Growing Livelihood Opportunities for Women (GLOW)


Context
Our Mission
Our Approach
GLOW signs up companies as ‘partners’, and works with them to co-develop a common understanding of the barriers to employ women, brainstorm ideas to address these barriers, and pilot interventions. Once the practical, effective and sustainable best practices are piloted and proven, partners will roll these out to new locations and new job roles. GLOW will document and disseminate these gender-equitable best practices, making it easier and less risky for non-partners to employ women. Over time, more non-partners will see the shift in industry norms and continue to adopt GLOW’s best practices across new geographies, leading to approximately 1 million jobs for women 5 years after GLOW ends.
GLOW has signed up 17 companies as partners. Since January 2022, partners have run pilots (e.g., effective channels to recruit women, remuneration policies better aligned to women’s needs, gender-disaggregated data collected) leading to the development of effective practices and >1,400 women placed in jobs.
Our Research
FSG interviewed 6,600 women from households with low income [7] to understand their beliefs, motivations, and preferences towards employment. We found that women want to be in jobs: 1 out of 2 women are either working or seeking a job. 64% of women strongly believe that to be self-reliant, it is important to work. Supporting personal and family expenses is a key reason for over 90% of women working in, or seeking jobs. Nonworking women are nearly twice as likely to prefer jobs over entrepreneurship. However, 69% of key decision-makers (e.g., husbands and fathers) firmly believe that the main role of a woman is to look after the home and the children. 84% of women need to secure their families’ permission to work. Read more about GLOW’s research findings >
Our Industry Focus
- Logistics is the transport and storage of the parcel from the seller to the end-consumer. Roles in the logistics industry include delivery agent, warehouse packer and sorter etc. The logistics industry has the potential to employ approximately 11 million[8] workers by 2030. Today, less than 2%[9] of logistics workers are women. A gender diverse workforce is good for logistics companies and an additional 1 million-plus women could be employed. Read more about the logistics industry >
- Flexi-staffing is the provision of semi-skilled frontline employees (e.g., retail promoters, tele-calling agents) to companies. Flexi-staffing has the potential to create approximately 12 million[10] jobs by 2030. Multiple frontline roles could be a good fit for women however, employers face barriers in recruiting and retaining women. Read more about the flexi-staffing industry >
- Home healthcare (HHC) is the provision of healthcare services at home. HHC has the potential to employ approximately 66,000 attendants[11] by 2026. But, the industry faces barriers (e.g., high attrition) that prevent employers from scaling. Read more about the HHC industry >
Download the GLOW Report


- Gender, Inclusive Markets
What Will It Take? FSG's GLOW Report
Our Funders
GLOW is part-funded by:



