By shaping the global rules of public finance, the IMF has a direct impact on economic distribution in countries across the world, and in turn, on gender inequality. This study investigates the impact of the IMF’s bureaucratic politics on gender equality, focusing on Latin America.

Firstly, it suggests the IMF frames gender equality as a pure macroeconomic issue, moving away from the legal perspective of human rights. This choice leads to the ‘apoliticisation’ or ‘domestication’ of the question of gender equality. This is reflective of competing bureaucratic rationalities within the IMF: some of the Fund’s departments seem more geared towards gradual changes in the IMF’s global responsibilities, when others, notably the legal department, would be more conservative. Secondly, the interface with Ministries of Finance as the key national counterparts to the IMF further enhances the focus on macroeconomic policies as a means of achieving gender equality, rather than a human rights perspective.