Gender, Cities, and the Millennium Development Goals in the Global South

Citation:

Chant, Sylvia. 2007. “Gender, Cities, and the Millennium Development Goals in the Global South.” New Working Paper Series 21, London School of Economics, London.

Author: Sylvia Chant

Abstract:

Despite a dedicated Millennium Development Goal for ‘promoting gender equality and empowering women’, and popular rhetoric around the fulfilment of MDG 3 as a prerequisite for achieving all other seven goals, there has been widespread criticism on the part of feminists of their limited scope to address gender inequalities in the Global South. Suggestions have been made by the UN Millennium Project Task Force on Education and Gender Equality to improve the gender-responsiveness of the MDGs. Drawing on recent research on the ‘feminisation of poverty’ in Africa, Asia and Latin America and on the wider literature on gender in cities, this paper reflects on the potential of selected MDGs and their proposed revisions for reducing inequalities among poor urban women and men in the 21st century.

Topics: Class, Development, Economies, Economic Inequality, Poverty, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Households, NGOs, Political Economies Regions: Africa, Americas, Central America, South America, Asia

Year: 2007