I 
111TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5191 
To increase the United States financial and programmatic contributions to 
promote economic opportunities for women in developing countries. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 29, 2010 
Mrs. LOWEY (for herself, Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN, Mr. ELLISON, and Mr. KIRK) 
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
Foreign Affairs 
A BILL 
To increase the United States financial and programmatic 
contributions to promote economic opportunities for 
women in developing countries. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Global Resources and Opportunities for Women to 
Thrive Act of 2010’’ or ‘‘GROWTH Act of 2010’’. 
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents of 
this Act is as follows: 
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
Sec. 2. Findings and statement of policy. 
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Sec. 3. Microenterprise development assistance for women in developing coun-
tries. 
Sec. 4. Support for women’s small- and medium-sized enterprises in developing 
countries. 
Sec. 5. Support for private property rights and land tenure security for women 
in developing countries. 
Sec. 6. Support for women’s access to employment in developing countries. 
Sec. 7. Trade benefits for women in developing countries. 
Sec. 8. Exchanges between United States entrepreneurs and women entre-
preneurs in developing countries. 
Sec. 9. Assistance under the Millennium Challenge Account. 
Sec. 10. Growth Fund. 
Sec. 11. Data collection. 
Sec. 12. Support for local, indigenous women’s organizations in developing 
countries. 
Sec. 13. Report. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND STATEMENT OF POLICY. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 
(1) Women around the world are especially vul-
nerable to poverty. They tend to work longer hours, 
are compensated less, and have less income stability 
and fewer economic opportunities than men. 
(2) Women’s share of the labor force is increas-
ing in almost all regions of the world. Women com-
prise more than 40 percent of the global labor force, 
including 63 percent of the labor force in sub-Saha-
ran Africa, 67 percent in East Asia, 59 percent in 
Southeast Asia and the Pacific, and 53 percent in 
Latin America and the Caribbean. About 250 million 
young women will enter the labor force worldwide 
between 2003 and 2015. 
(3) Women are more likely to work in informal 
employment relationships in poor countries com-
pared to men. In sub-Saharan Africa, 82 percent of 
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female non-agricultural workers are informally em-
ployed compared to 66 percent of men. Eighty-four 
percent of working women in South Asia and 64 
percent of women in Southeast Asia and the Pacific 
are engaged in vulnerable employment. Informal em-
ployment is characterized by lower wages and great-
er variability of earnings, less stability, absence of 
labor organization, and fewer social protections than 
formal employment. 
(4) Changes in the economy of a poor country 
affect women and men differently; women are dis-
proportionately affected by long-term recessions, cri-
ses, and economic restructuring and they often miss 
out on many of the benefits of economic growth. Ac-
cording to the United Nations, the current global 
economic crisis is expected to plunge 22 million 
women into unemployment and make secure, decent 
work particularly hard to find. 
(5) International trade can be an important tool 
of economic development and poverty reduction and 
its benefits should extend to all members of society, 
particularly the world’s poor women. 
(6) Promoting fair labor practices for women, 
and access to information, education, land, credit, 
physical capital, and social services is a means of re-
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ducing poverty, ensuring food security, and boosting 
productivity and earnings for the economies of devel-
oping nations. For example, according to the World 
Bank, in sub-Saharan Africa, inequality between 
men and women in employment and education sup-
pressed annual per capita growth during the period 
1960–1992 by .8 percentage points per year. 
(7) Expanding economic opportunity for women 
in developing countries can have a positive effect on 
child nutrition, health, and education, as women 
often invest their income in their families. Increasing 
women’s income can also decrease women’s vulner-
ability to HIV/AIDS, gender-based violence, and 
trafficking, and make them more resistant to the im-
pact of natural disasters. 
(8) Economic opportunities for women, includ-
ing microfinance and microenterprise development 
and the promotion of women’s small- and medium- 
sized businesses, are a means of generating gainful, 
safe, and dignified employment for the poor. 
(9) Women play a vital, but often unrecognized, 
role in averting violence, resolving conflict, and re-
building economies in post-conflict societies. Women 
in conflict-affected areas face even greater challenges 
in accessing employment, training, property rights, 
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