This chapter examines how norms of restrictive masculinities shape women’s economic empowerment in Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal, drawing on OECD research from Côte d’Ivoire and related evidence from both countries. It first analyses gender gaps in labour market outcomes and the extent to which restrictive norms affect women’s employment, alongside other important drivers such as education, local labour market conditions and care responsibilities. It then turns to women’s agency, focusing on decision-making power, autonomy over income, and ownership and control of productive assets. The chapter concludes by outlining policy implications for addressing both restrictive norms and structural barriers to strengthen women’s economic empowerment more effectively in Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal.
Masculinity and Gender Equality
Abstract
Key findings on the linkages between masculinities and women’s economic empowerment
Women in Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal continue to face persistent barriers to economic empowerment. Gender gaps remain substantial in labour force participation, job quality, decision-making power, control over income, and ownership of productive assets such as land and housing.
Restrictive masculinities help explain why these gaps persist. Norms that position men as primary providers, household heads, decision makers and controllers of resources can limit women’s employment prospects, reduce their agency over income and assets, and constrain their role in household decisions.
Women’s employment does not automatically translate into empowerment. Even when women work, they are often concentrated in informal, lower-paid or less secure jobs. Paid work or income does not necessarily expand agency if women cannot decide how resources are used or fully benefit from them.
Household income shapes how restrictive masculinities affect women’s employment. In Côte d’Ivoire, restrictive norms are particularly associated with a higher likelihood of women being out of the workforce in middle- and higher-income households, where families may have greater economic room to conform to male breadwinner norms.
Unpaid care and domestic work are a central pathway through which restrictive masculinities constrain women’s economic opportunities. Women spend far more time than men on these tasks, reducing their time, mobility and flexibility to access decent work, training, entrepreneurship and career progression.
Restrictive masculinities also constrain women’s agency over household decisions, income and assets. In Côte d’Ivoire, stronger endorsement of restrictive norms is associated with lower women’s decision-making power, reduced control over their own income, and a lower likelihood of owning land.
Norms matter, but they do not operate in isolation. Education, local labour market conditions, care services, legal frameworks and institutional barriers also shape women’s economic opportunities and control over resources.
Advancing women’s economic empowerment requires an integrated policy approach. Priorities include redistributing unpaid care and domestic work, expanding childcare and care services, strengthening women’s access to land, housing, credit and markets, promoting positive masculinities, and mainstreaming women’s economic empowerment across national policies and budgets.
Women’s economic empowerment goes beyond participation in paid work. It encompasses women’s ability to access decent economic opportunities, including stable work in the formal economy, exercise choice, control resources and influence decisions that affect their economic lives. A woman is economically empowered when she has both the ability to succeed and progress economically, and the agency to make and act on economic decisions. This requires skills, knowledge and resources to compete in markets, as well as fair and equal access to economic institutions and opportunities. It also requires the power to make decisions and act on them, including in relation to income, employment, assets, investment and the use of time.
Drawing on new OECD Development Centre evidence, this chapter shows that restrictive masculinities help explain persistent gender gaps in economic empowerment in Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal. Restrictive masculinities refer to norms that associate men with breadwinning, authority, leadership and control over resources, and that can reinforce expectations that women assume primary responsibility for unpaid care and domestic work. These norms can weaken women’s employment prospects, limit their influence over income and assets, and reduce their role in key household decisions, even when they are economically active. They can also intensify women’s unpaid care and domestic work burden, limiting the time, mobility and flexibility needed to access decent work, training, entrepreneurship and career progression.
Addressing restrictive masculinities is therefore a critical policy lever for advancing women’s economic empowerment, but norm change alone is not sufficient. Evidence from Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal shows that restrictive norms operate alongside broader structural constraints, including education gaps, local labour market conditions, care responsibilities, limited care services, and legal and institutional barriers to women’s control over productive resources. The chapter also considers how these norms interact with wider economic and social conditions that shape women’s opportunities, choices and control over resources.
Women’s access to economic opportunities, particularly to quality employment, is an important pillar of women’s economic empowerment. Paid work can enable women to generate income, strengthen household income security, and enhance their bargaining power within the household and in society more broadly. Yet, employment alone does not guarantee empowerment. Its transformative potential depends on the conditions under which women work, including earnings, security, access to social protection, opportunities for skills development and progression, and control over the income earned. When women are concentrated in low‑paid, insecure, or informal jobs, paid work may generate income without significantly improving their economic security, autonomy or bargaining power. In Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal, these employment outcomes are shaped not only by education, labour market conditions and care responsibilities, but also by restrictive norms that define men as a primary provider.
This chapter combines different types of evidence from Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal. For Côte d’Ivoire, it draws primarily on original nationally representative household survey data collected for this report (hereafter referred to as survey data from Côte d’Ivoire), which include information on attitudes towards masculinities, economic agency and labour market participation. For Senegal, it relies on secondary quantitative sources together with qualitative evidence from key informant interviews and participatory discussions, including with government institutions, civil society organisations and international partners.
These data are complementary but not fully comparable. Differences in methodology, definitions, indicators, and reference periods mean that certain estimates, e.g. time spent on unpaid care and domestic work, may not be fully comparable based on survey design or population coverage. In this chapter, the Côte d’Ivoire data are used to examine patterns of women’s economic empowerment and the roles of norms in driving the observed gaps, while the qualitative evidence from Senegal offers in-depth insights how masculine norms operate in practice and shape women’s work and economic agency. For both countries, national experts were consulted to contextualise the data results.
