Social Policies and Women Empowerment. An Unfulfilled Commitment

Abstract

Since the 90’s, governments and public agencies have recognized the necessity to integrate gender perspective in development policies, in order to have a real impact on women’s quality of life. Nevertheless, twenty years later, this postulate is still a pending issue in public policy. This article focuses on the evolution of public policy implemented in Mexico with the purpose of both: reducing rates of extreme poverty, and improving social and economic conditions of poor women. First, we will evaluate Oportunidades, the most important anti-poverty program in the last twelve years, which explicitly claims to integrate gender perspective in its design. Later, we will evaluate the probable impact on women’s empowerment of Prospera, the new anti-poverty program recently launched by the Mexican government as the next step in the efforts to alleviate poverty. This analysis considers the following theoretical approach: strategic interests and practical needs (Young, 1998), and different dimensions of power (Rowlands, 1998).