Rights Justice Action: Creating Economic Mobility for all Women and Girls

Every year on March 8, the world pauses to recognize the achievements of women and reflect on how much further we still have to go. This year’s International Women's Day with the theme "Rights. Justice. Action. For All Women and Girls” comes with a renewed urgency around creating economic mobility for women and girls around the globe.

Despite decades of advocacy, legal reforms, and policy interventions, women globally continue to earn less, own less, and access less. This continues to be the case because the policies and structures surrounding economic mobility were not built with women in mind.

The year’s theme frames gender equality as a collective investment for all. When women gain economic ground, communities become stronger, families become more stable, and economies expand.

Now the question for 2026 is no longer whether women deserve economic inclusion. The question is why, with all the evidence available, the pace of change remains so slow.

The Workforce Gap

The data paints a picture that is hard to ignore. According to the World Economic Forum, at the current rate of progress, it will take 134 years to close the global gender parity gap. On pay alone, the World Bank reports that women earn just 77 to 83 cents for every dollar paid to men globally.

Nigeria's gender gap is both a local and a continental challenge. According to the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report, Nigeria ranks 124th out of 146 countries on gender parity, with particularly low rankings in political empowerment. Women in Nigeria earn 45% less than their male counterparts across sectors, according to a survey by the International Labor Organization (ILO).

Additionally, unpaid care work remains one of the biggest silent barriers. Nigerian women shoulder a disproportionate share of domestic responsibilities, from childcare to elder care, which limits their availability in the workforce, in skills training, and in entrepreneurship.

The Entrepreneurship Gap

For women who do find their footing in the workforce, entrepreneurship has long been positioned as a pathway to greater financial independence. But the reality is that this path remains deeply unequal.

Nigeria has one of the highest rates of female entrepreneurship in the world, yet women-owned businesses remain severely underfunded. Women entrepreneurs in Nigeria are far less likely than men to access formal credit, and when they do, it is often on less favorable terms like higher interest rates, shorter repayment windows, and collateral requirements that many women cannot meet based on restrictions on property ownership.

Across Africa, too, businesses owned or led by women only receive around 2% of total venture capital investments. The economic cost of this exclusion is enormous and is costing the continent a lot.

The Pathways Forward

History has shown that change is possible when the right interventions are made. Since 1970, more than 600 million women have gained access to economic opportunities as a direct result of law and policy reform.

Creating economic mobility for all women and girls requires action across several interconnected areas such as:

• Legal reform: Eliminating discriminatory inheritance laws, property rights restrictions, and financial regulations that limit women's economic agency. Criminalizing domestic violence and workplace sexual harassment has shown direct links to improved workforce participation.
• Digital and financial inclusion: Digital financial tools have strong potential to reach women excluded from traditional banking, particularly in rural and informal economies, by reducing collateral requirements and bypassing geographic limitations.
• Investment in care infrastructure: Without affordable childcare for families, women participating in the workforce will continue to face challenges. Policies that redistribute unpaid care work are necessary for economic investments.
• Access to capital: Financial institutions and venture capital firms must review lending and investment criteria that systematically disadvantage women-owned businesses.
• Skills, mentorship, and networks: When women are given access to education, technical skills, and professional networks, the returns extend beyond the individual to communities, families, and the economies of every country.

Tech4Dev's Role in Building Economic Pathways for Women

At Tech4Dev, the work of creating economic mobility for women is very much operational. In 2025, Tech4Dev directly impacted 99,839 beneficiaries across Africa, with 84% being women, and extended its reach across 30 African countries through advocacy and digital training initiatives.

The Women Techsters Fellowship remains one of the most concrete expressions of this commitment. In 2025, the Fellowship received over 14,500 applications, which represented a 54% increase from the previous year, and admitted 1,559 women into the Class of 2026.

Fellows gain industry-standard skills across tech careers like Product Design, Product Management, Cybersecurity, Software Development, Data Science and Engineering etc.all integrated with artificial intelligence (AI) tools.

Additionally, the Women Techsters LaunchPad 3.0 is another expression of Tech4Dev’s work. It is a one-week intensive program for female university students to gain foundational knowledge in Vibe Coding and Internet Safety Essentials, learn Prompt Engineering, and build their first web app with AI. This includes hands-on mentorship from professionals navigating these careers daily.

Applications are currently open for the Women Techsters LaunchPad 3.0 till March 15th, 2026. We encourage female university students to apply here.

The 2026 IWD theme "Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls" is deliberate. Rights are the foundation for reform. Justice is the engine driving reform. And Action is what turns both Rights and Justice into lived reality for women and girls.

Happy International Women’s Day!

#IWD2026 #RightsJusticeAction #WomensEconomicEmpowerment #GenderEquity #WomensMonth