Empowering or Reinforcing Traditional Roles: Can CCTs Address Gender Vulnerabilities?

Most conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes in Latin America select a woman as the primary recipient of the transfer. In most cases she is the mother of children in the household or the woman responsible for those children. The rationale behind this is that the money spent by women tends to be concentrated more on goods and services that are more likely to have a positive effect on the children’s well-being.