It is now widely accepted that women’s economic empowerment brings a range of benefits even beyond gender equality gains for individual women, greatly improving the health, wellbeing, and productivity of entire families and countries, and contributing to effective, sustainable development. Recognising these substantial benefits, the Australian aid program places strong emphasis on addressing women’s economic disadvantage.
The broader development literature indicates that women’s economic empowerment can have positive and negative outcomes for them, including both increases and decreases in levels of violence.
This In Brief discusses the relationship between violence against women and women’s economic empowerment in the Pacific.