Women continue to face major barriers to full economic empowerment
Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal both face persistent gender gaps in labour force participation. At 15 percentage points in Côte d’Ivoire and 28 percentage points in Senegal, gender gaps are among the highest relative to comparator economies in Africa, surpassed only by Morocco and Tunisia. Côte d’Ivoire records a higher female labour force participation rate, at 60%, compared with 38% in Senegal (Figure 4.1 – Panel A), although women’s labour force participation in Senegal has increased slightly since 2010 (Figure 4.1 – Panel B).
Note: The OECD members group refers to the 38 members countries.
Source: World Bank (2026[1]), World Development Indicators (database), https://databank.worldbank.org/source/world-development-indicators.
When in paid work, employment does not necessarily guarantee decent working conditions for women in Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal. In both countries, women are more likely than men to be engaged in vulnerable employment (Figure 4.2), including own-account work and contributing family work, which is generally associated with less secure and less formal working arrangements, lower and less stable earnings, and more limited access to social protection than wage and salaried employment.
Despite formal equal pay provisions in the Labour Codes of both Côte d'Ivoire and Senegal, which mandate equal remuneration for work of equal value regardless of gender, women also continue to face substantial wage disparities. Gender pay gaps are estimated at 27% for Côte d’Ivoire in 2019 and 13% for Senegal in 2024 (ILO, 2022[2]; ILO, 2024[3]). Within households, women’s earning also tend to remain lower than men’s: in Senegal, 76% of women report earning less than their husbands, while 11% report earning the same or more. In Côte d’Ivoire, the corresponding figures are 87% and 9%, respectively (DHS Senegal, 2023[4]; DHS Côte d'Ivoire, 2021[5]).
Note: Responses in Panels A and B are non‑mutually exclusive; individuals may report multiple categories, implying that reported shares are not constrained to sum to 100%. Data for Côte d’Ivoire refer to 2026, while data for Senegal refer to 2021.
Source: Panel A – Authors’ elaboration based on OECD (2026[6]), OECD Masculinities Database for Côte d'Ivoire, https://data-explorer.oecd.org/s/4sy. Panel B - OECD (2026[7]), Key Indicators of Informality based on Individuals and Households (KIIbIH) Database, https://data-explorer.oecd.org.
Restrictive masculinities can limit women’s employment
OECD Development Centre’s granular analysis, based on evidence from Côte d’Ivoire, shows that restrictive masculinities are negatively associated with women’s probability of being employed. This relationship is evident both when considering overall measures of masculinity, captured by the OECD Masculinities Index (see Chapter 2), and when examining specific restrictive norms.1
Norms that position men as protectors and guardians of women, leaders and primary breadwinners appear to be particularly strongly associated with lower employment prospects for women. When men are seen as protectors and women as dependants, women’s mobility, job search, and access to education, training and professional networks may be restricted. At the same time, norms that define men as primary providers can frame women’s employment as secondary or conditional, especially when women’s paid work is seen as undermining men’s expected role as the main providers for the household.
The analysis further suggests that women’s employment in Côte d’Ivoire is shaped not only by gender norms, but also by education, local labour market conditions and care responsibilities. Education is consistently associated with a higher probability of formal employment. In addition, significant differences at the sub-national level persist, suggesting that the availability and quality of local economic opportunities matter for women’s, as well as men’s, employment outcomes. At the household level, having biological children is negatively associated with women’s employment, pointing to the role of time constraints and unequal care responsibilities in limiting women’s engagement in paid work.
Qualitative evidence from Senegal points to similar dynamics. Stakeholders describe broad social acceptance of women’s economic participation and decision-making power, but this acceptance often remains conditional. Women’s work and financial contributions to household income are generally accepted insofar as they continue to fulfil domestic responsibilities and do not visibly challenge men’s role as primary family breadwinner (see Chapter 3). This points to an important tension: while women’s access to education, skills and jobs is widely supported, married women’s economic opportunities often still have to be negotiated within marital and family structures. At the same time, where women’s economic contribution is considered acceptable only insofar as it does not disrupt established domestic roles, women may be channelled into forms of work that are informal, flexible or home-based, allowing them to remain available for childcare, household responsibilities or unforeseen family needs. As a result, even when women are able to enter the labour market, they may remain concentrated in more precarious jobs, reinforcing labour-market vulnerability and limiting opportunities for career progression (ILO, 2018[7]; OECD, 2019[8]).
Restrictive masculinities can also shape the type of work considered appropriate for women and men. Norms that associate leadership with masculine traits may bias hiring and promotion in favour of men, discourage women from pursuing positions of authority, and contribute to both horizontal segregation across occupations and vertical segregation within organisational hierarchies (Figure 4.3). In Côte d’Ivoire, a substantial share of both men (50%) and women (44%) consider secretarial work better suited to women, while mining engineering is less commonly viewed as exclusively male, suggesting some openness to women’s entry into traditionally male fields. However, leadership norms remain more restrictive: 66% of men and 53% of women believe that men make better business leaders, while 81% of men and 71% of women believe that men make better political leaders (OECD, 2026[6]). Afrobarometer data suggest that these views are less entrenched in Senegal, where 31% of men and 15% of women agree that men are better political leaders (Afrobarometer, 2022[9]). These patterns are not specific only to Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal but are part of broader global issues. Experimental labour-market evidence shows that, despite women’s rising educational attainment and labour-market participation, labour markets around the world remain marked by horizontal and vertical gender segregation (Lozano, Ranehill and Reuben, 2023[10]).
