Gender, poverty, and inequality: a brief history of feminist contributions in the field of international development

Abstract

This paper provides a brief history of feminist contributions to the analysis of gender, poverty, and inequality in the field of international development. It draws out the continuous threads running through these contributions over the years, as the focus has moved from micro-level analysis to a concern with macro-level forces. It concludes with a brief note on some of the confusions and conflations that continue to bedevil attempts to explore the relationship between gender, poverty, and inequality.

Cet article propose une brève histoire des contributions féministes à l’analyse du genre, de la pauvreté et de l’inégalité dans le domaine de développement international. Il fait ressortir les fils conducteurs présents dans toutes ces contributions au fil des ans, tandis que leur axe central a évolué, passant d’une analyse au niveau micro à l’examen des forces au niveau macro. Il se conclut par une brève note sur certaines des conclusions et appariements qui continuent à miner les tentatives faites pour examiner la relation entre genre, pauvreté et inégalité.

El presente artículo brinda una breve historia acerca de los aportes feministas al análisis de género, pobreza y desigualdad en el área de desarrollo internacional. En este sentido, examina los ejes que, de manera permanente, han atravesado estos aportes en años recientes, a medida que la atención se ha desplazado desde el análisis a nivel micro hacia el cuestionamiento de las fuerzas existentes a nivel macro. Concluye abordando brevemente algunas de las confusiones y fusiones que siguen obstaculizando los intentos de examinar la relación existente entre género, pobreza y desigualdad.

Key words:

• poverty
• inequality
• gender
• intersectionality
• financial crisis
• policy repsonses

Notes

1 By contrast, wealthier countries have been focused on ‘relative poverty’ despite the call by the 1995 Copenhagen Summit of Social Development for countries to develop measures of both absolute and relative poverty and the need for all nations to eradicate absolute poverty (Sarlo 2001).

2 The ‘Palma ratio’ measures the ratio of the income share of the top 10 per cent in the income distribution to the bottom 40 per cent, on the grounds that the income share of the middle 50 per cent has been relatively stable over time across countries.

3 The ‘Gini co-efficient’, which is the more commonly used measure of income inequality, compares how the actual distribution of income diverges from a perfectly equal distribution of income.