In the interests of contextualising (and nuancing) the multiple interrelations between gender and poverty, Sylvia Chant has gathered writings on diverse aspects of the subject from a range of disciplinary and professional perspectives, achieving extensive thematic as well as geographical coverage. This benchmark volume presents womens and mens experiences of gendered poverty with respect to a vast spectrum of intersecting issues including local to global economic transformations, family, age, race, migration, assets, paid and unpaid work, health, sexuality, human rights, and conflict and violence. The Handbook also provides up-to-the-minute reflections on how to theorise, measure and represent the connections between gender and poverty, and to contemplate how gendered poverty is affected - and potentially redressed - by policy and grassroots interventions. An unprecedented and ambitious blend of conceptual, methodological, empirical and practical offerings from a host of established as well as upcoming scholars and professionals from across the globe lends the volume a distinctive and critical edge. Notwithstanding the broad scope of The International Handbook of Gender and Poverty, one theme in common to most of its 100-plus chapters is the need to en-gender analysis and initiatives to combat poverty and inequality at local, national and international levels. As such, the volume will inspire its readers not only to reflect deeply on poverty and gender injustice, but also to consider what to do about it. This book will be essential reading for all with academic, professional or personal interests in gender, poverty, inequality, development, and social, political and economic change in the contemporary world.

Table of contents :
Copyright......Page 5
Contents......Page 6
Figures......Page 14
Tables......Page 15
Boxes......Page 16
Contributors......Page 18
Acknowledgements......Page 26
Abbreviations......Page 28
1 Gendered poverty across space and time: introduction and overview......Page 36
PART I CONCEPTS AND METHODOLOGIES FOR GENDERED POVERTY......Page 62
2 Strategic gendering: one factor in the constituting of novel political economies......Page 64
3 Subjectivity, sexuality and social inequalities......Page 70
4 Power, privilege and gender as reflected in poverty analysis and development goals......Page 76
5 Gender into poverty won’t go: reflections on economic growth, gender inequality and poverty with particular reference to India......Page 82
6 Advancing the scope of gender and poverty indices: an agenda and work in progress......Page 88
7 Methodologies for gender-sensitive and pro-poor poverty measures......Page 94
8 Multidimensional poverty measurement in Mexico and Central America: incorporating rights and equality......Page 100
9 Gender, time poverty and Amartya Sen’s capability approach: evidence from Guatemala......Page 106
10 Why is progress in gender equality so slow? An introduction to the ‘Social Institutions and Gender’ Index......Page 112
11 Diamonds are a girl’s best friend? Experiences with the Gender Action Learning System......Page 119
PART II DEBATES ON THE ‘FEMINISATION OF POVERTY’, AND FEMALE-HEADED HOUSEHOLDS......Page 128
12 The ‘feminisation of poverty’: a widespread phenomenon?......Page 130
13 Poor households or poor women: is there a difference?......Page 136
14 Globalisation and the need for a ‘gender lens’: a discussion of dichotomies and orthodoxies with particular reference to the ‘feminisation of poverty’......Page 140
15 Towards a (re)conceptualisation of the ‘feminisation of poverty’: reflections on gender-differentiated poverty from The Gambia, Philippines and Costa Rica......Page 146
16 Post-adjustment, post-mitigation, ‘post-poverty’? The feminisation of family responsibility in contemporary Ghana......Page 152
17 Female-headed households and poverty in Latin America: state policy in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic......Page 158
18 Gender, households and poverty in the Caribbean: shadows over islands in the sun......Page 164
19 Poverty and female-headed households in post-genocide Rwanda......Page 170
20 Between stigmatisation and survival: poverty among migrant and non-migrant lone mothers in the Netherlands......Page 176
21 Lone mothers, poverty and paid work in the United Kingdom......Page 182
22 Urban poverty and gender in advanced economies: the persistence of feminised disadvantage......Page 188
