Economic growth continues the gender asymmetry

Feminist scholars have pointed to the fundamental gender asymmetry in mainstream conceptualizations of growth (Marilyn Waring Citation1989). Growth is defined as the increase in the goods and services produced in a country within a given year, valued at market (or imputed) prices – with one important caveat: it is restricted to those goods and services that are, or could be, bought and sold in the market place. The production of these goods and services is classified as “economic activity” and, as the labor force data tell us, is largely carried out by men. The goods and services produced through unpaid domestic labor for consumption and use by the family, including those which reproduce the “economically active” labor force on a daily and generational basis, are explicitly excluded from definitions of economic activity and growth. As time use data tells us, this work is largely done by women. In other words, the economic growth of a country is defined and measured in a way that arbitrarily excludes the essential, but invisible “economic inactivity” that goes into making it happen. This has led feminist scholars to argue that a key criterion for assessing the gender implications of growth strategies must be the extent to which they address the consequences of this asymmetry. This means asking questions about the quantity and quality of economic opportunities associated with different growth strategies, about the gender distribution of these opportunities, and about the extent to which state policies serve to reinforce or offset gender inequalities in the ability to benefit from new opportunities (Diane Elson and Nilüfer Çagatay Citation2000). Strategies for growth have varied over time. Most developing countries embarked on import-substituting, state-led industrialization strategies after gaining independence in the postwar period, using Keynesian macro economic management to achieve nationalist ends. The oil shocks of the 1970s and the ensuing debt crisis in many of these countries coincided with the rise of neoliberal ideologies within wealthy donor countries and their dissemination across the world through the lending policies of the international financial institutions. The result has been a major shift across the world toward export-oriented growth strategies based on the liberalization of markets, trade, and capital flows at national and international levels. Drawing on the feminist criteria outlined above, it could be argued that there was a strong male breadwinner bias to the early state-led import-substitution strategies. They promoted large-scale, capital-intensive industries, privileged men's employment, and tied access to social security to full-time, life-long employment (of the kind largely enjoyed by men). At the same time, the state also took responsibility for the social welfare of its citizens, and there was a gradual, though highly uneven, expansion in welfare services in most developing countries that created formal employment opportunities for educated women and supported many more in their reproductive roles. The shift to neoliberal policies has been associated with a very different set of outcomes. Efforts to create flexible labor markets in order to attract “footloose” capital and to enable countries to compete in international trade have led to the dismantling of state protections previously accorded to labor. Where these cutbacks in state welfare provision have not been accompanied by an equivalent expansion in affordable market provision, it has been the unpaid labor of women, particularly among low-income groups, that has had to make good the shortfall. The male breadwinner bias of earlier policy has been partly attenuated by women's access to jobs in export-oriented sectors, but the reduction of the role of the state has meant the loss of one of the few sources of “good jobs” available to women in developing countries, as well as a decline in state support for their reproductive responsibilities. To sum up, therefore, the feminist economics literature suggests that the interrelationship between economic growth and gender equality is likely to be mediated by a variety of contextual factors, including the broad policy regimes, within which growth strategies are embedded, as well as the structures of local patriarchy. It thus rules out the possibility of making a priori generalizations about how the interrelationship will play out in different contexts. However, as the analysis in this contribution will show, the resilience of certain aspects of patriarchy means that we continue to find elements of continuity in the midst of much change.