Foreign Direct Investment and Development from a Gender Perspective

Abstract

While the wisdom of encouraging short-term capital flows is increasingly questioned, foreign direct investment (FDI) is still viewed as a central element of development strategy by international financial institutions. Many contentious issues remain in the literature about FDI. These pertain to both the growth and development effects of FDI as well as the appropriate kinds of regulatory frameworks that would render FDI flows more development oriented. However, while the development effects of FDI are debated, the literature on FDI and economic development has generally been gender blind. Nevertheless, a small but growing literature addresses the gender dimensions of FDI in the context of efforts to understand how neoliberal economic policies and globalization patterns have different impacts on women and men. This chapter summarizes some of the stylized facts and policy insights that can be drawn from this emerging work.