Most conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes in Latin America select a woman as the primary recipient of the transfer. In most cases she is the mother of children in the household or the woman responsible for those children. The rationale behind this is that the money spent by women tends to be concentrated more on goods and services that are more likely to have a positive effect on the children?s well-being. (?)Empowering or Reinforcing Traditional Roles: Can CCTs Address Gender Vulnerabilities?

Elydia Silva

Fabio Veras Soares

English

Research Papers in Economics

International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC - IG)
Poverty Practice, Bureau for Development Policy, UNDP
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The International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth is jointly supported
by the Poverty Practice, Bureau for Development Policy, UNDP
and the Government of Brazil.
September,  2010
No. 115
Empowering or Reinforcing Traditional Roles:
Can CCTs Address Gender Vulnerabilities?
by Fábio Veras Soares, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth and
Elydia Silva,  National Bank for Social and Economic Development (BNDES), Brazil
Most conditional cash transfer (CCT)
programmes in Latin America select a woman as the primary
recipient of the transfer. In most cases she is the mother of children
in the household or the woman responsible for those children.
The rationale behind this is that the money spent by women tends
to be concentrated more on goods and services that are more likely
to have a positive effect on the children’s well-being.
Some CCT programmes also try to address some gender-specific
vulnerabilities by means of a variety of mechanisms. These include
the provision of higher transfers for school-age girls who might
be more likely to drop out of school, particularly when they reach
secondary education; the provision of free healthcare for pregnant
women and breastfeeding mothers; and the attempt to create new
forms of sociability for beneficiary women, especially in rural areas,
whereby they are offered some options of community interaction
through training sessions and/or community/beneficiary events.
Some quantitative evaluations have looked at women’s bargaining
power through an index based on a combination of variables
related to the decision making process within the household.
The evaluation of Bolsa Família in Brazil, for instance, showed that
beneficiaries of the programme were more likely to have a higher
female bargaining-power index than non-beneficiary households.
But a similar evaluation of Familias en Acción in Colombia found
no impact on female bargaining power (Soares and Silva, 2010).
As for qualitative studies, there is some evidence from research on
Brazil and Chile that CCT programmes have had a significant effect
on beneficiary women’s identity. In Brazil, this outcome seems to
stem from women’s new power as “consumers”. They no longer
depend on their husbands for some of the family’s expenditures,
and they even feel strong enough to negotiate with their
husbands in the decision making process within the household.
In Chile, this sense of identity seems to arise from the family-
support component of Chile Solidario. Beneficiaries are confident
enough to perceive themselves as individuals, not only as wives
and/or mothers. The fact that the women feel more confident and
empowered, however, does not mean that their husbands are now
sharing some of the domestic chores with them.
Despite these positive evaluations, some authors dispute the
“gendered empowerment effect”. Maline Molyneux (2009) and J.
ane Jenson (2009), for instance, claim that CCT programmes tend
to reinforce the traditional role of women within the household,
since they are “empowered” only under the label of guardian
of the children. In the view of these authors, the “social investment
perspective” within which most Latin American CCT programmes are
embedded is based on a set of child-centred policies.
It must be acknowledged that CCTs are not meant primarily
to address women’s needs. In some contexts, therefore, the
programmes can entail a trade-off between the needs of women
and children’s well-being (as perceived by the CCT programme’s
rationale), and can reinforce traditional gender roles.
To avoid these unintended effects, the language used
in CCT initiatives could be revised and the programmes
could create an opportunity to trigger discussion within the
household on the traditional roles of men and women with
regard to their responsibility for children’s health and education.
Moreover, the social protection frameworks of which these
programmes are (or should be) just a component should also
provide economic opportunities and childcare facilities for
beneficiary women/mothers, so that economic autonomy and
increased sociability can also be achieved through a greater
participation in the labour market and higher wage potential
if the women so desire.
References:
Jenson, J. (2009) ‘Lost in Translation: The Social Investment Perspective and Gender Equality’
pp. 446-483. Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society 16(4): 446-483.
Molyneux, M. (2009) ‘Conditional Cash Transfers: A Pathway to Women’s Empowerment?’
Pathways Brief 5. London: DFID.
Soares, Fábio V. and Elydia Silva (2010). ‘Conditional Cash Transfer Programmes and
Gender Vulnerabilities: Case Studies of Brazil, Chile and Colombia’, IPC-IG Working Paper.
Brasilia, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth.
This project is funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the
Australian Government, AusAID (Australian Development Research Awards 2008), looking at
gender and social protection effectiveness in Latin America, SubSaharan Africa, South Asia
and Southeast Asia. The research was carried out by ODI in collaboration with country partners.
For more information:
<http://www.odi.org.uk/work/projects/details.asp?id=1020&title=gender-vulnerability-
social-protection>.

Conditional Cash Transfer Programmes and Gender Vulnerabilities: Case

Conditional Cash Transfers: A Pathway to Women’s Empowerment?’ Pathways Brief 5.

Lost in Translation: The Social Investment Perspective and Gender Equality’

Empowering or Reinforcing Traditional Roles: Can CCTs Address Gender Vulnerabilities?

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Empowering or Reinforcing Traditional Roles: Can CCTs Address Gender Vulnerabilities?

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