U.S. and Non-U.S. Scholars

Fulbright New Century Scholars Program
Overview • Previous NCS Programs • NCS Scholar List • NCS Brochure • 2004-2005

Christina Ewig

Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science and Center for Women's Studies
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, United States
Research: Is Neoliberalism Bad for women? Gender & the politics of health reform in Latin America

Christina Ewig is an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she has a joint appointment in the Department of Political Science and the Program in Women's Studies. Professor Ewig currently teaches in the areas of gender and development, global feminisms, and comparative politics.

Professor Ewig's research interests center on gender and social policy in Latin America. She is concerned with the historical development of social policies and the implications of these historical processes for gender, class and ethnic inequalities; determining the political, economic or social factors that lead to greater gender equity in policy formation processes; and the impact of neoliberal-inspired social policies on gender equity in Latin American societies. Her early work examined the role of the Nicaraguan women's movement in influencing national health policy. In 1998 and 1999, she carried out dissertation research that combined qualitative and quantitative methods to evaluate gender equity in the formation and implementation of health sector reforms in Peru. Her current research, supported by NCS, will extend her research on Peru into a cross-national study of gender equity and health sector reform in Latin America, including Colombia, Chile and Mexico.

Professor Ewig received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2001. Her research has been supported by the Fulbright Foundation, the Ford Foundation and the Institute for the Study of World Politics.

Selected Publications:

"Piecemeal but Innovative: Health Sector Reform in Peru." In: Robert R. Kaufman and Joan M. Nelson, eds. Crucial Needs, Weak Incentives: Social Sector Reform, Democratization, and Globalization in Latin America. Baltimore: Woodrow Wilson Center and the Johns Hopkins University Press. (Forthcoming, August 2004.)

"The Strengths and Limits of the NGO Women's Movement Model: Shaping Nicaragua's Democratic Institutions." Latin American Research Review. vol. 34, no. 3, Fall 1999.

"Democracia diferida: Un análisis del proceso de reformas en el sector salud peruano." in Felipe Portocarrero, ed. Pobreza y Políticas Sociales en el Perú: Nuevos Aportes. Lima: Universidad del Pacífico, 1999.

Is Neoliberalism Bad for Women? Gender & The Politics of Health Reform in Latin America

This project aims to interject a critical perspective into contemporary debates over the impact of neoliberal policies on gender equity. Feminist scholars argue that neoliberal policies harm women, while proponents of neoliberalism argue that strategies such as market competition and privatization reduce inequities, gender inequity included. I will examine the policy formation and implementation of contemporary neoliberal health reforms in Latin America to determine which of these competing claims is correct. Based on prior research in Peru, I have come to some nuanced conclusions: some neoliberal policies actually promote gender equity, while others do have a negative impact. Key to my findings is the disaggregation of policies, careful attention to context, and an appropriate, generalizable theoretical framework for the evaluation of gender equity. My NCS project will place these findings from Peru in comparison with Colombia and Chile. Separately, I will also conduct research in Mexico. A single country focus allowed me to use a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, including a survey, interviews and ethnographic participant observation, to determine the impact of these policies on everyday people. Subsequent comparison across countries will enable me to make general statements about the impact of neoliberalism on women, and about the politics of social policy reform in Latin America.