Innovation for Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality

This research is the first scholarly assessment of its kind to understand how innovations have
improved women’s well-being, empowered women and advanced gender equality. International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). examined eight catalytic innovations in three domains that intersect areas with the greatest need and most creative entry points for realizing women’s empowerment: (1) technology use (2) social norm change and (3) economic resilience. When innovations are examined with a gender lens, a powerful, untapped strategy emerged
to transform women’s lives. ICRW identified seven core levers essential for innovation to catalyze
meaningful change for women in developing countries:

1. Break boundaries for strategic partnerships
2. Engage women in design and diffusion
3. Cultivate champions
4. Create “buzz” to make it “stick”
5. Capitalize on opportune timing and context
6. Target efforts to reach poor women
7. Synergize top-down and bottom-up approaches