Where such attitudes are prevalent, they can limit women’s access to higher-quality jobs and leadership roles by reinforcing occupational segregation and the perception that positions of authority are more appropriate for men (see Chapter 2). In this way, restrictive masculinities affect not only whether women work, but also the sectors, occupations and levels of responsibility they are able to access.
Note: Economic activity is classified using the International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities, revision 4 (ISIC rev 4). Category "other services" aggregates workers from categories R, S, T and U of ISIC rev 4, corresponding respectively to "Arts, entertainment and recreation" (R), "Other service activities" (S), "Activities of households as employers; undifferentiated goods - and services producing activities of households for own use" (T), and "Activities of extraterritorial organisations and bodies" (U).
Source: ILO (2022; 2024[11]), ILO.Stat Data Explorer, https://data.ilo.org/.
The relationship between restrictive gender norms and women’s employment is particularly evident in middle- and high-income households, where families may have greater economic room to conform to traditional gender roles.2 The stronger the endorsement of norms that expect men to be the main breadwinners, the more likely women are to be out of work. A similar pattern appears with norms that give men control over household assets, although the relationship is weaker. In low-income households, however, this link disappears. Economic necessity often requires women to contribute to household income, even when employment is informal, insecure or poorly paid. This suggests that restrictive norms may have a stronger influence on women’s employment where households have the financial means to act on them, whereas economic constraints can limit the extent to which such preferences shape labour market participation. These dynamics are consistent with the U-shaped relationship between economic development and female labour force participation. In low-income, agrarian contexts, women’s participation tends to be high because economic necessity compels their contribution to household survival. It often declines in the early stages of industrialisation before recovering as the service economy expands and women’s educational attainment increases (Goldin, 1994[12]; Kabeer, 2012[13]). This pattern suggests that participation driven by poverty reflects vulnerability rather than empowerment, and that declines associated with rising incomes should not be interpreted as a long-term outcome.
Unpaid care and domestic work are a key mechanism shaping women’s economic empowerment, particularly through labour market outcomes. Restrictive norms that define such work as women’s responsibility and falling outside men’s expected roles strengthen these outcomes. When women bear a disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic responsibilities, they have less time for income-generating activities, training, networking, rest and health, and face greater constraints in accessing full-time, stable and better-paid jobs (OECD, 2023[14]). This matters not only for labour-force participation, but also for the quality of their economic participation. Heavy unpaid care and domestic workloads can push women into informal, part-time, lower-paid or flexible jobs that are easier to combine with household responsibilities, while reducing their opportunities for career progression and limiting the extent to which paid work translates into greater autonomy. Even when women enter the labour market, paid work is often added to existing care and domestic responsibilities rather than replacing or redistributing them. This is particularly visible in low-income contexts, where women’s income may be an economic necessity, creating substantial role overload and contributing to women working significantly longer total hours than men (Oropesa, 1993[15]; Chopra and Zambelli, 2017[16]; OECD, 2022[17]). These dynamics are reinforced by restrictive masculinities that define men primarily as providers and women as caregivers and household managers, making the unequal distribution of unpaid care and domestic work appear natural rather than negotiable.
Women continue to bear a disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work
Mirroring global patterns, women in Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal spend significantly more time than men on unpaid care and domestic tasks. Globally, women spend on average 2.6 times as much time as men on these activities. In Côte d’Ivoire, women spend about seven hours per day on unpaid care and domestic work, compared with around two hours for men, or 3.5 times as much time (OECD, 2023[14]). The gap is even wider in Senegal, where women devote about five hours per day to these tasks, compared with only 30 minutes for men, or roughly 10 times as much time. These figures point to a substantial and persistent imbalance in the allocation of unpaid work, with women bearing the overwhelming share in both countries (Figure 4.4).
Note: In Côte d’Ivoire, unpaid care and domestic work includes activities such as cooking, cleaning, house repairs, laundry, collecting water and firewood, providing for children’s needs (feeding, bathing, and medical care), supervising homework, spending time with and accompanying children to activities, and caring for elderly or sick household members. In Senegal, there are slight differences in the activities included. While cooking, cleaning, fetching water or firewood, and caring for children, the elderly, or sick family members are covered, activities such as house repairs and laundry are not mentioned. In addition, the scope of “caring for children” is not clearly defined. These differences in definitions may contribute to lower reported time spent on unpaid care and domestic work in Senegal.
Source: OECD (2026[6]), OECD Masculinities Database for Côte d'Ivoire, https://data-explorer.oecd.org/s/4sy; (Agence Nationale de la Statistique et de la Démographie, 2022[18]), Enquête Nationale sur l'Emploi du Temps au Senegal.
Survey data from Côte d’Ivoire further show that gender differences in unpaid care and domestic work are pronounced across the entire country, particularly for household tasks. The Central West region records the highest levels of unpaid work for women in both household tasks and care (Figure 4.5 – Panel A). On the other hand, men in the Central West also appear to spend more time on household tasks and care than men in other regions, which can be seen from the lower women-to-man ratio of hours spend on household tasks and care in comparison to other regions. By contrast, South West, North East and North, the data indicate extremely limited male participation, especially in household task (Figure 4.5 – Panel B). Large gender gaps in household tasks across Côte d’Ivoire suggest that any meaningful reduction in women’s time burden will require greater male participation in routine domestic tasks.
