1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Women’s Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment Act of 2018 . 2. Findings Congress finds the following: (1) Because women make up the majority of the world’s poor and gender inequalities prevail in incomes, wages, access to finance, ownership of assets, and control over the allocation of resources, women’s entrepreneurship and economic empowerment is important to achieve inclusive economic growth at all levels of society. Research shows that when women exert greater influence over household finances, economic outcomes for families improve, and childhood survival rates, food security, and educational attainment increase. Women also tend to place a greater emphasis on household savings which improves families’ financial resiliency. (2) A 2016 report by the McKinsey Global Institute estimated that achieving global gender parity in economic activity could add as much as $28,000,000,000,000 to annual global gross domestic product (GDP) by 2025. (3) Lack of access to financial services that address gender-specific constraints impedes women’s economic inclusion. More than 1,000,000,000 women around the world are currently left out of the formal financial system, which in turn causes many women to rely on informal means of saving and borrowing that are riskier and less reliable. Among other consequences, this hampers the success of women entrepreneurs, including those seeking to run or grow small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The International Finance Corporation has estimated that 70 percent of women-owned SMEs in the formal sector are unserved or underserved in terms of access to credit, amounting to a $285,000,000,000 credit gap. (4) Women’s economic empowerment is inextricably linked to a myriad of other women’s human rights that are essential to their ability to thrive as economic actors across the lifecycle. This includes living lives free of violence and exploitation, achieving the highest possible standard of health and well-being, enjoying full legal and