Across the Global South, women’s workforce participation continues to be shaped by structural constraints that both undervalue their labour and limit opportunities across leadership levels. Systemic barriers prevent women from advancing into leadership roles globally. Even in the United States (U.S.) and Canada, women hold merely 29 percent of C-suite roles. However, in the Global South, these barriers take different forms in each country. And that variation is exactly where the opportunity lies: because the challenges are local, the solutions can also be targeted locally.
In India, Nigeria, and Kenya, women face a common set of barriers, including overwhelming representation in informal and subsistence work, lower wages, time poverty from unpaid care, and underrepresentation in leadership. Whether it is Nigeria’s steady pipeline in law, Kenya’s near-equal entry rates in the public sector, or India’s board-level mandates, there are proven models that work.
This analysis draws on cross-country data to explore women’s participation in formal employment across the three countries – where they enter, drop off, and what explains the divergence. Private sector trends reveal structured career progression, but most women in these countries still work informally – in caregiving, agriculture, or domestic roles that remain invisible and unpaid.
Asian Woman Leadership 