Achieving the empowerment of female entrepreneurs through value chain development under the AfCFTA has been the focus of a collection of tralac research over the past two years, and the gender element remains in focus. This brief extends the analysis by focusing on a specific regional economic community (REC) and one which is also a preferential trade area (PTA): the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The examination of a functioning PTA, in which there is already a high level of preferential trade, offers important lessons for the continental arrangements, especially since the RECs are regarded as the ‘building blocks’ of the AfCFTA. This brief explores three databases: industrial sectoral data of female employment, World Bank gendered enterprise survey data and tralac’s own gendered value chain survey data of 559 enterprises. This data is used to draw insights on female employment patterns by sector, gendered potential value chain involvement and sector and gendered PTA utilisation patterns by sector.