Since the 90’, 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 paper focus on the evolution of public policy implemented in Mexico with the purpose of both: reduce rates of extreme poverty, and improve social and economic conditions of poor women. First, we will present a short overview of Mexican public program focused on women poverty; next we will evaluate Oportunidades, the most important anti-poverty program in the last 12 years, which explicitly claims to integrate gender perspective in its design. Finally, 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.
With this overview, we will demonstrate that, even though they enhance economic autonomy of poor women, those programs are reproducing and enhancing traditional gender roles, and ultimately, they have negative impact on women’s well-being; since they increase their work-load and put a strain on the close relationships.
This analysis considers the following teorethical approach: care and social politics (CEPAL, 2013); strategic interests and practical needs (Molyneux, 1985); different dimensions of power/invisible power (Lukes, 1986).
