The Role of Women in Economic Growth: How Remittances Empower Families Title

Late one evening in a small village, a mother’s phone lights up with a simple message: funds received. She smiles, knowing that her children’s school fees for the next term are secure and that there will be food on the table all month. Scenes like this play out daily across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, where hard-earned money sent from abroad, known as remittances, sustains millions of families. These financial lifelines have grown massively over the decades, reaching nearly $670 billion for developing countries in 2023 alone.

Importantly, behind many of these transfers are women: women working overseas who send money home, and women on the receiving end who stretch each dollar to uplift their households. Studies show that remittances empower women, who as recipients tend to invest more in their children’s well-being, improving health, and education, and even increasing girls’ school enrollment.

In this blog, we take a personal look at how women drive economic growth through remittances, sharing stories and statistics from Africa, Asia, and Latin America that celebrate women’s impact on their families and communities.

Africa: Women as the Pillars of Household Economies

In many African communities, mobile remittance services allow women in rural areas to receive money directly and take charge of household finances. These funds often go towards essentials like seeds for farming, children’s schooling, and daily necessities, illustrating the pivotal role women play in managing remittances.

In Africa, remittances are genuinely a lifeline, and women often stand at the center of this flow of support. In Sub-Saharan Africa alone, migrants sent an estimated $49 billion back to their home countries in 2021, money that helps families pay for food, healthcare, and small investments. Much of this money is received or managed by mothers, wives, and grandmothers in the household. Women constitute the majority of remittance recipients globally. For example, surveys show about 63% of primary remittance recipients in Guatemala and 70% in Colombia are women, a trend mirrored in many African communities as well.

What do these women do with the funds? They prioritize the basic needs and stability of their families. One diagnostic study in Southern Africa found that women receiving remittances tend to channel more of the money into family healthcare, food, and education than men do. This difference in spending is often noted by the senders too. There is a common sentiment: entrusting funds to women can ensure the entire household benefits. Even men acknowledge this dynamic. In many African households, it’s the wives or mothers who budget the remittances and make the critical decisions to keep everyone fed and the children in school.

Beyond meeting daily needs, remittances empower women in Africa to take on new roles. When husbands or sons migrate to work in the city or abroad, the women who stay behind often become de facto heads of the household. They gain decision-making power over how money is spent and saved, which can elevate their status in traditionally patriarchal communities. Some use the extra income to start small businesses, a market stall, a sewing shop, or a poultry farm, multiplying the benefits by generating local jobs or food.

In Somalia, for instance, diaspora remittances (around $1.3 billion a year, or up to 40% of the economy) have been called “nothing short of a lifeline” that helps families survive crises and invest in basics. Female relatives typically manage these funds, deciding how to allot cash for relatives’ medical bills or buying supplies for a home business. Through these everyday choices, African women are using remittances to not only support their own families but also strengthen their communities’ economic resilience.

Asia: Female Migrants Transforming Futures

For many women migrants in Asia, the greatest reward for years of hard work abroad is seeing their children achieve an education. In the Philippines, remittances from mothers and fathers working overseas have enabled a new generation to graduate from college, a tangible legacy of sacrifice and love.

In villages across Asia, countless success stories begin with a mother or daughter venturing abroad to earn a better living for those back home. Asia is the origin of over 40% of the world’s migrants, and women form a large share of this workforce. Take the Philippines, one of the most remittance-dependent countries in the world. About 2.2 million Filipinos work abroad, and they send money to roughly 12% of all Filipino households. These overseas Filipinos, often celebrated as “modern-day heroes”, have made remittances the backbone of the Philippine economy, contributing as much as 11% of the national GDP. A significant number of them are women employed as domestic workers, nurses, teachers, and caregivers in countries like Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, and the United States.

For these women, sending money home is not just a duty but a deeply personal mission. There are many life stories where money earned by women in foreign households often flows straight into their children’s tuition, textbooks, and uniforms back home. It’s no surprise that education is the number one investment for many families receiving remittances in Asia, enabled by these women’s devotion.

The scale of remittances in Asia is enormous. India is the world’s top recipient (an estimated $125 billion in 2023) and countries like the Philippines ($40 billion) and Pakistan rank high as well. But behind the big numbers are small, regular acts of care. Research shows that women migrant workers tend to send a higher proportion of their earnings back home consistently, even though they generally earn less than men. They often send smaller amounts more frequently, for example, one study in Italy found that women sent around €425 on average per transfer versus €469 for men, but this gap was simply because women were earning 24% less. In fact, as a percentage of income, women were remitting almost the same share as men.

The consistency and dedication of female migrants mean their families can rely on a steady stream of support. Those monthly $100 or $200 transfers, perhaps sent by a mother working as a nanny in Dubai or a daughter as a factory worker in Bangkok, add up to tremendous outcomes over time: healthier children, better-fed households, and kids who can stay in school longer. Studies even indicate that in countries like Indonesia, remittances improve women’s health status and that women in remittance-receiving households are less likely to tolerate domestic violence, a sign of growing empowerment.

Moreover, technology is amplifying the impact of women’s remittances in Asia. With the rise of digital transfer services, a migrant worker can send money home with a few taps on her phone, and her family can receive it instantly in a mobile wallet. This convenience is life-changing. Digital platforms are giving women more control over their remittances, reducing fees, and ensuring that more of each dollar reaches their families. With these tools, Asian women are not only sending money; they’re improving their financial skills and confidence. Ultimately, the sacrifices of Asia’s migrant daughters and mothers are fueling long-term economic growth, one tuition payment, one medical bill, and one small business start-up at a time.

