GENDERED IMPACTS OF GLOBAL ECONOMIC SHOCKS: FINDINGS FROM HOUSEHOLDS IN MELANESIA

Authors

Jaclyn Donahue, Earth Institute, Columbia University
Kathleen Eccles, Good Shepherd Microfinance
Simon Feeny, RMIT University
Lachlan McDonald, RMIT University
Alberto Posso, RMIT University

Abstract

This paper examines the gendered impacts of multiple severe global economic shocks in two Melanesian countries: Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. It focuses on the sharp food and fuel price hikes in 2007 and 2008 and the subsequent Global Financial Crisis, which quickly turned into a broader economic crisis. Using gender-disaggregated data, it examines the impacts on women across three economic spheres: financial, productive, and reproductive. Findings indicate that that a disproportionate burden of the adjustment to these shocks was borne by women. Without gender-disaggregation and a focus on gender norms, policies risk being at best incomplete and at worst harmful to women. Therefore, formal social protection schemes must account for gender norms, focusing on practical and achievable mea­ sures to advance women’s economic empowerment within existing institutional structures. Possible policies include financial inclusion, developing better and safer informal markets, lifting agricultural production, and devising more family-friendly labor-migration schemes.

Recommended Citation

Donahue, Jaclyn; Eccles, Kathleen; Feeny, Simon; McDonald, Lachlan; and Posso, Alberto (2017) "GENDERED IMPACTS OF GLOBAL ECONOMIC SHOCKS: FINDINGS FROM HOUSEHOLDS IN MELANESIA," Pacific Studies Journal: Vol. 40: No. 3, Article 1.
Available at: https://digitalcollections.byuh.edu/pacific-studies-journal/vol40/iss3/1