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Can the IMF change to help more women?
When a country hits rock bottom financially, the International Monetary Fund is meant to step in with funds to stabilize the economy without damaging its society — or the gender gap. But studies show that these programs often push women out of work at a disproportionate rate to men as the economy contracts.
Alongside this week’s World Bank-IMF Annual Meetings in Washington, DC, the IMF held a policy forum on Tuesday to discuss a new tool called Gender Impact Assessments, which are designed to help build more equitable programs — and protect some of the world’s most vulnerable women.
How do IMF programs hurt women’s opportunities? In any intervention, the IMF has to consider political practicalities in its policy recommendations. All too often, said Farah Al Shami, program director for social protection at the Arab Reform Initiative, “Austerity is politically easier than implementing tax reform.” Citing examples of governments in the Middle East and North Africa, which already spend proportionally less than peer countries on social services and safety nets and have higher female unemployment, she explained that austerity measures push more women than men out of the workforce as the economy contracts, while also reducing the benefits they need. Even more politically palatable ways to raise revenue, like value-added taxation, can disproportionately burden poor women due to their regressive nature.
Why are women forgotten? Tara Povey, the gender equality and macroeconomics project lead at the Bretton Woods Project, said the approach to gender has been too “scattershot” and often falls down the priority list in negotiations. The IMF’s Gender and Inclusion Deputy Unit Chief Monique Newiak, meanwhile, said that even when gender considerations are taken into account, too much of the focus is placed on metrics like labor force participation and not enough on social aspects like child marriage and gender-based violence.
How could Gender Impact Assessments help? By reorganizing the program development process to include key questions about women — including whether policies could force more unpaid family labor on women, monopolize women’s time, or lead to more hiring discrimination — the IMF can begin tailoring more inclusive programs. Rather than suffering social setbacks, the Fund could ensure that women are at the very least not harmed, and ideally set up for greater success in a recovered economy.
Ships are anchored near the construction site of a new Chinese mega port, in Chancay, Peru, as seen here in August 2023.
Hard Numbers: Chinese mega port to open in Peru, Bitcoin funds debut with a bang, Femicide alarm raised in Kenya, Germany’s East-West gender gaps
3.5 billion: A $3.5 billion Chinese state-owned port is set to open in Chancay, Peru, later this year, giving Beijing a direct gateway to Latin America’s bounteous natural resources – and cementing its status as the region’s largest trade partner. The port is expected to handle major volumes of copper and soy, and it could reduce shipping times to China by as much as two weeks for some of the region’s exporters.
1.9 billion: In the first few days after US regulators approved exchange-traded funds linked to Bitcoin, investors poured $1.9 billion into the new funds. The ETFs give people exposure to Bitcoin without having to actually own any. Some analysts think that as investor confidence in the funds grows, they could attract as much as $100 billion by year’s end.
4: At least four Kenyan women were killed in the first three weeks of the year, with at least two cases of them being targeted by gangs of men using dating apps to extort and rape their victims. The slayings follow a marked increase in femicide last year, in which at least 152 women were murdered (the real number is likely far higher according to experts), according to the NGO Femicide Count Kenya, which is calling on the government to investigate.
18: Women in Germany earn approximately 18% less than men, according to the latest data from the Federal Statistics Office, a stubborn plateau that has now held since 2020 after years of decreases. Experts largely attribute the persistent gap to women taking time away from work for childcare, which causes them to be overlooked for promotions or raises. Interestingly, the gap was less than half as broad in former East Germany, where women earned just 7% less than men.