ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the widespread embrace of human capital logic in development has allowed women to become legible as key agents for global development. It examines how girls and women have been used in the shift, as a legitimizing mechanism for new power relations in development. The chapter demonstrates that the turn to human capital theory, as embodied in the "Gender Equality Smart Economics" agenda, has serious implications for the sources of authority – financial and epistemic – in development. It helps to legitimate new sources of authority in development, particularly private sector and profit-seeking actors. The human capital turn has implications for concerns about the democratic politics of development, or the role of the public in relation to private sector actors. The chapter addresses changing governance patterns in Gender and Development in relation to questions of development authority, accountability, and knowledge production.
