Gender Equality, Economic Growth, and Women’s Agency: The “Endless Variety” and “Monotonous Similarity” of Patriarchal Constraints

Citation:

Kabeer, Naila. 2016. “Gender Equality, Economic Growth, and Women’s Agency: The ‘Endless Variety’ and ‘Monotonous Similarity’ of Patriarchal Constraints.” Feminist Economics 22 (1): 295–321.

Author: Naila Kabeer

Abstract:

Macroeconometric studies generally find fairly robust evidence that gender equality has a positive impact on economic growth, but reverse findings relating to the impact of economic growth on gender equality are far less consistent. The high level of aggregation at which these studies are carried out makes it difficult to ascertain the causal pathways that might explain this asymmetry in impacts. Using a feminist institutional framework, this contribution explores studies carried out at lower levels of analysis for insights into the pathways likely to be driving these two sets of relationships and a possible explanation for their asymmetry.

Keywords: agency, empowerment, development, growth, inequality, gender

Topics: Development, Economies, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Gender Equality/Inequality, Gender Equity

Year: 2016