Feminising Development in the Global South

The Gendered Impact of Private Capital Flows on Economic Justice

Abstract

In an age of globalisation marked by technological advancement and expanding markets, the movement of capital has become increasingly abstract and fluid.1 This abstraction renders capital flows difficult to regulate and their socio-economic effects difficult to trace, with particularly destabilising consequences for economies in the Global South. Women and men are affected asymmetrically by volatile capital movements during processes of economic development; in many contexts, marginalised groups become risk absorbers within these systems. This essay argues that the shift from net official flows to unregulated private capital inflows has restructured debt and trade regimes in ways that feminise development and responsibility, producing gendered disparities in welfare outcomes and economic returns in the Global South.