The role of gender in the conceptualization of economic distortions in World Bank and International Monetary Fund structural adjustment programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa

In response to rising international debt in many Sub-Saharan African (SSA) nations, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have implemented structural adjustment programmes (SAPs). SAPs are designed to forward foreign currency to SSA nations while at the same time securing commitment on the part of SSA governments to restructure their economies. SAPs are based on neoclassical economic ideals which indicate, among other things, that market distortions create significant barriers to economic progress. Neoclassical economics is shown in this thesis to be based on gender bias, formal sector bias, and ethnocentric assumptions which prohibit the conceptualization that gender-based discrimination can make up market distortions. Given the specific cultural and economic role of women in SSA, this omission has lead to the inability of SAPs to target the full range of market distortions effectively. It is the finding of this thesis that gender discrimination, when re-conceptualized as market distortions, reveals that the asymmetrical access women in SSA have to formal economic relations is halting economic progress. This finding is based on analysis of World Bank and IMF data in conjunction with secondary social scientific research, and feminist, development and socio/economic theories.