Brief

Gender lens for business sense: What have we learned about using gender transformative research in the private sector?

author(s)

Ewell, Hanna

themes
  • Climate action
  • Performance, Innovation and Strategic Analysis for Impact
original file download
full citation

Ewell, H.; Baa, O.E.; Farnworth, C.R.; Mapedza, E.; Derenoncourt, M.E.; Mufti, S.; Bailey, A.; Newton, J. (2026) Gender lens for business sense: What have we learned about using gender transformative research in the private sector?. CGIAR Gender Equality and Inclusion. 20 p.

• Gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) are not just socially desirable goals that drive productivity, innovation, market expansion, and long-term resilience, but also powerful business enablers: widening the market and demand dynamics.
• Integrating participatory, gender-equitable research methodologies across the investment cycle enables stakeholders to diagnose constraints, define what meaningful change looks like, shape investment priorities, and learn from results over time from design to investment to MEL (monitoring, evaluation and learning).
• Capacity development is essential because many firms, investors, and intermediaries do not act on gender simply by being shown broad evidence that equality matters; they need practical support to understand how gender dynamics affect costs, productivity, staff retention, supplier relationships, market reach, and ultimately profitability. In that sense, training plays a bridging role between principle and practice: it helps businesses move from seeing gender equality and social inclusion as external compliance issues or reputational concerns to recognizing them as core drivers of commercial performance and resilience.
• Transformative leadership improves decision-making, innovation, and resilience by bringing a wider range of perspectives, experiences, and risk assessments into strategic processes. Diverse leadership teams are better able to identify emerging market opportunities, understand heterogeneous customer needs, and anticipate social and operational risks that more homogenous teams may overlook. This leads to more robust decisions, more adaptive business models, and greater resilience in the face of shocks—particularly in complex sectors like agriculture, where social dynamics and local contexts strongly shape outcomes.