This paper addresses women’s empowerment in agriculture and discusses innovations
in measuring it and emerging evidence on its relationship to development outcomes.
Women’s empowerment and gender equality are at the core of gender-transformative
change in agriculture and a more holistic and inclusive approach to how we address
gender in agriculture. We discuss the evolution of our conceptualization and
measurement of women’s empowerment and how thinking about gender equality and
women’s empowerment has advanced in the decade since the 2010–2011 SOFA. Recent
empowerment measures draw upon Kabeer’s definition of empowerment as a process
that expands a person’s strategic life choices, particularly for those who had been denied
this opportunity. Using a Gendered Food Systems framework and a standardized measure
of women’s empowerment, the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI), we
review the evidence on “what works” to empower women based on impact evaluations
of a portfolio of 11 agricultural development projects with empowerment objectives
and a scoping review of livestock interventions. We then review the evidence on
associations between empowering women and societal benefits in terms of agricultural
productivity, incomes, food security, and nutrition. We conclude with recommendations
for measurement and policy.