PART III GENDER, FAMILY AND LIFECOURSE......Page 194
23 Gender and household decision-making in developing countries: a review of evidence......Page 196
24 Linking women’s and children’s poverty......Page 202
25 Reducing the gender gap in education: the role of wage labour for rural women in Mozambique......Page 208
26 Understanding the gender dynamics of Russia’s economic transformation: women’s and men’s experiences of employment, domestic labour and poverty......Page 213
27 Gender, poverty and transition in Central Asia......Page 219
28 Urban poverty, heteronormativity and women’s agency in Lima, Peru: family life on the margins......Page 225
29 Youth, gender and work on the streets of Mexico......Page 230
30 Sexuality, poverty and gender among Gambian youth......Page 236
31 Ghettoisation, migration or sexual connection? Negotiating survival among Gambian male youths......Page 242
32 Poverty in old age in sub-Saharan Africa: examining the impacts of gender with particular reference to Ghana......Page 250
33 Gender, urban poverty and ageing in India: conceptual and policy issues......Page 255
34 Poverty, gender and old age: pension models in Costa Rica and Chile......Page 261
35 Gender, poverty and pensions in the United Kingdom......Page 267
PART IV GENDER, ‘RACE’ AND MIGRATION......Page 274
36 Assessing poverty, gender and well-being in ‘Northern’ indigenous communities......Page 276
37 Gender and ethnicity in the shaping of differentiated outcomes of Mexico’s Progresa-Oportunidades conditional cash transfer programme......Page 283
38 Gender, poverty, and national identity in afrodescendent and indigenous movements in Latin America......Page 289
39 The gendered exclusions of international migration: perspectives from Latin American migrants in London......Page 295
40 Latino immigrants, gender and poverty in the United States......Page 301
41 Culturing poverty? Ethnicity, religion, gender and social disadvantage among South Asian Muslim communities in the United Kingdom......Page 307
42 Gender, occupation, loss and dislocation: a Latvian perspective......Page 313
43 Gender, poverty and migration in Mexico......Page 319
44 Migration, gender and sexual economies: young female rural–urban migrants in Nigeria......Page 325
45 Internal mobility, migration and changing gender relations: case study perspectives from Mali, Nigeria, Tanzania and Vietnam......Page 331
46 Picturing gender and poverty: from ‘victimhood’ to ‘agency’?......Page 336
PART V GENDER, HEALTH AND POVERTY......Page 342
47 Poverty, gender and the right to health: reflections with particular reference to Chile......Page 344
48 Maternal mortality in Latin America: a matter of gender and ethnic equality......Page 350
49 New labyrinths of solitude: lonesome Mexican migrant men and AIDS......Page 356
50 Gender, poverty and AIDS: perspectives with particular reference to sub-Saharan Africa......Page 362
51 Gender, HIV/AIDS and carework in India: a need for gender-sensitive policy......Page 368
52 Women’s smoking and social disadvantage......Page 374
PART VI GENDER, POVERTY AND ASSETS......Page 380
53 Household wealth and women’s poverty: conceptual and methodological issues in assessing gender inequality in asset ownership......Page 382
54 Gender, poverty and access to land in cities of the South......Page 388
55 Power, patriarchy and land: examining women’s land rights in Uganda and Rwanda......Page 395
56 Gender, livelihoods and rental housing markets in the Global South: the urban poor as landlords and tenants......Page 402
57 Renegotiating the household: successfully leveraging women’s access to housing microfinance in South Africa......Page 408
58 Gender issues and shack/slum dweller federations......Page 414
59 Gender, poverty and social capital: the case of Oaxaca City, Mexico......Page 420
60 Moving beyond gender and poverty to asset accumulation: evidence from low-income households in Guayaquil, Ecuador......Page 426
61 Conceptual and practical issues for gender and social protection: lessons from Lesotho......Page 434
PART VII GENDER, POVERTY AND WORK......Page 442
62 Gender, work and poverty in high-income countries......Page 444
63 The extent and origin of the gender pay gap in Europe......Page 450
64 Women’s work, nimble fingers and women’s mobility in the global economy......Page 456
