Is Latin America Sacrificing Poor Women in the Name of Social Integration?

TABBUSH, CONSTANZA

Global Social Policy

SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD

Año: 2009 vol. 9 p. 29 - 33

1468-0181

The devastating social outcomes of structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) and the persistence of poverty and inequality in Latin America provided the political scenario to re-think the social protection of the poor.  The main policy response to these issues has been the development of conditional cash transfers (CCTs) over the region, the prescribed recipe to offer a mechanism of social integration. CCTs offer an unprecedented coverage for the poor independently of their links with formal labor markets. However, from a feminist standpoint, we can still ask: Could we celebrate that women are active participants in these state policies, that inclusion efforts are directed to them only as “mothers”? After the welt-down of the initial excitement about women’s new visibility, we need to consider what kinds of rights are being delivered, and to who are they directed to. In more general terms, we should reflect on how does social integration policies that focus on the family consider gender inequalities when planning public policies.