Health

At IWWAGE, we recognise that women’s health and economic empowerment are deeply interconnected. Access to quality, affordable healthcare is essential for women to enter, remain in, and progress in the workforce. Improved health outcomes strengthen women’s economic participation, while greater economic agency enables better health, creating a reinforcing cycle of empowerment.

IWWAGE’s work on women’s health focuses on:

Linking health and economic participation

Examining how health outcomes influence women’s ability to participate, retain, and advance in paid work across sectors and life stages.

Improving measurement and visibility of women’s work

Bringing attention to under-recognised areas such as menstrual and menopausal health, and their implications for productivity, dignity, and long-term labour market engagement.

Identifying systemic barriers and enablers

Analysing how health systems, workplace practices, and social norms shape women’s access to care and health-related decision-making.

Integrating health into economic and workplace policy

Advocating for the inclusion of women’s health needs within labour, social protection, and workplace policies to support sustained economic empowerment.

Through this work, IWWAGE positions women’s health as a strategic lever for inclusive growth, ensuring that women’s health needs are visible, valued, and embedded within broader economic and social policy agendas.

Working Paper

Needs Assessment of Childcare Facilities

This report, conducted by IWWAGE in collaboration with SEWA, explores the critical need for childcare in remote tribal areas of India, covering districts in Gujarat, Odisha, Kerala, and Meghalaya. The study focuses on how the lack of quality childcare services impacts mothers’ ability to engage in paid employment, particularly following the disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. It highlights the “double burden” that women face managing domestic responsibilities while striving to earn a livelihood. Findings reveal significant gaps in childcare facilities, with many women relying on informal, unpaid care arrangements. The report stresses the urgent need for improved, accessible Early Childhood Development (ECD) services that not only support mother’s workforce participation but also ensure the well-being and cognitive development of children. This study provides valuable insights into the barriers women in rural and tribal areas face and calls for targeted policy interventions to close the gap in childcare services.

Report

Evidence Review of the Global Childcare Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic reversed gains in women’s equality by intensifying unpaid care work and triggering a global childcare crisis. School and childcare closures sharply increased care demands, disproportionately affecting women—especially those in low-paid, informal, and vulnerable jobs—leading to job losses, income insecurity, and limited social protection. Despite its economic importance, childcare remains underfunded and unpaid care work undervalued. Expanding access to affordable, quality childcare is essential to support women’s employment, reduce poverty, create jobs, and enable an inclusive and sustainable post-COVID recovery.