ABSTRACT
Pragmatic neo-liberal economists are becoming more aware of the importance of gender, as demonstrated in the World Bank report, Engendering Development (World Bank 2001). However, as Suzanne Bergeron (this volume) has shown, they do so in a way that preserves the key features of the neo-liberal paradigm. Engendering Development focuses mainly on charting the relationship between gender inequality and economic development, arguing that reducing gender inequality promotes economic growth, and promoting economic growth promotes gender equality. It devotes only a few pages to considering the implications of neo-liberal policies for women, focusing on the impact of structural adjustment policies in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean. It reviews some arguments and evidence on how these policies harm gender equality and also some arguments and evidence on how adjustment promotes gender equality. It concludes “While there is evidence to support both sides of the debate about the impact of structural adjustment, on balance the evidence suggest that females’ absolute status and gender equality improved, not deteriorated over the adjustment period” (ibid.: 215).
