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Emeritus Professor Diane Elson

Gender Budgeting

I began working on gender analysis of budgets in a pioneering project for the Commonwealth Secretariat, together with Rhonda Sharp, University of South Australia and Debbie Budlender, Community Agency for Social Enquiry, South Africa.

Our work, including the six tools of analysis that I developed, is summarised in A Commonwealth Initiative to Integrate Gender into National Budgetary Processes, 1999.

I subsequently published journal articles, reports and book chapters, not only putting forward tools for gender budgets analysis but also critically appraising the emerging practices of gender budgeting and their limitations. What began as a feminist initiative has in many cases been watered down by governments and international financial institutions so that the transformational potential has been lost. To regain that potential, we need to put forward feminist fiscal policies that include taxation as well as expenditure and question the macroeconomic dimensions of the budget which too often prioritise reduction of budget deficits and government debt.

'Integrating gender issues into national budgetary policies and procedures: some policy options’, Journal of International Development 10 (7)1998.

‘Gender Responsive Budget Initiatives: Key Dimensions and Practical Examples’ in K. Judd (ed.) Gender Budget Initiatives, UNIFEM, New York, 2002.

(with D. Budlender, G. Hewitt, and T. Mukhopadhyay) Gender Budgets Make Cents, Commonwealth Secretariat, London, 2002

(with A. Norton) What’s Behind the Budget? Politics, Rights and Accountability in the Budget Process, Overseas Development Institute, London, 2002.

‘Engendering Government Budgets in the Context of Globalisation(s)’, International Feminist Journal of Politics, 6 (4) 2004.

Budgeting for Women’s Rights; Monitoring Government Budgets for Compliance with CEDAW, UNIFEM, New York, 2006

‘Gender equality, public finance and globalization’ in J. Boyce, S. Cullenberg, P. Pattanaik and R. Pollin (eds.) Human Development in the Era of Globalization, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2006.

(with R. Sharp) ‘Improving budgets: A framework for assessing gender responsive budgets’ in A. Tasrif and G. Puti Renosari (eds.) Terhadap Keijakan Anggaran Di Indonesia, Gender Audit, Civic Education and Transparency Advocacy, The Asia Foundation, Jakarta,2009.

Publications

(with R. Sharp) ‘Gender Responsive Budgeting and Women’s’ Poverty’ in S. Chant(ed.) International Handbook on Gender and Poverty, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2010.

(with S. Austen, M. Costa and R. Sharp) ‘Expenditure Incidence Analysis: A Gender-Responsive Budgeting Tool for Educational Expenditure in Timor-Leste?’ Feminist Economics, 19(4) 2013.

‘Gender Budgeting and Macroeconomic Policy’ in J. Campbell and M. Gillespie (eds.) Feminist Economics and Public Policy: Reflections on the work and impact of Ailsa McKay, London, Routledge, 2016.

‘Financing for Gender Equality: How to Budget in Compliance with Human Rights Standards’ in N. Burn and Z. Kahn (eds.) Financing for Gender Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights through Gender Responsive Budgeting, London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.

‘Gender Budgeting’ in G. Berik and E. Kongar (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Feminist Economics, London, Routledge, 2021.

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