Women in Budgeting: A Critical Assessment of Empowering Effects, Limits and Challenges of Participatory Budgeting Experiences

Abstract

Taking advantage of the recent World Report on Participatory Budgeting, this paper will present an overview of participatory budgeting (PB) practices around the world, from the perspective of their capacity to involve and empower women. After a brief clarification of the definition of PB, the paper will highlight an asymmetric panorama of PB experiences. It will note that PB rarely includes gender issues as a central concern in the shaping of its goals and methodology. It will then go on to argue that without such inclusion and without coherent measures of affirmative action, PB rarely obtains desired social inclusion effects. Diverse examples will be presented to illustrate this, including practices where gender mainstreaming was a focal point of the PB process design (as in Seville, Spain; Rosario, Argentina; and Cotacachi, Ecuador) or was not. The diversity of measures needed in order to involve and empower women will be highlighted. The paper will also observe that the active participation of women is more likely to happen in some specific phases of the budgeting process than in others, referring to the results of several international research projects. Finally, the paper will propose some recommendations relating to design setting, use of language, and positive discrimination rules. Implementation of these would help Participatory Budgeting be more effective in contributing to mainstreaming equality between men and women, especially if considered together with other gender issues identified from existing experiences of PB.