Latin America: Uplifting Families and Communities

Indigenous women entrepreneurs, exemplify how remittances and financial empowerment can spur local businesses. When families receive money from relatives abroad, women often invest in community crafts and markets, preserving culture while boosting income.

Throughout Latin America, the story of remittances is often a story about women’s quiet leadership. This region receives a huge share of global remittance flows, and women are frequently the ones receiving and managing that money. Latin America follows the same pattern seen elsewhere: women are the main remittance recipients and the primary decision-makers for household spending. In countries like Mexico, where remittances are an economic force, women benefit immensely.

Mexico alone accounts for about 40% of all remittances sent to Latin America and the Caribbean, with millions of Mexican families depending on money from sons, husbands, and daughters up north. Notably, studies have found that almost three out of every four remittance transactions from the U.S. to Mexico are received by women. Typically, it’s the mothers or wives who stay behind in towns from Jalisco to Oaxaca, collecting the funds at a local bank or store and putting them to use to feed the family and pay the bills.

In many rural areas of Latin America, remittances have become a vital source of opportunity. Funds sent regularly from abroad often help cover essential school needs like notebooks, shoes, or even transportation for children to attend secondary education. Over time, these transfers can accumulate into enough capital to start a small business, such as a home-based shop selling basic goods like maize, soap, or phone credit. In several communities, women have also come together to form savings groups, using part of their remittance income to fund local projects and support one another. Across the region, such practices demonstrate how remittances can significantly reduce economic vulnerability. In Guatemala, for example, households receiving remittances have been shown to double their income on average, often moving families out of poverty. With this financial stability, many women gain the ability to think beyond day-to-day survival and invest in a more secure future.

The statistics underscore how pivotal women are in this cycle. In one study in Guatemala, 60% of women surveyed had a relative abroad sending money, and those remittances directly correlated with higher savings rates and lower desire to emigrate themselves. In Mexico and Central America, research by the World Bank found women comprised 70% or more of remittance recipients in several countries, and they tended to allocate those funds toward household needs and children’s education. Indeed, across Latin America, women use remittances to put food on the table, ensure everyone gets medical care, and bolster children’s schooling ahead of anything else. This prioritization of family well-being means that remittances are not spent on frivolous things, but on building human capital. The effects ripple outward: healthier, better-educated children grow up to contribute more to the economy, completing the circle of growth initiated by that money sent from abroad.

Women are also leveraging remittances to become entrepreneurs and community leaders. In many cases, a portion of the funds is used to start small businesses, from hair salons and tailoring shops to farms and artisan cooperatives. For instance, in Bolivia and Peru, indigenous women’s craft collectives have flourished with relatives abroad helping to fund supplies and initial costs. The colorful mola textiles sold by Guna women in Panama are not directly paid for by remittances, but the steady support from family overseas often gives these women the breathing room to focus on their craft and expand their market beyond subsistence.

In El Salvador, remittance-backed savings have allowed groups of women to install communal water tanks and solar panels, improving local infrastructure. Such initiatives might seem small, but multiplied across hundreds of communities they contribute to sustainable development at the local level. And when women are the drivers, the gains tend to be widely shared, studies in Mexico even suggest that municipalities with more remittance-recipient households see social benefits like lower crime rates, as household stability improves and youth are less driven to desperation.

Honoring Women's Impact on Global Progress

From the savannas of West Africa to the islands of the Philippines to the mountain hamlets of Central America, women are harnessing remittances to transform lives. They are the unsung heroes of economic growth, the mothers ensuring extra coins go toward a daughter’s college fund, the sisters investing in a family shop, and the grandmothers shielding grandchildren from hunger during hard times. As we have seen, women play a dual role in the remittance story: they are often the most reliable senders, and they are very often the wise managers on the receiving end.

This dynamic has tangible impacts on development. By funneling resources into health, education, and small businesses, women amplify the poverty-reducing effect of remittances. It’s estimated that even a 1% increase in remittances as a share of GDP can lead to significant drops in poverty rates, a result of those funds being put to productive use. In communities where women control the purse strings, the benefits extend to everyone: children are healthier and better educated, homes are improved, and even neighbors may gain employment from new ventures. In short, when you empower a woman with a remittance, she so often multiplies it for her community.

It’s also heartening to note that the world is recognizing this power. Development organizations now promote financial inclusion programs for women remittance receivers, teaching budgeting and savings to maximize the impact of the money they get. Banks and fintech innovators have started tailoring products for migrant women, for example, savings accounts that can be partly funded directly by a relative abroad, or micro-loans based on remittance histories.

In today’s market, global online services like sendvalu make it possible to send money 24/7 from almost any country to even the remotest villages, a boon for migrant women who may have limited free time to visit physical agents, simplifying the process, cutting fees and travel time, and thereby putting more control in the hands of women. A recent UN report summed it up well: while women and men remit similar overall amounts, women remit more consistently and spend more on family needs, making each dollar go further. By supporting women in this journey, through fairer wages, legal protections abroad, lower remittance costs, and community training, we can amplify a powerful engine of growth.

Behind every statistic in this realm is a human story. It’s the story of a sacrifice made out of love: a mother working long hours an ocean away to secure a better future for her children or a wife carefully managing the precious funds her husband sends from overseas. These individual stories collectively reshape economies. They remind us that economic growth isn’t only built in boardrooms or factories; it’s also built-in kitchens and village markets by courageous women turning remittances into a better life.

As we celebrate their contributions, let’s also acknowledge the resiliency and determination it takes. The role of women in economic growth through remittances is profound and worthy of honor. It’s often said that if you educate a woman, you educate a nation, perhaps we should add that if you support a woman to earn and manage income, you uplift a nation. The evidence is in the thriving families and communities across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, where empowered women are turning migrant dollars into development, hope, and opportunity for generations to come.