How can business most effectively support women’s economic empowerment, through their value chains and beyond?

The DFID survey that we ran as part of this Challenge found that quarter of respondents thought there were barriers preventing women from entering their organisation as employees; half saw obstacles in the way of women staying in work; and almost 85% thought women were being held back from progressing to higher levels.

The top 3 reasons standing in the way of women entering work, staying at work and progressing to higher levels were named by survey respondents as

  1. lack of opportunities for flexible working;

  2. lack of affordable, quality childcare; and

  3. lack of support for other family or personal responsibility