Across the South West, North, and North East, women's disproportionate agricultural labour coexists with systematic exclusion from land ownership and productive assets, further compounded by chronic water scarcity. The South West is the economic heartland of cocoa production. Based on the latest available data, women in Côte d'Ivoire own 25% of cocoa farms and form 68% of the cocoa labour force yet only earn 21% of the income generated from cocoa production – they are usually perceived as helpers in cocoa tasks and responsible for food crop production (Marston, 2016[19]). In practice, even when a household's cash income comes from cocoa, which is mostly controlled by the husband, women bear large responsibility for ensuring the family is fed, managing a separate subsistence agriculture track on top of contributing to cocoa production. In the northern regions, where the agricultural system centres on cashew nuts and cotton, a similar pattern of exclusion persists. Women rarely hold ownership of agricultural land (only 8% hold a land title compared to 22% of men) (Kalsi and Memon, 2020[20]). Beyond the farm, water infrastructure deficits compound women's unpaid care burden in ways that do not affect men equally. The northern part of Côte d'Ivoire, with only one rainy season, faces serious water infrastructure deficits compounded by climate vulnerability (GIZ, 2021[21]). In rural Ivorian communities, women are considered the guardians of water and the scarcity of potable water compels them to travel long distances for collection, exposing them to physical fatigue and reducing the time available for paid or productive activities (Aser and Seri, 2023[22]).
Note: In Côte d’Ivoire, household tasks (HH tasks) include activities such as cooking, cleaning, house repairs, laundry, and the collection of water and firewood, while care activities include providing for children’s needs (feeding, bathing, and medical care), supervising homework, spending time with children, accompanying them to activities, and caring for elderly or sick household members.
Source: Authors’ elaboration based on OECD (2026[6]), OECD Masculinities Database for Côte d'Ivoire, https://data-explorer.oecd.org/s/4sy.
Low participation in early childhood education, together with the limited availability of affordable care services, is likely to intensify women’s unpaid care and domestic work burden in both countries. This is particularly consequential in low- and middle-income contexts, where fragmented care systems deepen women’s time poverty and further constrain their economic participation. Both Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire have relatively low levels of participation in early childhood education compared with the other countries presented (Figure 4.6). Limited access to affordable and quality care services can reinforce women’s responsibility for childcare within the household, reducing the time and flexibility they have to engage in paid work, training or entrepreneurship. Data from Côte d’Ivoire reveal several reasons behind low participation in early childhood education. One important factor is the limited availability of pre-school facilities in rural areas. This is reflected in the large rural–urban gap in enrolment: only around 5% of children in rural areas are enrolled, compared with 30% in urban areas. Economic barriers further compound this divide. Enrolment is particularly low among children from the poorest households, at just 1.5%, compared with 51.4% among children from the richest quintile. Safety concerns also appear to play a role, as some parents who choose not to enrol their children report that schools do not provide a sufficiently secure environment (MENAET, 2019[23]).
Gross enrolment rate, early childhood education (%)
Note: Data refer to 2023 for Austria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Morocco, Togo, Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire, and to 2021 for Ghana and Nigeria.
Source: World Bank (2026[24]) Gross enrolment rate, early childhood education (%), https://humancapital.worldbank.org/en/indicator/WB_HCP_ECEDU.
Restrictive gender norms reinforce the unequal distribution of unpaid care and domestic work
The unequal distribution of unpaid care and domestic work is not only a matter of household arrangements or service provision; it is also sustained by restrictive norms that define such work as women’s responsibility and confine them to the domestic sphere. Evidence from Côte d’Ivoire further suggests that this unequal distribution is underpinned by powerful social norms: around two-thirds of both women and men report that men should not engage in unpaid care and domestic work because it is considered “a woman’s job”, whereas far fewer cite community disapproval or men’s lack of know-how (Figure 4.7). This suggests that the main barrier is not only practical, but deeply normative: unpaid care and domestic work are widely perceived as falling outside men’s expected roles.
People’s views on why men should not do unpaid care and domestic work
Source: Authors’ elaboration based on OECD (2026[6]), OECD Masculinities Database for Côte d'Ivoire, https://data-explorer.oecd.org/s/4sy.
Social expectations regarding men’s contribution vary considerably by task. Men in Côte d’Ivoire are expected to contribute most regularly to supervising children’s homework, with 43% of respondents saying men should do this every day and a further 37% several times a week. Expectations of men’s involvement are also relatively stronger for childcare and care for sick elders, where only small minorities say men should never contribute. By contrast, routine domestic tasks remain much more strongly feminised. Around 43% of respondents believe men should never do laundry, while 37% say the same for cleaning, 35% for cooking and 33% for collecting water and wood (Figure 4.8). These patterns suggest that men’s involvement is more socially accepted when it is linked to children’s education or occasional care, but remains much less accepted for daily, repetitive domestic tasks that make up a large share of women’s unpaid work burden.
