Women's Leadership

Understanding WIEGO's Work in Women's LeadershipWIEGO is committed to supporting women workers in informal employment to raise their voices and demands in their organizations and at the negotiation table with employers and governments.

Across Africa, Asia and Latin America, women are more likely than men to be in informal employment and are found in low paid and vulnerable forms of work. Organizing women workers and supporting their leadership aligns the movement with what is most sustainable in the long term – gender-balanced membership, democratic leadership, and fairness in representative spaces.

Why Is Women's Leadership Important for Workers in Informal Employment?When women workers lead through an intersectional lens rooted in democratic practice and economic justice, movements can bring about systemic change. This allows all workers to access the resources they need and impact the broader policy, regulatory and institutional environment that shapes their lives and working conditions.

Women workers in informal employment experience discrimination based on several intersecting identities, including class, gender, race, caste and ethnicity, age, ability and migration status. These multiple forms of inequality create a set of circumstances that limit women’s access to leadership roles. For example, women migrant street vendors in many countries cannot join a union and may be barred from leadership. They are unable to voice their needs and demands so as to inform the broader movement.

How is WIEGO Helping?

Support and Training for Women Leaders

Worker education through the WIEGO School creates global cross-sector spaces for women, men and youth leaders to learn and practice intersectional analysis and democratic leadership. WIEGO also provides technical training on social protection, urban policies and legal empowerment to strengthen women worker leaders’ advocacy.
Integrating an Intersectional Lens in WIEGO Research
In an effort to support women’s leadership, WIEGO is committed to providing statistics and research outputs that speak to the complexity of women workers’ lived experiences – centring class and gender. These resources are intended to be used by women workers and their organizations to negotiate for improved terms of employment.

Related Resources
- Publication Interrogating Intersectionality: Considerations on Critical Inquiry and Praxis for WIEGO’s Actionable Research Read More
WIEGO’s Gender & Waste Project

This collaborative project involving waste pickers in Latin America sheds light on the multiple levels of discrimination that women waste pickers face. It highlights their needs – at home, at work, and as leaders within their representative organizations – and buildscapacity for women’s agency as leaders and active citizens in their communities.

Featured Story MBO Newsletter – March 2024

Achieving gender balance and democratic leadership for all workers in informal employment is the focus of this MBO Newsletter. Many questions are raised, which invites all MBOs to hold space in their...