Promoting women’s economic empowerment at work through responsible business conduct in G7 countries

The G7 recognises that women are key drivers of innovation growth and jobs, and that the private sector plays a crucial role in creating an environment in which women can more meaningfully participate in the economy and it has set concrete targets to achieve this.

The G7 countries have committed to invest in:

• Women’s skills development
• Facilitate women’s labour force participation, career advancement, and work-life balance.
• Stimulate women’s entrepreneurship and the growth and sustainability of women owned businesses.
• Accelerate the adoption and implementation of the UN Women’s Empowerment principles (WEP’s).

The project aims to support sustainable and equitable economic growth by promoting women’s empowerment in the public and private sector in G7 countries. To do so, the project will take a two track approach:

Track 1: Policy dialogues and knowledge management among G7 countries.

Track 2: Private Sector Engagement and the WEPs to eliminate gender inequality faced by working women.
The project’s guiding platform are the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs), and guidance on labour issues will draw from international labour standards and ILO’s MNE Declaration.

Project objectives

The overall objective of this project is to support sustainable, inclusive and equitable economic growth by promoting women’s economic empowerment in the public and private sector in G7 countries. It is expected that the project will promote and widely disseminate internationally agreed principles and guidelines on women’s economic empowerment.
The specific objectives are to:

1. Facilitate dialogue and exchanges amongst G7 countries public and private sectors
2. Further engage with the private sector in the elimination of gender inequality faced by women in the world of work

Expected outcomes

The expected outcomes are:

• Multistakeholder dialogues advance women's economic empowerment across the G7 countries
• Stimulating companies' exchanges and uptakes in G7 countries and with other companies across the world
• Capacity of current/prospective WEPs companies to develop and implement gender-responsive practices in line with the WEPs
• Companies voluntary monitoring and reporting strengthened
• Women access economic opportunities

Knowledge products, publications and videos

• Empowering Women at Work: Illustrative practice series
• Empowering Women at Work Capacity Development Platform
• Empowering Women at Work Videos
• Policies, initiatives and tools to promote women’s economic empowerment in the world of work

Geographical focus

This project will be implemented in Canada, Japan and the United States.