Gender-transformative social protection: returning to the feminist debates

Abstract The concept of gender transformative change brings yet another policy objective and aspiration into the field of public policy—one that reflects a growing desire for more ambitious public policy. This aspiration, while proliferating in social policy and the specific sub-field of social protection in recent years, has been embraced with little consensus and critical reflection on the intended object and processes of change. Various conceptualizations exist, shaped by different disciplines and institutional perspectives. This article begs a moment of pause to critically examine the use of the term “gender-transformative” in the social protection literature, including its emergence, ontological roots, and evolution within the scholarship. Through a comprehensive snowball literature review, we show that gender-transformative social protection often remains vaguely defined, is cast as addressing gender inequality and social structures at the micro level, and lacks clarity on what it concretely takes to achieve gender-transformative change. To gain conceptual clarity and move beyond rhetorical commitments, we suggest engaging more deeply with established and robust feminist scholarship in Gender and Development, including debates on reproductive and productive labor, gender norms, and power and agency.