Bretton Woods’ Pandemic Policies: A Gender Equality Analysis—Perspectives from Latin America

Abstract

Using a human rights and feminist economist perspective, this article analyzes the emergency financial policies deployed by international financial institutions (IFIs)—in particular the IMF and the World Bank—to help countries in Latin America cope with the COVID-19 crisis. Looking at the macroeconomic and fiscal assumptions behind IMF loans to countries, it identifies clear signals that fiscal discipline and pro-market options will continue to be priorities as soon as the emergency has been overcome. The study explains how recent adjustment and austerity policies adopted by a number of countries have disproportionately affected women’s human rights, reinforcing the invisibilization of gender inequalities in domestic and care work and in turn, making women even more vulnerable to the impact of the pandemic and resulting economic recession. It concludes that in order to properly consider the conditions of IFI loans, countries must evaluate the probable impact of these financial contracts on people’s human rights, and in particular on gender equality.