Gender Indicators as Global Governance: Not Your Father's World Bank

Catherine Powell, Fordham University School of Law

Abstract

As feminism has come of age, it has powerfully instantiated itself into global governance. What are the tools feminism has borrowed – even co-opted – to embed itself within governance? Do these tools enhance or diminish the libratory potential of feminism? This paper looks at one tool – the use of quantitative indicators to advance gender equality in global governance. The paper focuses on the World Bank’s relatively new Women, Business and the Law program, as a microcosm of the recent explosion and popularity of gender indicators.