkey. Photo: Bulent Suberk, 2016 CGAP Photo Contest
    Blog

    Diagnosing Social Norms in Women’s Financial Inclusion Programming

    Funders must develop a deeper understanding of how to tackle social norms that restrict women's financial inclusion. Lessons from CGAP’s research in Turkey help point the way.
    Woman entrepreneur make clay pots in Bangladesh. Photo: Moksumul Haque, 2015 CGAP Photo Contest
    Blog

    3 Ways to Deepen Our Understanding of Women’s Financial Inclusion

    Researchers can shed new light on the impact of financial inclusion on women by applying three principles in their work.
    Women agents of a microcredit institution in India show the devices they use for collections.
    Blog

    4 Regulatory Enablers for Digital Finance: A Gender Perspective

    Unless policies consider gender, we risk leaving behind the most vulnerable in society, particularly women, limiting our ability to achieve the SDGs. However, if implemented with gender in mind, the basic regulatory enablers of digital finance can increase women's financial inclusion.
    FinEquity: A Global Community Convened by CGAP

     

    As part of our gender work, CGAP also hosts FinEquity, a global community of practice consisting of 1,300 members, representing some 400 institutions from 70 countries. FinEquity provides facilitated platforms to share experiences, identify key challenges and discuss ways to solve problems in increasing access to and use of financial services by women. Its strategy is guided by member needs, and it currently has three working groups: Measurement and Data, Social Norms, and Technology. Learn More>>