Workplace Gender Equality
Enabling Policy Reforms
Uncover evidence-based insights to craft and implement policies addressing women’s economic challenges in Southeast Asia.
Campaigns and CoPs
Explore campaigns and Communities of Practice (CoP) that support the broader adoption of gender-progressive attitudes and behaviours.
Gender Lens Investing
Learn how gender lens investment strategies and products help maximise investment potential for women-owned and -led businesses.
Established in 2016, Investing in Women (IW) tackles one of the most critical social and economic issues of our time: gender equality.
An Australian Government-funded initiative, Investing in Women works with business leaders, investors, and policymakers to remove barriers to women’s full economic participation.
In Southeast Asia’s rapidly growing and transforming economies, gender inequality stands as a significant barrier to more sustainable and inclusive development. While progress has been made, gender gaps remain, including in economic participation.
Investing in Women (IW) supports our partners in Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Myanmar to advance women’s economic empowerment – building more resilient economies and more equitable societies.
Women’s economic empowerment is not only fundamental to gender equality but key to business competitiveness and productivity. The evidence clearly shows that investing in women—unlocking their skills, talent, innovation and leadership—benefits not only the women themselves but also their families, communities, workplaces and nations.
IW supports women to participate fully as employees and entrepreneurs by reducing or removing structural barriers. Together with our partners, IW works to place women at the forefront of economic development.
Our Impact
IW has been tackling women’s economic empowerment with the support of the Australian Government since 2016. Since then, IW has:
Established 4 Business Coalitions that improve workplace gender equality in the private sector in Southeast Asia. Together these coalitions have enlisted 128 major businesses, representing over 1 million employees, to implement more equitable workplace policies and practices.
Invested AUD 15.4 million into 82 women led or owned SMEs through 10 investment partners. This investment helped catalyse over AUD 525 million of additional capital and follow-on investment to bridge the finance gap for women entrepreneurs.
Worked with market building partners to normalise gender lens investing in the investment community, contributing to a 3.4x increase in the number, and a 7x increase in the value of deals made with a gender lens.
Supported local partners to deliver targeted advocacy campaigns, reaching over 350 million people across Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
YEARS OF PROGRAM INNOVATION
FUNDED BY THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT (IN AUD)
COMPANIES COMMITTED TO WORKPLACE GENDER EQUALITY
EMPLOYEES REPRESENTED
CAPITAL AND INVESTMENT FUNDING CATALYSED
IN ONLINE REACH
Investing in Women – An initiative of the Australian Government
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Latest Knowledge Resources
Unlocking Potential: The Opportunity Cost of Neglecting Gender in Investment, An Annotated Bibliography
This annotated bibliography highlights the range of opportunity costs for organisations and investors not applying a gender lens, as evident in literature.
Representation of Women in Healthcare: Preliminary Findings, Trends and Considerations for Impact Investors
This brief investigates the representation of women founders among healthcare companies receiving impact investments.
Investing in Women Enabling Policy Reforms Brochure
This brochure presents Investing in Women’s approach to enabling policy reforms that strengthen the care economy and drive women’s economic equality in Southeast Asia.