## how-digital-financial-services-are-empowering-women-hendriks ## Source details **Canonical URL:** [how-digital-financial-services-are-empowering-women-hendriks](https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2019/03/how-digital-financial-services-are-empowering-women-hendriks) ## Other formats - [Markdown version](/en/publications/fandd/issues/2019/03/how-digital-financial-services-are-empowering-women-hendriks/index.md) - [Structured JSON version](/en/publications/fandd/issues/2019/03/how-digital-financial-services-are-empowering-women-hendriks/index.json) - [Bundle manifest](/en/publications/fandd/issues/2019/03/how-digital-financial-services-are-empowering-women-hendriks/bundle-manifest.json) ## Bibliographic details - Authors: SARAH HENDRIKS - Published: March 1, 2019 --- ### Poverty, gender, and the opportunity gap - Poverty is presented as a collection of deprivations: a lack of financial assets, a lack of access to property, and a lack of voice in one’s community. - Key statistics on gender inequality: - Women earn 63 percent less than men. - Women spend three times as many hours on unpaid labor, such as housework. - The McKinsey Global Institute estimates that fully incorporating women into the economy would add $12 trillion to global GDP by 2025. - In the developing world, 4 in 10 women do not have a financial account of any kind. - Nearly a billion women lacking access to formal financial services. ### How digital financial services (DFS) expand opportunity - Core advantages of DFS: - Digital financial services include mobile money, debit and credit cards, and e-commerce platforms. - DFS can help a business grow far more efficiently than brick-and-mortar branches. - DFS can result in fees that are as much as 90 percent lower than those associated with cash-based services and transactions. - Empirical examples: - Liberia teachers: - Teachers travel up to 10 hours each way to collect their earnings in cash. - This trip often requires missing work and spending as much as 15 percent of their wage along the way. - When salaries were digitalized, teachers saved an average of 13.5 hours every two weeks and reduced the cost of collecting their income by 90 percent. - Bangladesh garment workers: - Women comprise most of the garment factory workforce and often hand over their cash wages to a husband or parent due to local social norms. - Research from the Better Than Cash Alliance showed that in garment factories where wages are digital, workers are 69 percent less likely to report that they cannot save money because a family member controls their salary. ### Data gaps and investments in gender data - The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals highlighted a gender data gap: - Of the 14 indicators for gender equality, only 3 have sufficient data to track progress. - The Gates Foundation responded with a data investment: - In 2016, the foundation announced an $80 million investment to help fill critical gender data gaps. - IMF contribution to gender-disaggregated financial data: - The IMF’s annual Financial Access Survey looks at financial inclusion from the supply side. - Last year’s survey was the first to disaggregate data by sex, enabling observation of which countries are closing gender gaps in transactions such as borrowing and depositing. ### Program design and policy priorities to scale women’s inclusion - Three-front approach when collaborating with governments on social payment schemes: - Digitalize payments on the supply side. - Direct payments to women specifically. - Design programs so that they meet women’s unique needs. - Rationale: - About 80 million unbanked women in developing economies receive government transfers in cash, presenting a large-scale opportunity to include and empower women financially. - Inclusion requires considering the nuances of how people access and use cash transfers. ### Identity systems and technological enablers - Identity barriers: - In low-income countries, more than 45 percent of women do not have a formal ID, as compared with 30 percent of men. - Digital identity solutions: - Countries such as India and Pakistan have rolled out national digital identity programs using biometric data to eliminate literacy as a barrier. - Digital IDs have helped millions open accounts in India. - In Pakistan, after linking its identity system to a social payment scheme, the number of women who signed up for IDs nearly doubled. - Other technology-driven benefits: - Automated account application processes can help women avoid gatekeepers or agents who might turn them away because of social norms. - Kristalina Georgieva’s analogy: digital financial applications could “do for women in business what the curtain has done for women in music.” ### Concluding observations - Financial inclusion of women is framed as a powerful lever for gender equality and broader social and economic gains. - For the poorest women, access to digital financial services can change daily realities—saving time, reducing costs, increasing control over earned income, and expanding agency. - The Gates Foundation’s perspective: when women achieve the same status, power, and opportunities as men everywhere, it will mean dramatic social change that propels all of us forward. *how-digital-financial-services-are-empowering-women-hendriks, SARAH HENDRIKS, F&D Magazine, March 2019* --- ## Content in this bundle - **وجهة نظر** - [وجهة نظر (Markdown version)](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/march/ar/hendriks.pdf.md){rel="alternate" type="text/markdown"} - [وجهة نظر (PDF)](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/march/ar/hendriks.pdf){rel="external" type="application/pdf"} - **La bancarización y el futuro de la mujer ● Finanzas y Desarrollo ● Marzo de 2019** - [La bancarización y el futuro de la mujer ● Finanzas y Desarrollo ● Marzo de 2019 (Markdown version)](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/march/es/how-digital-financial-services-are-empowering-women-hendriks.pdf.md){rel="alternate" type="text/markdown"} - [La bancarización y el futuro de la mujer ● Finanzas y Desarrollo ● Marzo de 2019 (PDF)](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/march/es/how-digital-financial-services-are-empowering-women-hendriks.pdf){rel="external" type="application/pdf"} - **Investir dans l’avenir des femmes** - [Investir dans l’avenir des femmes (Markdown version)](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/march/fr/how-digital-financial-services-are-empowering-women-hendriks.pdf.md){rel="alternate" type="text/markdown"} - [Investir dans l’avenir des femmes (PDF)](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/march/fr/how-digital-financial-services-are-empowering-women-hendriks.pdf){rel="external" type="application/pdf"} - **Banking on the Future of Women** - [Banking on the Future of Women (Markdown version)](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/march/how-digital-financial-services-are-empowering-women-hendriks.pdf.md){rel="alternate" type="text/markdown"} - [Banking on the Future of Women (PDF)](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/march/how-digital-financial-services-are-empowering-women-hendriks.pdf){rel="external" type="application/pdf"} - **Расчет на будущее женщин – Финансы и развитие – март 2019 года** - [Расчет на будущее женщин – Финансы и развитие – март 2019 года (Markdown version)](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/march/ru/how-digital-financial-services-are-empowering-women-hendriks.pdf.md){rel="alternate" type="text/markdown"} - [Расчет на будущее женщин – Финансы и развитие – март 2019 года (PDF)](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/march/ru/how-digital-financial-services-are-empowering-women-hendriks.pdf){rel="external" type="application/pdf"} - **银行业要为女性的未来提服务 - 金融与发展** - [银行业要为女性的未来提服务 - 金融与发展 (Markdown version)](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/march/zh/how-digital-financial-services-are-empowering-women-hendriks.pdf.md){rel="alternate" type="text/markdown"} - [银行业要为女性的未来提服务 - 金融与发展 (PDF)](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/march/zh/how-digital-financial-services-are-empowering-women-hendriks.pdf){rel="external" type="application/pdf"} --- _Source: https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2019/03/how-digital-financial-services-are-empowering-women-hendriks_