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Gender Equality as ? A critique of the 2012

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  • Adrienne Roberts
  • Susanne Soederberg

Abstract

Business now plays an increasingly prominent role in development. While the implicit links between private actors and international development institutions have been widely debated, the explicit role of financial corporations in shaping official development policy has been less well documented. We employ a feminist Marxian analysis to examine the material and discursive landscape of the 2012 World Development Report: Gender Equality and Development. Its exclusive focus on gender equality as ‘smart economics’, and the central role accorded to leading financial corporations like Goldman Sachs in the formulation of the key World Bank recommendations enable us to explore the changing landscape of the neoliberal corporatisation of development. We argue, first, that the apolitical and ahistorical representation of gender and gender equality in the wdr serves to normalise spaces of informality and insecurity, thereby expunging neoliberal-led capitalist relations of exploitation and domination, which characterise the social context in which many women in the global South live. Second, the wdr represents the interest of corporations in transforming the formerly excluded segments of the South (women) into consumers and entrepreneurs. The wdr thus represents an attempt by the World Bank and its ‘partners’ to deepen and consolidate the fundamental values and tenets of capitalist interests.

Suggested Citation

  • Adrienne Roberts & Susanne Soederberg, 2012. "Gender Equality as ? A critique of the 2012," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(5), pages 949-968.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ctwqxx:v:33:y:2012:i:5:p:949-968
    DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2012.677310
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    Cited by:

    1. Chant, Sylvia, 2016. "Galvanising girls for development? Critiquing the shift from ‘smart’ to ‘smarter economics’," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 66231, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Irem Güney‐Frahm, 2020. "Neoliberal motherhood during the pandemic: Some reflections," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(5), pages 847-856, September.
    3. Brenda Wyss, 2015. "Seats for the 51 %: Beyond the Business Case for Corporate Board Quotas in Jamaica," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 42(3), pages 211-246, September.
    4. Marie Thynell, 2016. "The Quest for Gender-Sensitive and Inclusive Transport Policies in Growing Asian Cities," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(3), pages 72-82.
    5. Annabel Dulhunty, 2022. "The microcredit continuum: From ‘smart economics’ to holistic programming," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(6), pages 1213-1226, August.
    6. Christina Hughes, 2019. "Reexamining the Influence of Conditional Cash Transfers on Migration From a Gendered Lens," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(5), pages 1573-1605, October.
    7. Sydney Calkin, 2015. "Feminism, interrupted? Gender and development in the era of ‘Smart Economics’," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 15(4), pages 295-307, October.
    8. Sylvia Chant, 2016. "Galvanizing girls for development? Critiquing the shift from ‘smart’ to ‘smarter economics’," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 16(4), pages 314-328, October.
    9. Ida Arff Tarjem & Ola Tveitereid Westengen & Poul Wisborg & Katharina Glaab, 2023. "“Whose demand?” The co-construction of markets, demand and gender in development-oriented crop breeding," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 40(1), pages 83-100, March.
    10. Adam Moe Fejerskov, 2017. "Contending Logics of Action in Development Cooperation: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Work on Gender Equality," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 29(2), pages 441-456, April.
    11. Rahel Kunz & Brenda Ramírez, 2022. "‘Cambiando el chip’: The gendered constellation of subjectivities of the financialisation of remittances in Mexico," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 54(4), pages 779-799, June.
    12. Patient Rambe & Takawira Munyaradzi Ndofirepi, 2017. "Gender Differences in the Perceptions of Entrepreneurship Hindrances: A Case of Vocational Education Students in Zimbabwe," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 8(6), pages 94-113.
    13. Alicia R. Ingersoll & Christy Glass & Alison Cook & Kari Joseph Olsen, 2019. "Power, Status and Expectations: How Narcissism Manifests Among Women CEOs," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 158(4), pages 893-907, September.
    14. Bedigen, Winnifred, 2022. "Indigenous South Sudanese understanding of women empowerment," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 25(C).

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