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. The developmental policies and programs tend not to view women as integral workforce 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. However, the earnings are generally low. It has been observed since 1950s that development agencies have responded to the need for poor women to earn incomes by making relatively small investments in income-generating projects. Also, often such projects fail because they are motivated by welfare and not developmental concerns, offering women temporary and part-time employment in traditionally feminine skills such as, knitting and sewing, which have limited markets. To the contrary, over the past twenty years few non- governmental organizations like Self-Employed Women's Association in India have been quite effective in improving women's socio-economic status because they have started with the belief that women are fundamental to the process of economic development.

Keywords: Population Programs, Informal Sector, Development Agencies, Income Generating Projects, Non-Governmental Organizations.