This article takes a rights-based approach to review women’s economic rights globally and across Africa, to identify systematic constraints to women’s economic empowerment, and suggest key opportunities for reform. Within sub-Saharan Africa, women’s labour force participation is high, but most women are employed in low-wage subsistence-based enterprises. Although all but three African countries have ratified CEDAW and most have constitutionally enshrined non-discrimination, legal and social discrimination continues to impede women’s economic opportunities. Women face both formal barriers, such as discriminatory inheritance laws, and social barriers like norms that allocate to women the brunt of housework, child-care, and elderly care. The article concludes that legal reform can drive positive change in sub-Saharan Africa. Priorities include constitutional recognition of the principle of non-discrimination, reducing legal constraints on women’s economic participation, and reforming property and inheritance laws. These legal reforms must be supported by strong implementation and enforcement mechanisms, which in turn require numerous resources.