Challenges and Changes in Gendered Poverty: The Feminization, De-Feminization, and Re-Feminization of Poverty in Latin America

ABSTRACT

Despite reductions in poverty generally, recent trends in Latin American countries show processes of both de-feminization and re-feminization of poverty. A rise in the numbers of women to men living in income-poor households has occurred despite feminized anti-poverty programs, most notably conditional cash transfers (CCTs), which target resources to women. This paper shows that methodological differences in what, how, and who is the focus of measurement may influence patterns of poverty “feminization.” It also suggests that feminized policy interventions might in themselves be playing a role in the re-feminization of poverty, not least because of data and definitional limitations in the way female-headed households and, relatedly, women’s poverty are understood. The somewhat paradoxical interactions between the feminization of household headship, the feminization of poverty, and the feminization of anti-poverty programs present interesting challenges for redressing gender gaps in poverty within the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

KEYWORDS:

• Latin America
• gender
• feminization of poverty
• conditional cash transfers
• female-headed households

JEL Codes:

• I32
• B54
• D1

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The collaborative research underpinning this article was funded by an Urban, Development and Planning Cluster Seed Grant awarded to Sylvia Chant in 2016 by the Department of Geography and Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science. We are grateful for this financial assistance. We would also like to thank the reviewers and editors at Feminist Economics for their many valuable inputs and suggestions.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sarah Bradshaw

Sarah Bradshaw has worked on gender issues for over twenty years including research around gendered rights, poverty and poverty alleviation, and household decision making. She has undertaken work with various development agencies, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Department for International Development (DFID). In 2013, she was commissioned to write the gender background paper for the High-Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda. In 2014, she was awarded the Gender Evidence Synthesis Research Award for the ESRC/DFID Joint Poverty Alleviation Fund Scheme to review all grants awarded under the scheme for their contribution to gendered understandings of poverty.

Sylvia Chant

Sylvia Chant has undertaken research in Mexico, Costa Rica, the Philippines, and The Gambia, and consulted for a wide range of development organizations including UNDP, ILO, UN-HABITAT, World Bank, and ECLAC. She is a member of the Expert Advisory Group for UN Women’s Progress of the World’s Women 2018. In 2015, Chant was appointed as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, which described her as a “world-leading figure in international social science, helping to stake out the field of gender and development.” She has published extensively, including editing the 2010 International Handbook of Gender and Poverty, comprising over 100 chapters from 125 authors.

Brian Linneker

Brian Linneker is an independent scholar and freelance senior researcher in economic geography. He holds a PhD and MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has worked for over twenty-five years in the general area of poverty, vulnerability, and social exclusion for UK government departments, UK international and Latin American national NGOs and civil society organizations, and within various academic institutions including the LSE, Kings College, Birkbeck College, Queen Mary University of London, and Middlesex University. He has published over 100 articles, reports, book chapters, and working papers on London, the UK, and Latin America.