A Bigger Piece of a Very Small Pie

Intrahousehold Resource Allocation and Poverty Reduction in Africa

Bibliographic Data

ID3883902
AuthorsB O''Laughlin (0000-0001-6006-0281, Netherlands Institute for Social Research, corresponding author), Bridget O''Laughlin, Bridget O'Laughlin
Year2007
Volume38
Issue1
Pages21-44
Publication date2007-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDevelopment and Change (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0012-155X • E-ISSN: 1467-7660
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-7660.2007.00401.x
OpenAlexW2118118603
LanguageEN
Citations received50
References cited25

Feminist research has convincingly shown that an increase in household income does not necessarily lead to improvement in the well-being of all members of the household. More questionable is the policy conclusion often drawn from this research for rural Africa: redressing gender imbalance in control of productive resources will significantly reduce poverty. This contribution argues that the evidence and analysis presented by two studies repeatedly cited to show that gender inequality is inefficient are problematic. It is mythical to suggest that tinkering with women's market position by exchanging unequal collective rights to productive resources for individual ones will decisively reduce rural poverty in Africa. That will depend on the restructuring of long-term and deeply unequal processes of integration in the market, not on a firmer insertion of women within existing patterns of individualization and commodification of productive resources

Commodification · Development economics · Economic growth · Economics · Gender inequality · Inequality · Labour economics · Market economy · Position (finance) · Poverty · Poverty reduction · Public economics · Resource (disambiguation) · Restructuring · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Income, Poverty, and Inequality · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare

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