OECD analysis from Côte d’Ivoire further shows that restrictive masculinities are associated with more time spent by women on unpaid care and domestic work. This pattern holds both for the OECD Masculinities Index and for specific norm dimensions.3 Norms that appear to increase women’s unpaid work burden include those that position men as dominant in sexual and reproductive decision-making, give them control over household assets and final authority over household decisions, and define them as breadwinners, financially dominant, “manly” leaders, and suited to “manly” jobs. These norms operate through several channels. Norms that allow men to dominate sexual and reproductive choices limit women’s agency by exerting control over fertility and birth spacing. Norms that give men control over household assets or final decision-making authority can also limit women’s ability to redirect resources towards childcare, labour-saving goods or a more equal division of labour. At the same time, the norms of men having to be the breadwinner, “manly” leaders and the “ideal worker” reinforces the perception that men’s time should be used for paid work while framing women’s work as secondary, making women the default providers of unpaid care and domestic labour (OECD, 2021[25]).
% of all respondents
Note: The figure presents the distribution for the overall sample, estimated as a weighted average of the percentage shares for men and women. Differences in reported views by sex are minimal.
Source: Authors’ elaboration based on OECD (2026[6]), OECD Masculinities Database for Côte d'Ivoire, https://data-explorer.oecd.org/s/4sy.
Qualitative evidence from Senegal points to similar dynamics. Stakeholders identified the norm that men should not engage in unpaid care and domestic work as the most prevalent restrictive masculinity norm (see Chapter 3). Men’s contribution to care and household tasks remains limited, strongly stigmatised and generally accepted only when framed as support to mothers rather than as a shared responsibility within marriage or partnership. In practice, this reinforces the view that unpaid care and domestic responsibilities are inherently women’s work, placing the primary burden of household maintenance and caregiving on women.
The unequal division of care and domestic work, reinforced by restrictive masculine norms, undermines women’s economic empowerment by reducing their time, mobility, earnings potential, job quality and bargaining power. It also limits the extent to which access to paid work can translate into greater autonomy. Increasing men’s participation in unpaid care and domestic work is therefore not only essential for reducing women’s “time poverty”, understood as the lack of sufficient time to balance paid work and unpaid care work, but also for expanding socially accepted roles for men as caregivers and partners. Addressing this imbalance requires expanding care services and labour-saving infrastructure, while also transforming the restrictive norms that protect men’s time for paid work while normalising women’s responsibility for unpaid care and domestic work.
Women’s ability to participate in economic decision-making and exercise control over resources is a core dimension of agency and a key driver of women’s economic empowerment. It determines whether women can make and act on choices that affect their economic lives, including how income is used, whether to save or invest, how household resources are allocated, and whether to acquire or control productive assets. This matters because access to paid work or income does not automatically translate into empowerment if women cannot decide how resources are used or benefit from them. In Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal, restrictive masculinities can limit this agency by reinforcing men’s authority as household heads, final decision makers and primary controllers of income, assets and productive resources. As a result, women may work, earn income or contribute substantially to household production without gaining equal autonomy or bargaining power. These constraints are visible in women’s limited role in household and work-related decision-making and their weaker control over income, and in persistent gender gaps in ownership of land, housing and other assets.
Restrictive masculinities limit women’s agency in household decision-making and control over income
Gender gaps in decision-making persist in Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal, particularly within the household. Survey data from Côte d’Ivoire show that around 60% of employed women report being able to take important decisions in their work, compared with 69% of men (Figure 4.9 – Panel A). However, the disparities are even more pronounced in household decision-making. In Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal, less than 40% of women can make important household decisions, either alone or jointly, including decisions about their own health care and large household purchases (Figure 4.9 – Panel B). The analysis presented below therefore focuses primarily on household decision-making and control over income, where restrictive masculinities appear to play a particularly important role.
Note: The data shown in the first panel are drawn from the survey conducted in Côte d’Ivoire as part of this project and reflect respondents’ perceptions in 2026. The data in the second panel come from the Demographic and Health Surveys and refer to 2023 for Senegal and 2021 for Côte d’Ivoire. The two panels are therefore not directly comparable given difference in reference year.
Source: Panel A – Authors’ elaboration based on OECD (2026[6]), OECD Masculinities Database for Côte d'Ivoire, https://data-explorer.oecd.org/s/4sy; Panel B – DHS Côte d'Ivoire (2021[5]), Standard DHS, Phase 8, https://dhsprogram.com/methodology/survey/survey-display-559.cfm; DHS Senegal (2023[4]), Continuous DHS, Phase 8, https://dhsprogram.com/methodology/survey/survey-display-611.cfm.
OECD analysis based on data from Côte d’Ivoire shows that women’s agency is significantly constrained in contexts where restrictive masculinities are strongly endorsed. Restrictive norms are strongly associated with the view that men alone should hold decision-making power in important family matters. This pattern is consistent across several domains of household decision-making, including major household purchases, everyday purchases, healthcare spending and expenditures on children’s education. Norms portraying men as asset holders, leaders, ideal workers, and breadwinners appear particularly important in limiting women’s autonomy in household decision-making.4 These findings mirror the normative mechanisms described in the OECD’s framework on restrictive masculinities, where men’s authority within the household is reinforced by expectations around provision, control and leadership (OECD, 2021[25]).
Qualitative findings from Senegal point to similar dynamics. Stakeholders highlighted persistent expectations that men should remain the primary breadwinners and main decision makers within the household (Chapter 3). These norms constrain women’s agency by limiting their ability to participate meaningfully in household decision-making. When invited to reflect on this norm through the lens of positive masculinity, stakeholders largely agreed that men should act responsibly by considering women’s views and opinions, rather than exercising sole authority over final decisions.
