Women Work and Wealth Institute exists to intentionally design and advance an economy in which women’s economic agency is not exceptional, conditional, or delayed, but expected and protected. We understand economic agency as the practical ability to earn, retain, grow, and direct resources in ways that support dignity, stability, and long-term security. This vision recognizes that women’s economic outcomes are not the result of individual failure or effort alone, but of systems that have historically restricted access to capital, decision making power, and economic legitimacy. By framing economic agency as a birthright, the Institute asserts that women do not need to prove worthiness to participate fully in the economy. The work is about restoring access, removing constraints, and building pathways that allow women to exercise choice and control over their working lives and financial futures.

To achieve this, the Institute operates through a deliberate dual force model that combines direct empowerment with structural disruption. Direct empowerment focuses on equipping women with tangible tools such as skills development, income strategies, leadership capacity, and financial literacy that translate into sustainable livelihoods rather than short term survival. Structural disruption addresses the deeper rules of the economy by challenging policies, institutional practices, and cultural norms that shape who is funded, who is protected, and whose labor is valued. These two forces are inseparable. Individual empowerment without structural change leaves women navigating the same constraints with better tools, while structural reform without individual capacity leaves opportunity out of reach. Together, this model is designed to shift both lived experience and the systems that govern it, creating durable economic change rather than isolated success stories.