By Hawa Dolley
MONROVIA, Sept. 30 (LINA) – Women are benefiting from skills training, financial assistance and other empowerment programs in Liberia, but recent labor market data show that women continue to account for a smaller share of workers in surveyed enterprises.
According to the Ministry of Labor’s Enterprise and Labor Market Survey Report, July 2026, women accounted for 12,686, or 27.1 percent, of the 46,865 workers reported by 1,521 surveyed enterprises.
Men accounted for 34,179 workers, or 72.9 percent of the reported workforce. The survey also found differences across occupational categories.
Women accounted for 30.2 percent of management positions, 28.7 percent of professional positions, 27.5 percent of skilled positions and only 14.2 percent of unskilled positions.
While 73.4 percent of enterprises responding to a separate question said women hold management positions, the figure refers to the share of enterprises reporting that women are present in management, and that those women occupy 73.4 percent of management positions.
The report also found that 70.7 percent of surveyed enterprises reported having a gender policy.
Women Make Up a Larger Share of New Hires
A separate Second Quarter 2026 Quarterly Establishment Survey by the Ministry of Labor provides another picture of women’s participation in the formal labor market. The survey covered 714 establishments and 34,789 workers.
Women accounted for 18.7 percent of the workers covered, while men accounted for 81 percent, according to the report.
Women represented 21 percent of the 7,944 workers hired during the quarter, a higher share than their representation in the existing workforce.
The Ministry described this as a tentative indication of gradual change, while noting that the gender gap remains.
The report recommended further attention to gender differences in employment and wages.
However, the survey was heavily concentrated in Montserrado, with 696 of the 714 establishments, or 97.5 percent, located in the county.
The findings therefore provide a picture of the establishments surveyed but should not be treated as a complete measure of women’s participation in the entire Liberian workforce.
LISGIS Finds High Levels of Disempowerment
The labor findings come alongside broader evidence of challenges facing women in accessing resources and making economic decisions.
The Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS) Women’s Empowerment and Nutrition Survey 2024 found that 93.4 percent of women in agricultural households were classified as disempowered.
The figure comes from LISGIS’s measurement of disempowerment across several dimensions, including women’s ability to claim rights, make choices, engage in their communities and mobilize resources.
The survey also found that 77.5 percent of men in agricultural households were classified as disempowered.
LISGIS reported that, among those classified as disempowered, women experienced an average deprivation across 56.6 percent of the measured empowerment dimensions, compared with 52.5 percent for men.
The survey also examined women’s access to financial services and credit, property and land rights, household decision-making and participation in community leadership.
The LISGIS findings are based on agricultural households and therefore should not be interpreted as saying that 93.4 percent of all Liberian women are disempowered.
Women Are Entering Skills Training
The gap is also visible when the labor findings are considered alongside technical and vocational education.
The Agricultural and Industrial Training Bureau (AITB) Nationwide TVET Gap Analysis and Compliance Monitoring Study in Liberia, 2025, recorded 48,867 learners enrolled in technical and vocational education and training programs between 2022 and 2025.
Women accounted for 38.8 percent, equivalent to approximately 18,960 female learners.
However, women’s participation was lower in some areas.
In apprenticeships, women represented only 21.9 percent of participants, compared with 78.1 percent men.
The study also identified gaps involving women’s participation in instruction and teaching staff, leadership positions and industry engagement.
The findings raise a question about what happens after women enter training: Are women being supported to move from training into sustainable employment, stronger businesses and leadership opportunities?
‘I Want to Use It to Make Business’
For Tiange Buno, a US$450 grant received through the Ministry of Gender’s REALISE project became an opportunity to invest in her small business.
Buno said she heard about the project when she learned that women were registering and went to register herself. “The money I got, I want to use it to make business,” she said.
Buno said her business was not doing well before she received the money, but the assistance helped her improve it.
“Before, I got little business money, but it was not doing too much well… REALISE give me that money, I was so happy… I’m making my little business,” she said.
Buno said she has seven children, all of whom are in school from ABC through Grade Nine.
She said she receives no other support and depends on her business to provide for herself and her children.
“Nobody else to help my sister. I’m fully supporting me and my children,” she said.
REALISE Project Coordinator Jesse Bengu said beneficiaries were selected through an open and transparent raffle process.
‘My Name Can’t Come Up’
For Josephine Gbabo, access to financial support has been different.
Gbabo said she has heard about women receiving grants but has never received such assistance herself.
She said she previously owned a canoe and paid taxes as part of her livelihood.
“I got canoe. I got canoe; I’ve been paying tax. But when the money comes, we can’t get it,” Gbabo said.
Gbabo said she has tried to register for assistance but her name has never been selected.