Restrictive masculinities also limit women’s control over their own earnings.5 The data from Côte d’Ivoire reveal that 63% of women and 74% of men freely decide over the use of their income. While these figures reveal a persisting gender gap, they also suggest that women have greater decision-making power over their own income than over financial decisions at the household level (OECD, 2026[6]). Nonetheless, in contexts where restrictive norms are strongly endorsed, women’s likelihood of having agency over their own income is lower. Qualitative evidence from Senegal is consistent with these findings. Stakeholders described that women often maintain control over their income because it is largely considered a “supplement” rather than an integral part of household income, reflecting entrenched norms that position men as solely responsible for providing financially for the family (OECD, 2026[26]).
Women’s influence appears stronger in sectors where they traditionally make significant contributions, such as agriculture. In Côte d’Ivoire, women appear to exercise greater decision-making authority over agricultural inputs and activities than over other key household matters: 59% report making such decisions all the time, while only about 15% report having sole decision-making power in other important areas of household life. This pattern is consistent with evidence on the gendered division of labour in agriculture, which shows that women are heavily engaged in food‑crop production, watering, storage and food processing, while men concentrate on land clearing, land preparation and cash‑crop cultivation (Akua Duncan and Brants, 2004[27]).
However, women’s greater decision-making over agricultural inputs should not be interpreted straightforwardly as broader economic empowerment. It may instead reflect women’s responsibility for day-to-day and subsistence-oriented production, while men retain stronger positions in more commercially valuable segments of agriculture. In Côte d’Ivoire, female-headed households were 35 percentage points less likely than male-headed households to produce export crops in 2008 and 38 percentage points less likely in 2016, with lower adoption of export crops identified as a key driver of the remaining gender gap in agricultural productivity (Donald, Lawin and Rouanet, 2024[28]). In Senegal, community-based research finds that women are commonly expected to cultivate crops for household consumption, while men are more closely associated with cash crops, financial provision, and primary authority over agricultural and financial decisions (Gueguen, Lepine and Mattern, 2023[29]). These findings suggest that women may exercise relatively greater influence over routine production decisions, while men retain stronger control over commercial crop production and the allocation of agricultural income within the household.
Constraints on asset ownership and control, particularly land, reflect both restrictive norms and institutional barriers
Significant gender gaps in asset ownership persist in Côte d’Ivoire and in Senegal, particularly in relation to land. In Côte d’Ivoire, 25% of men report owning or co-owning land, compared with 9% of women. In Senegal, the corresponding shares are 23% of men and only 4% of women. Gender disparities are also visible in house ownership: 28% of men in Côte d’Ivoire and 22% in Senegal own or co-own a house, compared with 17% and 7% of women, respectively (Figure 4.10). Survey data from Côte d’Ivoire also show a sizable gap in family business ownership, with 5% of men reporting ownership compared with 1% of women.
OECD analysis based on data from Côte d’Ivoire shows that restrictive masculinities are associated with a lower likelihood of women owning land.6 However, the role of specific norms is less clear. This suggests that women’s access to land may be shaped less by individual attitudes in isolation than by the interaction between restrictive norms and broader institutional constraints. In many contexts, inheritance systems and marital property arrangements favour men as primary asset holders, limiting women’s ability to acquire or retain land and housing. Women may also face institutional barriers in accessing credit or financial services, further limiting their ability to accumulate productive assets (Agarwal, 1994[31]; Deere and Doss, 2006[32]; Doss et al., 2015[33]).
In Côte d’Ivoire, inheritance is largely governed by customary norms and traditions, which frequently disadvantage widows and daughters and constrain women’s access to property. Since inheritance remains the main pathway for acquiring land, these practices have significant implications for women’s ownership. Although statutory law recognises surviving spouses and children as rightful heirs, its implementation is often undermined by customary systems that limit women’s ability to claim equal shares (OECD, 2022[30]).
Source: OECD (2026[6]), OECD Masculinities Database for Côte d'Ivoire, https://data-explorer.oecd.org/s/4sy; OECD (2025[31]), SIGI Country Profile: Senegal.
At the same time, attitudes towards women’s rights to own and inherit assets in Côte d’Ivoire appear relatively progressive compared with views on women’s participation in other economic domains. A majority of respondents (59%) believe that women should have the same rights as men to own land (as also set by the Constitution of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire from 2016 and amended in 2020 (UN Women, 2026[32]), and 64% support equal inheritance rights for daughters and sons. This suggests that support for gender equality in asset rights is stronger at the level of stated norms than in actual practice. As also observed in the OECD SIGI Côte d’Ivoire report, comparatively favourable attitudes towards women’s property and inheritance rights coexist with wide gender gaps in asset ownership, pointing to the persistence of customary succession rules, unequal intra-household power relations and social norms that continue to privilege men’s control over productive assets (OECD, 2022[33]). This is also reflected in the analysis presented in the previous section on women’s role in decision-making over agricultural inputs. Although women and men may formally enjoy the same ownership rights, these rights do not necessarily translate into equal control and management over productive assets in practice. Women tend to have greater influence over day-to-day production decisions, while men retain stronger authority over commercial crop production and the use of agricultural income within the household.
