This timely book examines the global trend of women’s economic empowerment as a critical pathway to achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5: gender equality. Expert authors integrate feminist, intersectional and critical human ecological perspectives to explore the role of the state in enabling and disabling women’s economic empowerment. Querying the concept of economic empowerment, contributing authors analyze the social, policy and economic environments which shape women’s social and economic wellbeing. Drawing on research by international scholars, chapters explore how the macro environment interacts with sites of inequality to influence women’s economic wellbeing across diverse international settings in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ghana, India, and Ireland. Ultimately, the book identifies three macro environments that advance financial liberation: recognizing and valuing care work, creating opportunities for decent and stable employment and challenging patriarchal gender norms. This book is a crucial resource for scholars and students of gender studies, social policy, politics and public policy, development studies and sociology. Its insights into various aspects of women’s economic empowerment, including paid and unpaid work, economic migration, and maternalism, also makes this prime reading for NGOs and national and regional governments interested in executing SDG 5.
