A researcher did a gender budgeting study in Ecuador. He did this in Ecuador to see how gender budgeting has been working there. The article talks about how gender budgeting has been spread exponentially, especially in Latin America. In Latin America, it has been 18 countries that have implemented some gender budgeting in their country. There are several ways to think about gender before and after an event. Like opening a new infrastructure and thinking about how gender would be implemented. “Another way is to see how resources are spread across the country.” (Guzmán) This can be seen by how the money can move around and what the government does to help the women in their country.
The researcher then did in-depth interviews with twenty-two people. “Ecuador got a recognition by the U.N. for their work in gender budgeting.” (Guzmán) Ecuador started their work in early 2010. They passed a law requiring the Ministry of Economy and Finance to include a gender budgeting statement in their yearly budget. It requires all ministries to look through their organization and ensure that there is a gender lens on what they are doing. But most of the effects of gender budgeting in the country has now had a real impact instead of just raising awareness. “women activist has said that gender budgeting has not been used well enough to implement systematic change.” (Guzmán) This could be because Ecuador has used gender budgeting to show that they are doing something but not doing something.
One factor discussed is leadership and how that has led to the lack of leadership. “The policies do not work and are just swept under the rug.” (Guzmán) The interviewees talk about how the leaders don’t make real progress; they only speak for show. Also, the machismo culture has diminished the effect of gender-based budgeting. The country must be on one page for gender-based budgeting to be effective.