In Senegal, this pattern may take a somewhat different form. Qualitative research suggests that the expectation that men should control household assets, including land, is not a central element of dominant masculinities. Persistent gender gaps in asset ownership may therefore be sustained less by explicit normative support for male control over property and more by broader inheritance practices, household bargaining dynamics and institutional constraints. This occurs despite the fact that women and men have equal legal rights to own property and land (UN Women, 2026[34]). At the same time, Muslim succession rules and customary practices continue to influence the distribution and management of assets, including land, in practice (World Bank, 2024[35]). This distinction is important for policies: while norm change remain relevant, improving women’s control over land and other productive assets also requires addressing legal implementation gaps, customary practices, administrative barriers and women’s access to credit and financial services.
The evidence presented in this chapter shows that women in Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal continue to face significant and persistent inequalities in economic empowerment and outcomes. Gender gaps in labour force participation remain substantial and, even when women are employed, they are often concentrated in more constrained forms of work, including informal, lower-paid and less secure jobs. Women also face limits in their ability to make decisions, especially within households, exercise control over their income, and own productive assets such as land.
OECD findings suggest that restrictive masculinities are an important constraint on women’s economic empowerment. Norms that position men as primary providers, decision makers, asset holders and figures of authority can reduce women’s employment prospects, limit their control over income and assets, and weaken their role in household decision-making. These effects are particularly visible in better-off households, where there may be greater economic room to conform to male breadwinner norms. At the same time, women’s economic outcomes are shaped not only by gender norms, but also by education, local labour market conditions, access to productive resources and care responsibilities as well as restrictive formal and informal laws over the inheritance or access to land and non-land assets.
The burden of unpaid care and domestic work is a particularly important pathway through which restrictive masculinities constrain women’s economic opportunities. Where restrictive norms are more strongly endorsed, women tend to spend more time on unpaid care and domestic work, reducing the time, flexibility and mobility needed to access decent work, training, entrepreneurship and career progression. Overall, the findings show that women’s economic participation does not automatically translate into empowerment when unequal norms, care responsibilities and institutional barriers continue to limit women’s agency and control over resources.
Moving forward: Policy priorities
Addressing restrictive gender norms should be part of broader strategies to advance women’s economic empowerment and requires co-ordinated action across multiple actors. Norm-change efforts are most effective when combined with structural reforms that expand women’s access to decent work, reduce unpaid care burdens, strengthen control over resources, including inheritance and create enabling institutional conditions. Governments, parliaments and relevant public institutions in both countries should establish and enforce enabling policies and legal frameworks, while communities and civil society organisations play a central role in driving norm change and ensuring local ownership. Development partners and donors can reinforce these efforts through financing and technical assistance, and the media can influence public attitudes and visibility of gender issues. Specific policy priorities in this comprehensive agenda include:
Recognise, reduce, and redistribute unpaid care and domestic work. Governments should strengthen policies and services that reduce women’s unpaid work burden, including affordable and quality childcare services, early childhood education, parental leave policies, and investments in labour-saving infrastructure. These measures should be accompanied by awareness-raising initiatives and community programmes that encourage men’s participation in caregiving and domestic work, helping to reduce the time constraints that limit women’s economic opportunities. In addition, policies should recognise the economic value of unpaid care work by improving women’s access to social protection, insurance and pension schemes, including for those who remain outside the formal labour market due to care responsibilities.
Transform restrictive gender norms and promote positive masculinities. Programmes aimed at changing restrictive norms should engage both women and men, as well as families, schools, communities, employers and local leaders. Community-based initiatives, educational programmes and public awareness campaigns can help promote more equitable understandings of masculinity based on shared economic responsibilities, joint decision-making, care, respect and non-violence. Such interventions are particularly important during early stages of socialisation, when attitudes towards gender roles are formed.
Strengthen women’s access to productive assets, particularly land and credit. Improving women’s access to and control over productive assets is critical for strengthening their economic security, bargaining power and ability to invest in income-generating activities. This requires effective implementation of existing statutory legal frameworks on inheritance, property and marital rights, alongside measures to address customary practices, administrative barriers and unequal household bargaining dynamics. Expanding women’s access to credit, financial services and land registration support is also essential.
Invest in women’s skills, capacities and economic agency. Training in foundational and other skills, entrepreneurship, project management, financial literacy and income-generating activities can strengthen women’s ability to benefit from economic opportunities. Such support should be linked to practical measures that enable women to apply these skills, including access to information, finance, markets, mentoring, networks and business development services. Programmes should also aim to strengthen women’s agency, confidence and decision-making power, rather than focusing only on technical skills. Given women’s concentration in specific sectors, training should avoid reinforcing labour market segregation and instead expand women’s access to higher-productivity and non-traditional sectors through targeted training, certification, apprenticeships, and links to employers and value chains.
Mainstream women’s economic empowerment across national policies, budgets and local development strategies. Women’s economic empowerment should be integrated across employment, agriculture, education, social protection, care, finance (especially access to credit and financial literacy) and private sector development policies. Policy responses should recognise the diversity of economic contexts across regions. In areas where informal activities and agriculture dominate, interventions may need to focus on improving productivity, access to social protection schemes, access to markets, financial services and the business environment. In more urbanised contexts, policies addressing barriers to formal employment, career progression and leadership opportunities may be particularly important.
