Women’s economic empowerment is a transformational process, in which women gain increased access to, and power over, economic assets and economic decisions. Taking into account inequalities and discrimination, and the way they are experienced by different women, is critical to secure progress.

Much of women’s paid work remains informal and highly precarious and on average women carry out at least two and a half times more unpaid household and care work than men. Women’s economic empowerment cannot be achieved while significant gender gaps in women’s paid and unpaid work exist globally.

This briefing note was prepared for the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) of the European Parliament for their mission to the 61st Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 13 to 24 March 2017. The note focuses on the key priority theme of the 61st Session: 'Women’s economic empowerment in the changing world of work'.