Gender Equality & Macroeconomics Project

The Gender Equality and Macroeconomics (GEM) project is coordinated by the Bretton Woods Project and currently carried out in partnership with the Gender and Development Network and International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific, as well as previously the Latin American Network for Economic and Social Justice. It aims at challenging the ways in which macroeconomic policies currently promoted by international financial institutions (IFIs) undermine gender equality and women’s rights. To change this, the project, initiated in 2015, examines the implications of current macroeconomic policy approaches in relation to gender, engages in direct advocacy and works to support a wide range of civil society groups and organisations towards building an enabling macroeconomic environment for women’s rights and gender equality.

Advocacy briefings (BWP)

CSO guides and toolkits (BWP)

• Inside the Institutions: The World Bank’s approach to gender mainstreaming – December 2022
• Keeping the IMF accountable to women’s rights and gender equality at the national level – November 2019
• Gender Just-Macroeconomics; The World Bank’s privatisation push – March 2019
• Gender-Just Macroeconomics; Engaging the IMF and World Bank – October 2016

Briefings and toolkits (GEM Partners)

• GEM: A starter kit on Gender Equality and Macroeconomics
• Warning: May contain austerity
• Push No One Behind: how current economic policy exacerbates gender inequality
• Can public-private partnerships deliver gender equality?
• How social protection, public services and infrastructure impact women’s rights
• Realising women’s rights: the role of public debt in Africa
• The impact of economic reforms and austerity measures on women’s HR
• Macroeconomic policy and women’s economic empowerment
• Making trade work for gender equality
• Sharing the load: Unpaid care work and women’s economic empowerment
• Breaking down the barriers: Macropolicies that promote women’s economic equality
• Making the case for macroeconomics in gender equality work
• Towards feminist advocacy on macro-level economics – workshop report

Observer Articles

• WBG gender strategy risks undermining new human rights language with continued private sector bias (Autumn 2023)
• Gender progress at risk as new World Bank president enters pushing private-sector focus (Summer 2023)
• World Bank’s financial inclusion agenda blind to growing gendered over-indebtedness (Spring 2023)
• Lagging behind: World Bank and IMF rank poorly against other IFIs as their approach to macro is still gender-blind despite reform promises (Spring 2023)
• New IMF gender strategy’s potential to catalyse change undermined by austerity and problematic mission creep (Winter 2022)
• ‘Uber Files’ and ‘Back off BlackRock’ campaign expose ‘pink washing’ as the heart of corporate women’s economic empowerment agenda (Autumn 2022)
• World Bank’s new gender strategy: Concerns about approach to social protection and gender-blind macroeconomic reforms remain (Summer 2022)
• The IMF gender strategy: Will it lead to real change for women’s rights? (Spring 2022)
• World Bank and IMF’s gender analysis of VAT falls short (Autumn 2021)
• Latest IMF gender research: Making the economy work for women, or women work for the economy? (Summer 2021)
• World Bank gender-based violence mechanism raises “serious concerns” (Summer 2021)
• UN holds Pakistan to account for IMF programme impacts on women (Spring 2020)
• World Bank and IMF response to debt crisis undermines women’s rights (Spring 2020)
• IMF’s recognition of unpaid care work undermined by its own harmful policy advice (Winter 2019)
• Civil society left unconvinced as World Bank promotes PPPs as tool for gender equality (Summer 2019)
• World Bank’s women entrepreneur initiatives just “smoke and mirrors” (Summer 2019)
• Debt and gender equality: How debt-servicing conditions harm women in Africa (Spring 2019)
• BWIs’ instrumental gender approach ignores structural elephant in the room (Winter 2018)
• The World Bank’s role in crafting a neoliberal hegemony with a feminist face (Autumn 2018)
• We-Fi’s roll-out continues to ignore long-standing feminist concerns (Autumn 2018)
• The impacts of IMF-backed austerity on women’s rights in Brazil (Spring 2018)
• #MeToo arrives at World Bank as it publishes Gender-Based Violence Action Plan (Spring 2018)
• Will IMF’s response to UN report on women’s economic empowerment change its policies? (Winter 2017)
• The World Bank’s new Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative: Recycling a broken model? (Autumn 2017)
• Will World Bank Global Gender-Based Violence Task Force recommendations have a discernible impact? (Autumn 2017)
• IMF Ukraine programme’s impact on women’s rights criticised at Human Rights Council (Summer 2017)
• The IMF returns to Zambia: How will gender and income inequality be addressed? (Spring 2017)
• World Bank releases new gender strategy (Winter 2016)
• IMF on gender and income inequality: from research to implementation (Winter 2016)
• World Bank results: “box-ticking” on gender, weak monitoring and evaluation (Summer 2016)
• Gender equality at the IFIs: progress or PR? (Spring 2016)
• IEG calls on World Bank for more gender integration (Winter 2015)
• Gender progress? The World Bank’s approach to new gender strategy criticised (Autumn 2015)
• Women’s work: IFIs focus on gender inequalities (Spring 2015)
• IMF & gender: a long way to go (Winter 2014)
• World Bank admits gender equality not just about growth (Spring 2014)
• Gender WDR: Limits, gaps, and fudges (Update 79, 2012)
• World Bank’s gender WDR: too little, too late? (Update 78, 2011)

CSPF events, Blogs, Letters & More

• Gender IFI Summer School
• Time to get Macro? Gendered effects of World Bank macroeconomic policy amidst IFI reform (Spring Meetings 2023)
• Civil society letter to the WBG Board calling for open and meaningful consultation on upcoming Gender Strategy Update – December 2022
• World Bank and IMF must recognize and challenge austerity dogma as a form of gender-based violence – Oxfam Blogs November 2022
• Fit for purpose? IMF Gender Mainstreaming Strategy and taxation approaches during multiple intersecting crises (Annual Meetings 2022)
• Implications of financial deepening for inequality and its impact on gender, poverty, and marginalization (Annual Meetings 2022)
• Accelerating equality through a gender-just green transition: unlocking women and girls’ economic opportunities (Annual Meetings 2022)
• Civil society letter to the IMF Board to call for open consultation on upcoming Gender Strategy – January 2022
• The role of the World Bank in combatting economic gender inequality in conflict-affected countries (Annual Meetings 2021)
• Building a feminist recovery for all: Gender transformative policies are more urgent than ever (Annual Meetings 2020)
• Frau ist Geld – Die Tageszeitung (German) 24 October 2019
• Cutting to the core: Rethinking the IMF’s way of doing business to tackle gender inequalities (Annual Meetings 2019)
• Sexual orientation & gender identity – considering risk mitigation within World Bank programming (Spring Meetings 2019)
• Taxes, Taxes, Taxes: Shifting the IFI Narrative to Progressive Gender-just Taxation (Spring Meetings 2019)
• The IMF is certainly no ally of women – The Guardian 5 March 2019
• Letter to IMF MD Kristalina Georgieva on women’s rights and gender equality – February 2019
• Bursting the macroeconomic policy bubble for gender equality – RightingFinance blog 30 November 2016
• An IMF that promotes gender equality? A long road ahead… – Oxfam Views and Voices blog 17 August 2016
• Response to World Bank’s gender strategy – July 2015

For all BWP’s articles relating to gender equality, please find our dedicated gender page here.

Calls for Proposal

• We currently do not have any open CfPs.

GET IN TOUCH

Tara Povey
Gender Equality & Macroeconomics Project Lead
tpovey[at]brettonwoodsproject.org

Amy McShane
Gender Equality & Macroeconomics Project Officer
amcshane[at]brettonwoodsproject.org