'Authors examine the extent to which Collective Bargaining Agreements contributes to the empowerment of women in work. 186 Collective bargaining agreements are compared in Guatemala, Indonesia, Kenya, Mozambique, Peru, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda in terms of pay, working hours and work-family clauses. Almost all agreements have clauses regarding wages, but only 26 out of 186 have detailed pay scales showing what workers in different occupations should earn. .Up to 84% contain clauses on standard working hours, schedules and holidays. Just over six in ten agreements .guarantee paid maternity leave and offer job security after maternity leave. .On average, the agreements offer better working conditions than the legal requirements in every country. .Only one of the collective agreements has set working hours that are longer than the legal standard, .four in ten agreements copy the legal standard exactly, whereas nearly six in ten offer shorter hours. Two .agreements offer shorter annual leaves than the statutory entitlement, three in ten agreements follow the law .and all others offer longer leaves. However, the collective agreements do not always offer more maternity .leave than the law. While three in four agreements copy the law, 17% offer less than the legal standard. In .Mozambique, South Africa and Uganda, collective agreements sometimes offer only the compulsory leave, .meaning the duration of weeks that it is legally forbidden for the mother to work, rather than the standard .provisions for paid maternity leave.'