While poverty affects people of all ages and genders, women across the world are particularly vulnerable because of additional barriers they face. Gender inequality limits women’s access to education, blocks economic opportunities, and compounds social exclusion. It is a driver of ultra-poverty.
Women are more likely to work in the informal economy, preventing them from accessing crucial social protection programs, particularly in countries with strained resources and high poverty rates. They tend to lack control or ownership of land and productive assets, encounter restrictions in mobility, and are prevented from accessing quality education, healthcare, and economic markets. Biased social norms create additional challenges.
However, women are frequently tasked with household budgeting, and may even be the household’s financial managers. In other cases, while they may not control the household income, they adopt various strategies to ensure they can access a portion of these resources to invest in the family’s nutrition, the children’s education, higher nutritional intake for and savings for unexpected income shocks.
