Gender and Economic Agency Initiative

Women sitting down in a row
Photo: Paula Bronstein/The Verbatim Agency/Getty Images.
J-PAL’s Gender and Economic Agency (GEA) Initiative funds randomized evaluations of strategies to enhance women’s economic agency.  

GEA aims to build a strong body of evidence on policies and programs to promote women’s work and enhance women’s economic agency in East Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Central America. GEA works to develop policy-relevant insights from this research to drive programming, strategies, and policymaking on women’s work in both formal and informal employment. In addition, as there is a growing need to identify and test key indicators for women’s empowerment and agency, GEA seeks to enhance the availability and scale of improved metrics for these outcomes.

GEA prioritizes developing research on three themes: 

  1. Workplace arrangements and labor policies to promote formal and informal employment for women
  2. Enhancing women’s labor potential and work readiness (including self-employment)
  3. Addressing restrictive gender norms and attitudes related to women’s work

Key Facts

Office:
J-PAL Global
Status:
  • Research RFP: Closed
Eligibility:
Open to J-PAL affiliated professors and GEA invited researchers

Funders

For Researchers

Request for Proposals

J-PAL’s Gender and Economic Agency (GEA) Initiative funds randomized evaluations of strategies to enhance women’s economic agency. GEA hosts two regular funding cycles per year calling for proposals from J-PAL affiliates and GEA invited researchers for full research projects, pilot studies, and travel/proposal development grants. 

Please note that GEA's off-cycle 2022 RFP has now closed.

Initiative Staff

Carmen Hernandez Ruiz, Policy Manager

Carlos Solorzano, Senior Finance and Operations Associate

Diana Warira, Policy Manager

Megan Morris, Policy Manager