Devex: Opinion: Decent work for women calls for sexual and reproductive rights
Sarah Gammage, director of gender, economic empowerment, and livelihoods at the International Center for Research on Women, and Dana Stefov, women’s rights policy and advocacy specialist and the policy lead on sexual and reproductive health and rights and women’s economic equality at Oxfam Canada

“Reproductive health and decent work are inextricably linked for women. … So why do programs that claim to promote women’s economic empowerment, or WEE, ignore this foundational barrier to their success? Evidence citing the economic benefits of investing in comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights agenda are easily identified in the work and recommendations of development actors in the health sphere, yet limited reference and acknowledgment of SRHR exists in policy and programming on WEE. … For progress in WEE, we must invest in SRHR. This means that our approach to WEE policy and programs should be grounded in a reproductive justice framework with the goal of removing the systemic and structural barriers to their employment education and self-actualization that women, especially marginalized women, face…” (10/25).