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← 1. These results are based on a logit model estimated using a subsample of working-age women and men. The dependent variable is a binary indicator equal to 1 if the individual is employed and 0 otherwise. The main explanatory variable is an interaction between the OECD Masculinities Index, an individual continuous measure ranging from 0 to 100 (with higher values indicating more restrictive masculinity norms), and a gender indicator equal to 1 for women and 0 for men. This interaction term makes it possible to assess whether the association between restrictive masculinity norms and employment status differs between women and men. The model controls for age, education level, income, marital status, religion, whether the individual has biological children, and area of residence. In addition, area fixed effects are included to account for unobserved differences across areas in Côte d’Ivoire. The analysis is also extended to examine specific normative dimensions in order to identify which norms are most strongly associated with women’s employment. In these extensions, the OECD Masculinities Index is replaced by measures specific to each norm, defined at the individual level and ranging from 0 to 100, with higher values reflecting more restrictive masculinity norms.
← 2. These results are based on a logit model estimated using a subsample of working-age women and men, for which the dependent variable is a binary indicator equal to 1 if the individual is out of the labor force and 0 otherwise. An individual is considered out of the labor force if they are of working age, are not employed, and have neither been available for work nor undertaken any job search activities in the past four weeks. The main explanatory variable is a triple interaction. The first component is the OECD Masculinities Index, a continuous measure ranging from 0 to 100 (with higher values indicating more restrictive masculinity norms). The second component is a gender indicator equal to 1 for women and 0 for men. The third component captures household income level, measured using monthly household expenditures and categorised into low-expenditure households and middle- and high-expenditure households, with the latter two categories combined due to the small proportion of high-expenditure households (1% of the sample). This interaction term makes it possible to assess whether the association between restrictive masculinity norms and labor force participation differs between women and men across income levels. The model controls for age, education level, income, marital status, religion, whether the individual has biological children, and area of residence, with area fixed effects included to account for unobserved differences across areas in Côte d’Ivoire. As before, the analysis is extended to examine specific normative dimensions to identify the norms most strongly associated with women’s labour force participation. In these extensions, the OECD Masculinities Index is replaced by measures specific to each norm, ranging from 0 to 100, with higher values reflecting more restrictive masculinity norms.
← 3. This result is based on an ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model using the full sample of women and men. The dependent variable is the total number of minutes per week spent on unpaid care and domestic work, including but not limited to cooking, cleaning, and childcare. The main explanatory variable the OECD Masculinities Index, a continuous individual level measure ranging from 0 to 100 where a higher value indicates more restrictive masculine norms. The model controls for age, level of education, income, marital status, religion, having biological children, and area of residence. In addition, zone fixed effects are included to capture unobserved differences across zones in Côte d’Ivoire.
← 4. These results are based on a multinomial logit model estimated using the full sample of women and men. The dependent variable identifies the main decision maker for specific household decisions, distinguishing between decisions made solely by a man, solely by a woman, or jointly by a man and a woman. Separate regressions are estimated for each decision type, namely major household purchases, day to day household purchases, health related care, investment in children’s education, and decisions to borrow money or goods. The key explanatory variable is an interaction between the OECD Masculinities Index, a continuous individual level measure ranging from 0 to 100 where a higher value indicates more restrictive masculine norms, and a sex dummy equal to 1 for women and 0 for men. This interaction term shows whether the association between restrictive masculine norms and household decision making differs between women and men. The model controls for age, level of education, income, marital status, religion, having biological children, and area of residence. In addition, zone fixed effects are included to capture unobserved differences across zones in Côte d’Ivoire. The analysis is further extended to examine specific normative dimensions to identify which norms are most strongly associated with women’s decision-making. In these extensions, the OECD Masculinities Index is replaced by each norm specific measure, which is defined at the individual level and ranges from 0 to 100, with a higher value reflecting more restrictive masculine norms.
← 5. These results are based on a logit model estimated using the full sample of women and men. The dependent variable is a binary indicator equal to 1 if the respondent can use their own income as they wish and 0 otherwise, meaning that income use is constrained by others or by family and community expectations. The key explanatory variable is an interaction between the OECD Masculinities Index, a continuous individual level measure ranging from 0 to 100 where a higher value indicates more restrictive masculine norms, and a sex dummy equal to 1 for women and 0 for men. This interaction term shows whether the association between restrictive masculine norms and household decision making differs between women and men. The model controls for age, level of education, income, marital status, religion, having biological children, and area of residence. In addition, zone fixed effects are included to capture unobserved differences across zones in Côte d’Ivoire. The analysis is further extended to examine specific normative dimensions to identify which norms are most strongly associated with women’s financial autonomy. In these extensions, the OECD Masculinities Index is replaced by each norm specific measure, which is defined at the individual level and ranges from 0 to 100, with a higher value reflecting more restrictive masculine norms.
← 6. These results are based on a logit model estimated using the full sample of women and men. The dependent variable is a binary indicator equal to 1 if the respondent owns or co-owns a land cultivated by the household and 0 otherwise. The key explanatory variable is an interaction between the OECD Masculinities Index, a continuous individual level measure ranging from 0 to 100 where a higher value indicates more restrictive masculine norms, and a sex dummy equal to 1 for women and 0 for men. This interaction term shows whether the association between restrictive masculine norms and land ownership differs between women and men. The model controls for age, level of education, income, marital status, religion, having biological children, and area of residence. In addition, zone fixed effects are included to capture unobserved differences across zones in Côte d’Ivoire. The analysis is further extended to examine specific normative dimensions to identify which norms are most strongly associated with women’s land ownership. In these extensions, the OECD Masculinities Index is replaced by each norm specific measure, which is defined at the individual level and ranges from 0 to 100, with a higher value reflecting more restrictive masculine norms.