AGENCY, WELL-BEING AND INEQUALITY - REFLECTIONS ON THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF POVERTY

Despite their apparent gender-neutrality, most discussions of poverty have been premised on the concept of a male actor and of male-centred notions of well-being and agency. The assumption underpinning income/c onsumption and well-being measures is that shortfalls in income/consum ption translate into shortfalls in choice, and are manifested in short -falls in well-being. However, gender introduces disjunctures into thi s process, with the result that these measures inadequately capture wo men's experience of poverty. The basic conundrum that plagues attempts to conceptualize the gender dimensions of poverty stems from the oper ation of the forces that create scarcity, on the one hand, and discrim ination, on the other. The form in which women's poverty manifests its elf depends on the cultural context far more than it does for men, sug gesting that it cannot be understood through the same conceptual lens.