Chairman Royce on the hearing: “Despite significant progress in recent years, more than one billion women remain excluded from the formal financial system, and more than half the world’s countries limit women’s ownership or management of property.  This harms entire communities, economies, and U.S. interests.  This hearing will explore the barriers to women’s economic participation in the developing world, and new technologies that hold tremendous promise for women’s empowerment and economic growth.”

Opening Statements

Full text of Chairman Ed Royce’s opening statement

Witnesses

Ms. Mary Ellen Iskenderian
President and Chief Executive Officer
Women’s World Banking
[full text of statement]
[truth in testimony form]

Tavneet Suri, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Applied Economics
Sloan School of Management
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
[full text of statement]
[truth in testimony form]

The Honorable Melanne Verveer
Executive Director
Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security
Georgetown University
[full text of statement]
[truth in testimony form]

____________________________

Hearing transcript (PDF)