Targeted support is needed to recruit and retain women in non-traditional Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) programs. Closing gender gaps in labor market outcomes will require interventions specifically designed to improve the country’s work environment for women. The low participation of women in courses supported by Program Improvement Competitive Grants and continued wage inequality of women after completion was disappointing to MCC. Female participation in TVET courses was particularly low in sectors such as aviation, electrical systems, and engineering. As noted in the TVET Principles into Practice paper, changing social norms to empower women to enter traditionally male-dominated fields and ending gender-based wage discrimination in the labor market can be difficult. MCC is addressing this lesson by working with governments and donors to conduct detailed analyses to understand the constraints facing women’s workforce participation, which in turn inform the design of context-specific, complimentary interventions to address those challenges. An innovative approach was piloted in this Compact, one which merits study in order to be taken to scale. Millennium Challenge Acccount (MCA) Georgia, in partnership with the United Nations Women, established an annual competition, the “Business for Gender Equality Awards.” This competition recognizes three Georgian businesses each year that are investing in workplace policies and programs that open avenues for the advancement of women at all levels and across all business areas as well as encouraging women to enter non-traditional careers. In the four years MCA Georgia organized this competition and awards event, more than 150 companies have participated. Recognition is an important incentive for private sector cultural change and activities such as this are a potentially impactful means to complement the more supply-side focus on increasing female participation in TVET programs. Changing gender norms is a needed precursor to increasing women’s employment in non-traditional sectors, one that requires time, resources, and intentional efforts.
Lesson Learned