65 Gender, poverty and inequality: the role of markets, states and households......Page 462
66 Women’s employment, economic risk and poverty......Page 469
67 Gender and ethical trade: can vulnerable women workers benefit?......Page 475
68 Fraternal capital and the feminisation of labour in South India......Page 481
69 Economic transition and the gender wage gap in Vietnam: 1992–2002......Page 487
70 Gender, poverty and work in Cambodia......Page 493
71 Informality, poverty and gender: evidence from the Global South......Page 498
72 The empowerment trap: gender, poverty and the informal economy in sub-Saharan Africa......Page 507
73 A gendered analysis of decent work deficits in India’s urban informal economy: case study perspectives from Surat......Page 513
74 Gender and quality of work in Latin America......Page 519
75 Gender inequalities and poverty: a simulation of the likely impacts of reducing labour market inequalities on poverty incidence in Latin America......Page 525
PART VIII GENDERED POVERTY AND POLICY INTERVENTIONS......Page 530
76 Gender, poverty and aid architecture......Page 532
77 Brand Aid? How shopping has become ‘Saving African Women and Children with AIDS’......Page 539
78 Sweden to the rescue? Fitting brown women into a poverty framework......Page 545
79 Poverty alleviation in a changing policy and political context: the case of PRSPs with particular reference to Nicaragua......Page 551
80 Gender-responsive budgeting and women’s poverty......Page 557
81 Reducing gender inequalities in poverty: considering gender-sensitive social programmes in Costa Rica......Page 563
82 Is gender inequality a form of poverty? Shifting semantics in Oxfam GB’s thinking and practice......Page 570
83 Tackling poverty: learning together to improve women’s rights through partnership – the case of WOMANKIND Worldwide......Page 576
84 Millennial woman: the gender order of development......Page 583
PART IX MICROFINANCE AND WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT......Page 590
85 The housewife and the marketplace: practices of credit and savings from the early modern to modern era......Page 592
86 Money as means or money as end? Gendered poverty, microcredit and women’s empowerment in Tanzania......Page 598
87 Capitalising on women’s social capital: gender and microfinance in Bolivia......Page 604
88 ‘A woman and an empty house are never alone for long’: autonomy, control, marriage and microfinance in women’s livelihoods in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia......Page 610
89 Gender and poverty in Egypt: do credit projects empower the marginalised and the destitute?......Page 616
90 Women’s empowerment: a critical re-evaluation of a GAD poverty-alleviation project in Egypt......Page 622
91 Impacting women through financial services: the Self Help Group Bank Linkage Programme in India and its effects on women’s empowerment......Page 629
92 Microcredit and women’s empowerment: understanding the ‘impact paradox’ with particular reference to South India......Page 634
93 Gender and poverty in microfinance: illustrations from Zambia......Page 641
94 The impact of microcredit programmes on survivalist women entrepreneurs in The Gambia and Senegal......Page 647
95 Methodologies for evaluating women’s empowerment in poverty alleviation programmes: illustrations from Paraguay and Honduras......Page 653
PART X NEW FRONTIERS IN GENDERED POVERTY RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS......Page 660
96 Women, poverty and disasters: exploring the links through Hurricane Mitch in Nicaragua......Page 662
97 Decentralisation, women’s rights and poverty: learning from India and South Africa......Page 668
98 Poverty, entitlement and citizenship: vernacular rights cultures in Southern Asia......Page 673
99 Contradictions in the gender–poverty nexus: reflections on the privatisation of social reproduction and urban informality in South African townships......Page 679
100 Gender, neoliberalism and post-neoliberalism: re-assessing the institutionalisation of women’s struggles for survival in Ecuador and Venezuela......Page 684
101 Who does the counting? Gender mainstreaming, grassroots initiatives and linking women across space and ‘race’ in Guyana......Page 690
102 Poverty, religion and gender: perspectives from Albania......Page 696
103 Sexuality, gender and poverty......Page 702
104 Masculinity, poverty and the ‘new wars’......Page 709
Index......Page 716