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Better Business Through Gender Transformative Approaches

Gender transformative approaches are good for business. How can companies accelerate their adoption? Insights from recent CGAP and IDH – The Sustainable Trade Initiative events point to a number of answers.

We Agree – Life Stages Likely Impact DFS Usage Among Young Women

Certain life stages have a significant impact on women’s economic empowerment and use of financial services - particularly for young women.

Growing Up, Growing Informal: Gender Differences in Financial Services

Teenage men and women in Kenya and South Africa adopt formal savings accounts at similar rates. But when they hit their 20s, men continue to adopt formal services while women begin gravitating toward informal services. Why?

No Time to Waste: Financing Biodigesters to Save Time for Rural Women

Sistema.bio has been expanding rural women's access to biodigesters, saving women time and creating economic opportunities. The secret? A financing option and a gender-intentional sales approach.

Pakistan: Gender-Intentional Policy Can Make Agent Banking Work Better

Many women in Pakistan remain financially excluded, partly because social norms limit their access to banking agents. Policy makers and regulators can help change this with a gender-intentional approach to agent banking.

Forging Her Own Path: Women and Informal Online Commerce

A growing number of financially excluded women are running businesses over social media platforms to improve their lives. What What does this mean for women's financial inclusion?

5 Ways Gender Lens Investors Can Deepen Impact on Financial Inclusion

Gender lens investing is becoming a more popular way to invest in financial inclusion. Here are five ways funders can set themselves up for success and use this approach for greater impact.

Has Microcredit Empowered Women in Bangladesh? Yes, But Not by Itself

Microfinance has contributed to women’s empowerment, but to understand the impact you have to look beyond where many observers have assumed they would find it.

Leveraging Gender Lens Investments for Women’s Financial Needs

Gender lens investing is gaining momentum among a wide range of investors as an approach to women's empowerment. Here are three ways this approach could accelerate women's financial inclusion.

Time Is Money: Financial Services Can Help Rural Women Save More of It

Time poverty prevents many rural women from pursuing educational or income-generating opportunities. Here are three ways financial services can help alleviate time poverty among rural women.

Does PAYGo Solar Improve Women’s Lives? A Look at the Evidence

Pay-as-you-go (PAYGo) solar financing has electrified the homes of more than 100 million people. What does the available evidence say about its impact on women?

Exploring Innovative Financial Services for Rural Women’s Livelihoods

CGAP's research points to two areas where innovations in financial services can help women with rural and agricultural livelihoods increase their incomes: returns to labor and access to markets.

Fintech in the Arab World: Toward Gender Parity in 15, Not 150, Years

Gender-intelligent fintech solutions are hard to come by in the region with the world’s largest financial inclusion gender gap. But some fintechs are pointing the way.

Women and Finance: Enabling Women’s Economic Empowerment

Reducing the gender gap requires that we put a gender lens on everything we do. CGAP CEO Greta Bull writes that without fully including women, we won’t solve financial inclusion or, for that matter, end extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity.

What Drives the Financial Inclusion Gender Gap for Young Women?

Ahead of International Women's Day, CGAP and the Global Findex team analyzed how the account ownership gender gap varies across regions and age groups.

Can Free Phones Close the Digital Gender Divide?

Mobile phone affordability — the focus of most programs to distribute free phones to women — is far from the only barrier to women’s use of mobile phones.

Measuring Women’s Economic Empowerment in Financial Inclusion

Get answers to common questions about how to measure the impact of financial inclusion initiatives on women's economic empowerment.

How Social Norms for Men Restrict Women’s Financial Inclusion

Addressing social norms that affect men’s role in society and influence their behavior is an important — but largely overlooked — aspect of advancing women’s financial inclusion.

The Digital Gender Divide Won’t Close by Itself – Here’s Why

Men and women engage differently with digital services - including digital financial services - because of, among other factors, gendered social norms that don't change nearly as fast as technology.

Personas Show How Social Norms Impact Women’s Financial Inclusion

Customer personas rarely reflect the social norms that influence women's financial lives, which limits their usefulness in developing financial services. Here is a five-step process for improving customer personas.