The Millennium Development Goals A Feminist Development Economics Perspective

Why is it important to analyse the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Progress Reports through a gender lens? What can feminist economics tell us about how to make progress on gender equality through the MDGs? MDG 3, to Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women, has as its target the elimination of gender disparity in education. This article outlines the argument of the taskforce for Goal 3 - that to analyse the progress on the MDGs it is necessary to use some of the insights of feminist development economics. This means understanding economic relations as relations of gender and power. It also means taking into account women's unpaid work and their role in social reproduction in the development and implementation of economic models and frameworks. The taskforce argues that in order to achieve Goal 3 of gender equality it is necessary to go beyond a narrow focus on education and to incorporate a gender equality perspective in working towards the achievement of the other goals. Seven strategic priorities for action are identified which include: investing in infrastructure designed to reduce women's time burdens; guaranteeing women's property rights; and eliminating inequalities in employment.