Gender perspectives and gender impacts of the global economic crisis

VALERIA ESQUIVEL; CORINA RODRÍGUEZ ENRÍQUEZ

Macroeconomic Policies and Gender Equality in Latin America. Assessing the gender impact of the global economic crisis

Routledge

Lugar: New York; Año: 2014; p. 73 - 103

This paper examines the impact of the current global economic crisis in Latin America through a gender perspective and assesses to what extent anti-crisis policies took into explicit account the asymmetric impact of the crisis on gender inequalities. It does so by presenting an overview of the effects that the global economic crisis has had in Latin America, and by examining the cases of Mexico, Ecuador, and Argentina. These countries have been chosen for the different impact that the crisis has had on their economies, their pre-crisis situation, and the objective ?policy space? they enjoyed. Also, countries have been chosen by their economic approach (orthodox or heterodox), which had shaped their pre-crisis economic paths and the responses to the crisis they envisioned and were able to implement. Although Latin America is a highly heterogeneous continent, an in-depth review of the selected national cases allows us to derive fairly ?general? conclusions about the main drivers behind the deleterious impacts that the current economic crisis has had in the region, and their gender effects. Mexico, whose government has adopted orthodox economic policies over last two decades, was the most severely hit economy in the region due to the combined effect of its oil and manufacturing export orientation, and its links to the US. Ecuador is a country highly dependent on remittances, whose heterodox government has to deal with a dollarized economy?the most ?orthodox? monetary framework. Finally, Argentina is among countries that have experienced only mild impacts, and has a heterodox approach to economic issues. Irrespective of the strength of their official gender policy mechanisms (strong in Mexico, very weak in Argentina and Ecuador somewhat in between), however, gender equality has been relegated in all three countries as a tool to face the crisis. But clearly, neither the crisis itself nor the counter-cyclical policies implemented were gender-neutral, as gender issues were heavily present in the policies implemented. This document aims at making visible the gender content of these policies and impacts, which might jeopardize past achievements regarding gender equality and women?s empowerment in the region. It does so by paying attention to both short-term ?anti-crisis? policies and to the long term structure of these economies, and women?s place in them. Section 1 presents an overview of the Latin American situation as a result of the crisis, and its gender implications. Section 2 reviews the three national cases, each presenting the pre-crisis macroeconomic path, the social impacts of the crisis, the policies implemented, and an evaluation through gender lenses. Based on the countries? experiences, section 3 concludes and makes some policy recommendations.