Gender, Generation and Poverty: Exploring the 'Feminisation of Poverty' in Africa, Asia and Latin America

摘要

The 'feminisation of poverty' is so central to contemporary development discourse that few have dared to question the source or basis for it. The belief that poverty is being feminised has shaped poverty reduction programmes and decided the route of development aid over the last three decades. Broadly, this belief owes its allegiance to at least three popular tenets. The first is that women are the majority of the world's poor. The second is that women's disproportionate share of poverty is rising relative to men's. The third is that household headship is increasingly being feminised and such households are typically associated with extreme and chronic poverty. With these as a .backdrop, Sylvia Chant bravely sets out to interrogate the feminisation of poverty perspective in three countries -The Gambia, The Philippines and Costa Rica.