This brief summarizes the high level meeting of the Peacebuilding Commission and the Executive Board of UN Women, convened to draw attention to the benefits of investing in women’s economic capacities and the role of employment in helping sustain long-term peace and stability. It addresses how not integrating women into economic recovery can perpetuate a cycle of violence due to the rate of widowed or alone women after war, and how increases in women’s income and control over that income lead to higher child survival rates, higher girls’ education rates, and higher spending on education and health.