“I can go there, but my name can’t come up,” she said.
Asked whether she had ever received financial assistance, she responded: “Nothing.”
Gbabo said that if she receives financial assistance, she would invest it in her fish business and buy a table to expand the business.
“Put it in my business,” she said. “To make it bigger.”
She said her livelihood was previously tied to canoeing and fishing activities.
But after her husband became sick, she said the family sold the canoe and fishing net to help pay for his treatment.
Her Husband Later Died
“Yes, but now my husband has died. We sold the canoe and net, because of sickness. So, the little money left, my husband used it for me and the children, and he left,” she said.
Gbabo said she has four children, all of whom have gone to school. One completed high school but has not continued with further education.
‘It Is Not Easy’
Jestina Jacobs, a petty businesswoman in her 40s, is also trying to support her family through a small business.
Jacobs sells pepper and other small food items in front of her home.
She said she has three children and has been responsible for paying their school fees.
Jacobs said one of her daughters had to drop out of school because she could no longer afford to keep her in school.
She said the financial difficulties later contributed to a difficult situation for her daughter, who moved in with her boyfriend.
According to Jacobs, her daughter’s boyfriend nearly killed her.
Jacobs is appealing to anyone who can help her improve her situation and support her family.
“It is not easy,” she said.
From Training and Grants to Economic Independence;
The experiences of Buno, Gbabo and Jacobs show different sides of women’s economic circumstances.
Buno received financial support and used it to strengthen her business. Gbabo said she has heard about grants but has never benefited from them. Jacobs continues to depend on a small petty business while struggling to meet household and education expenses.
The labor, LISGIS and TVET findings point to challenges at different stages of women’s economic empowerment — from access to resources and decision-making to skills training, employment and business opportunities.
The Ministry of Labor’s July survey recommends that employers address gender imbalances, particularly in skilled and unskilled occupations, through targeted recruitment, retention and advancement practices for women.
The AITB study also points to gaps in women’s participation in parts of the technical and vocational training system.
Taken together, the findings raise a central question for Liberia’s women’s empowerment efforts: Are women being supported not only to receive training or financial assistance, but also to build sustainable businesses, secure employment and take up leadership opportunities?
‘Women Have The Right to Get Education To the Fullest’
Gender equality activist Excellence Vickjune Wutoh, head of the Initiative for Youth Empowerment and Economic Development (IYEED), said education is central to women’s empowerment.
Wutoh said education is important for everyone because it can help people realize their full potential and prevent systems and attitudes that keep others from accessing opportunities.
She said women have historically been viewed mainly as caregivers, mothers and wives rather than as people capable of becoming presidents, pilots, engineers and accountants.
According to Wutoh, women have increasingly challenged that perception by recognizing that they are more than caregivers, mothers or wives.
“I am more than just a caregiver, a mother, a wife; I am a human being who also has the right to get education to the fullest and be able to empower myself and live a better life and not be dependent on a man.”
She said when young women and girls are empowered, they become less dependent, make their own decisions, realize their potential and contribute to society.
Wutoh said Liberia cannot afford to exclude women from leadership and development because women have always contributed to society, even when their contributions were not properly documented.
She cited Chief Suah Koko of Bong County as an example of a Liberian woman who did not receive formal education but was able to lead and deal effectively with people and her environment.
“No society, I think, can survive without the contribution of women,” she said.
Wutoh said Liberia risks losing economic impact, development and sustainability when girls are not educated and empowered.
She said the challenge therefore goes beyond getting girls into schools or women into training programs. It also involves creating opportunities for women to use their education and skills to become economically independent and participate in leadership.
Merck Foundation and Women’s Empowerment; The discussion around women’s empowerment also extends to initiatives supported by organizations working on issues affecting women and girls.
Merck Foundation has supported initiatives in Africa focused on women’s health, girls’ education and women’s empowerment.
Its “More Than a Mother” campaign addresses infertility stigma and promotes the empowerment of women affected by infertility.
The Foundation has also supported media and other initiatives addressing issues affecting women and girls.
These efforts form part of a wider push to address social and economic barriers affecting women.
For Liberia, however, the experiences of women such as Buno, Gbabo and Jacobs, alongside labor, LISGIS and TVET findings, show that access to training, financial assistance and empowerment initiatives does not automatically translate into economic independence.
The challenge may therefore extend beyond providing women with training or grants to ensuring that they can turn those opportunities into sustainable livelihoods, employment, businesses and greater participation in leadership.
The different surveys measure different populations. The LISGIS findings concern agricultural households, while the Ministry of Labor surveys are heavily concentrated in Montserrado. They should therefore not be treated as directly comparable measures of the entire Liberian population.