MATERNAL POVERTY ALLEVIATION: WHICH WAY? A MATERNAL FEMINIST-DEVELOPMENT APPROACH

The International “Mother” Project (TIMP): Delivering on Development for Mothers

About

The International “Mother” Project (TIMP) is a maternal feminist and development research project. My ongoing theoretical doctoral research makes an important contribution in the area of women’s studies within human development, feminist economics, and development economics. It seeks to develop an integrated theory of motherhood using the capabilities approach and social reproduction theory to address the hidden dual tragic conflict of capability suppression and economic oppression inherent in motherhood.  TIMP will therefore build on my doctoral research by operationalizing my theoretical work through a combination of ethnographic, intersectionality and econometric research and will span many years of interdisciplinary, scholarly and potentially collaborative work.

Mission

TIMP will address issues of women empowerment and women’s poverty because of its theoretical foundation which is centered on elucidating the barriers that have been erected by society against women due to their role as mothers. That is, my approach to theorizing the poverty of capabilities due to capability suppression and the poverty of monetary resources due to economic oppression is central to alleviating maternal poverty towards making gains in development for women in general.

Vision

TIMP’s exclusive focus on mothers through a combination of theory and practice will bring a radical approach to closing the gender gap and achieving overall gender equality between women and men through first addressing within-gender inequality between mothers and non-mothers. I envision that it is this radical approach that is needed if the “leave no one behind agenda” of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals is to be achieved for all women in the next decade.