The Intensive Role of FDI on Women's Empowerment in Developing Countries

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in developing countries has grown over the last two decades, fuelling an extremely fertile literature on gender inclusion in the economic, social and political spheres. This article assesses the effect of FDI on women's empowerment (WE) observed in 102 developing countries. Thus, considering two dimensions—namely, Women's Economic Empowerment (WEE) and Women's Political Empowerment (WPE)—we specify and estimate a static and dynamic panel data model using generalised least squares (GLS) and system generalised method of moments (S‐GMM) over the period 2002–2022. Two main results emerge. First, FDIs significantly increase the WE; notably, WPE and WEE. Second, the mediation analysis results show that the effects of FDI on WE are mediated by internet, mobile phone, female labour participation, female/male employment ratio and energy intensity. We propose to strengthen the consideration of gender in FDI attractiveness policies. Additionally, governments of developing countries must encourage and facilitate women's involvement in politics so that the decisions made have a direct impact on their daily lives.