Do Conditional Cash Transfers Empower Women? Insights from Brazil’s Bolsa Família

Abstract

Conditional cash transfer programs (CCTs) have emerged as an important social welfare innovation across the Global South in the last two decades. That poor mothers are typically the primary recipients of the grants renders easy, but not necessarily correct, the notion that CCTs empower women. This article assesses the relationship between the world’s largest CCT, Brazil’s Bolsa Família, and women’s empowerment. To systematize and interpret existing research, including our own, it puts forth a three-part framework that examines the program’s effects on economic independence, physical health, and psychosocial well-being. Findings suggest that women experience some improved status along all three dimensions, but that improvements are far from universal. A core conclusion is that the broader institutional context in which the Bolsa Família is embedded—that is, ancillary services in health and social assistance—is crucial for conditioning the degree of empowerment obtained.

How family and child cash transfers can empower women: Comparative lessons from Brazil and South Africa

“…Research suggests that many women acquired basic ID documents in order to enroll in BF, including state identification and individual taxpayer identification cards and birth certificates for children. In one survey, 18.6% of the cardholders polled reported that they had sought out (and acquired) at least one kind of required document to apply for BF (Sugiyama and Hunter, 2020: 59). 14 Our observational field research of an itinerant documentation campaign provided insight into the importance of documents for people’s sense of relief, accomplishment, belonging, and hope.…”

“…The rise could reflect the result of greater autonomy in decision making or greater contact between BF recipients and the health system or both. Fieldwork with beneficiaries and social service providers reveals how conditionalities encourage women to access Brazil’s national public health system, which provides reproductive health care and free contraception (Sugiyama and Hunter, 2020).…”

“…24 Beyond the perinatal period, a 2007 survey of 5000 grant holders showed that 42% reported increased health services use, and 33% increased access to medical tests after enrolling in BF (IBASE, 2008). Interviews with public health nurses (Sugiyama and Hunter, 2020) confirmed BF’s importance for inducing women to visit public health clinics and obtain education on potentially life-saving care, such as screenings for breast or cervical cancer. Prior to receiving BF, many women had never sought out these measures.…”

“…Fewer suicides could reflect the stabilizing impact of having more regular income, which ethnographic studies with beneficiaries (e.g. Rego and Pinzani, 2014) and interviews with public health nurses (Sugiyama and Hunter, 2020) confirm as important in stress reduction. Reduced suicide incidence could also reflect the intervention of CRAS social workers with training in mental health challenges, backed by psychologists when necessary (Solon et al, 2018), who play an important role in serving low-income communities in Brazil.…”

“…6 The two grants pay out roughly the same amounts, providing a minimum floor of protection. The average Bolsa grant (per family) is equivalent to US$75 per month (Sugiyama and Hunter, 2020: 68). CSG provides US$33 per child (Granlund and Hochfeld, 2020: 1230).…”