Engendering Foreign Direct Investment: Family Structure, Labor Markets and International Capital Mobility

In this paper I develop a theoretical foundation for analyzing how gender roles in the household affect foreign direct investment in a developing country context. It is argued that the extent to which women and men share the costs of social reproduction at the household level is a central determinant of women’s labor supply and the profitability of investment. I combine a model of family structure with a structuralist macromodel to investigate the effects of various public policies on women’s wages and employment. A major goal is to specify the constraints imposed by international capital mobility on the prospects for increased equality and living standards for women. Acknowledgements This paper is the result of significant and essential collaboration with Gerald Epstein at the University of Massachusetts, to whom I am greatly (and gratefully) indebted. I have also benefited from the comments of Nancy Folbre, the Engendering Macroeconomics and International Economics Working Group, and two anonymous referees. *Published in World Development, July 2000, 28(7): 1157-72.