Women’s Empowerment and Nonprofit Sector Development:

This research makes two main contributions: (a) validates Themudo's findings of a positive correlation between women's empowerment and the development of the nonprofit sector by using different forms of empowerment and (b) suggests women's empowerment causes nonprofit development, thus contributing to the formation of a gender theory. Using women's economic empowerment by county (n = 3,428) and women's state-level political empowerment (n = 50), the positive correlation between women's empowerment, both economic and political, and nonprofit development is confirmed. Next, Granger causality tests (1975-2013, n = 39) suggest women's political empowerment causes nonprofit development. These results provide insights for further research in nonprofit development and suggest that policies that increase women's empowerment will also benefit the nonprofit sector.