EXCEL International Journal of Multidisciplinary Management Studies ________________ ISSN 2249- 8834 EIJMMS, Vol.4 (8), AUGUST (2014) Online available at zenithresearch.org.in 100 WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT MS. SYAMALA DEVI BHOGANADAM*; MRS. HEMA MALINI**; DR. DASARAJU SRINIVASA RAO*** *RESEARCH SCHOLAR, K LU BUSINESS SCHOOL, K L UNIVERSITY, GUNTUR (DT), AP. **ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, K LU BUSINESS SCHOOL, K L UNIVERSITY, GUNTUR (DT), AP. ***ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, K LU BUSINESS SCHOOL K L UNIVERSITY, GUNTUR (DT), AP. ABSTRACT Women empowerment and economic development are closely related: in one direction, development alone can play a major role in driving down inequality between men and women; in the other direction, empowering women may benefit development. Development policies and programs tend not to view women as integral to the economic development process. This is reflected in the higher investments in women's reproductive rather than their productive roles, mainly in population programs. Yet women throughout the developing world engage in economically productive work and earn incomes. They work primarily in agriculture and in the informal sector and increasingly, in formal wage employment. Their earnings, however, are generally low. Since the 1950s, development agencies have responded to the need for poor women to earn incomes by making relatively small investments in income-generating projects. Often such projects fail because they are motivated by welfare and not development concerns, offering women temporary and part-time employment in traditionally feminine skills such as knitting and sewing that have limited markets. By contrast, over the past twenty years, some non- governmental organizations, such as the Self-Employed Women's Association in India, have been effective in improving women's economic status because they have started with the premise that women are fundamental to the process of economic development. KEY WORDS: Population Programs, informal sector, development agencies, income generating projects, nongovernmental organizations. INTRODUCTION: The persistent of gender inequality is most starkly brought home in the phenomenon of “missing women”. Today it is estimated that 6million women are missing every year (World Bank 2011) of these, 23 percent are never born, and 10 percent are missing in early childhood, 21 percent in the reproductive years, and 38 percent above the age of 60. For each missing women, there are many more women who fail to get an education, a job, or a political responsibility that they