Chant, Sylvia 
ORCID: 0000-0002-0020-3751
(2006)
Revisiting the 'feminisation of poverty' and the UNDP gender indices: what case for a gendered poverty index?
New series working paper (18).
Gender Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.
Abstract
Women’s purportedly disproportionate and rising share of poverty - as encapsulated in the widely popularised term the ‘feminisation of poverty’ – has conferred unprecedented prominence upon gender in poverty analysis and policy. However, the ‘feminisation of poverty’ is often used in a cursory and unsubstantiated manner and, in its implicit privileging of income, does not necessarily highlight aspects of poverty which are most relevant to poor women at the grassroots. Although the UNDP’s gender indices go some way to reflecting broader aspects of gendered poverty, particularly in respect of capabilities and opportunities, there is scope for improvement. In the interests of working towards gender indices which are more responsive to crucial gender gaps in poverty (understood not only as income deficiency, but in a more multidimensional fashion, and which give weight to the onus of dealing with poverty), the main aims of this paper are three-fold. The first is to draw attention to existing conceptual and methodological weaknesses with the ‘feminisation of poverty’. The second is to offer some thoughts on how the ‘feminisation of poverty’ could be re-cast to more effectively capture trends in gendered privation among the poor. The third is to propose directions for the kinds of data and indicators which might be incorporated within the GDI or GEM, or used in the creation of a Gendered Poverty Index (GPI).
| Item Type: | Monograph (Working Paper) |
|---|---|
| Official URL: | http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/genderInstitute |
| Additional Information: | © 2006 the author |
| Divisions: | Gender Studies Geography & Environment |
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform |
| Date Deposited: | 14 Oct 2008 15:42 |
| Last Modified: | 13 Sep 2024 19:58 |
| URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/13298 |
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