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Abstract Women empowerment and bihar economic development are closely related :in one direction, development alone can play a major role in driving down inequality between men and women; in the other direction , empowering women may benefit development. Development policies and programs tend not to view women as integral to the economic development process. This is reflected in the higher investments in women's reproductive rather than their productive roles, mainly in population programs, yet women throughout the developing world engage in economically productive work and earn incomes. They work primarily in agriculture and in the informal sector and increasingly, informal wage employment, their earnings, however are generally low, since the 1950's , development agencies have responded to the need for poor women to earn incomes by making relatively small investments in income generating projects. Often such projects fail because they are motivated by welfare and not development concerns, offering women temporary and part-time employment in traditionally feminine skill such as knitting and sewing that have limited markets.by contrast , over the past twenty years, some non- governmental organizations, such as the self- employed women's association in india have been effective in improving women's economic status because they have started with the premise that women are fundamental to the process of economic development.