Existing arguments on political institutions and economic development have mainly focused on how institutions should influence development via capital investments. Yet, growth economists propose that technological change is the main driver of long-term growth. In this paper, we thus build a theoretical argument focusing on institutional features that should affect technological change, and that may do so through a) increasing the number and variability of new ideas introduced in the economy and b) improving the efficiency with which the best, new ideas are adopted. More specifically, we highlight that institutions and guarantees of rights that promote gender equality and female empowerment should improve on both the variability and selection of new ideas, and thus promote long-term economic growth. We test various implications of this argument using extensive data from the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem project) to measure variation in gender equality and female political empowerment, including civil liberties protection, political inclusion of women and female participation in civil society. Drawing on information from across 183 countries and 225 years we find robust evidence that female empowerment is positively related to subsequent economic growth, even when accounting for initial differences in economic development, democracy levels, and country-fixed effects. The relationship is retained across different contexts, but is stronger for “Non-Western” than “Western” countries. When disaggregating the sources of economic growth, we find clear evidence, in line with our argument, that female empowerment enhances productivity growth, a proxy for technological change.