Women's empowerment and economic development are closely related, with development able to play a major role in decreasing inequality between men and women, on the one hand, and the ability of women's empowerment to benefit development, on the other. Does this imply, though, that pulling just one of these two levers would set a virtuous circle in motion? This paper reviews the literature on both sides of the empowerment–development nexus, and argues that the interrelationships between equality and economics are probably too weak to yield self-sustaining results; additionally, a commitment to continuous policy in favor of equality for its own sake may be needed to bring about equality between men and women.