1. First Project
• Avon in Africa with Catherine Dolan
• ESCR/DfID Poverty Alleviation Grant
• Focus on poor black women
• Entrepreneurship system provides
– Training, support, finance, product
• More stable than microfinance or training
alone
• Income stream, economic autonomy
• Confidence, independence, empowerment.

2. Building an Idea
• Multiple, independently funded projects
– MNCs and NGOs
– Sanitary pads and Pampers/UNICEF
• Gaps in neoclassical economics
– Care work, reproductive labor
• Women’s economy on its own terms
– An economy of exclusion
– Distinctive features, rules, ethos.

3. Monetization and Exclusion
• Unpaid labor
• Exclusive rules of property, currency
• Effect: pervasive cash poverty, even
within wealthy households
• Characteristics of unmonetized
economies
– Inseparable nature of transactions
– Reciprocity versus self-interest
– Exchange of people.

4. Sexual Economics
• Body as capital
• Barter for survival: marriage
– Reproductive services:
• Sexual services, child-bearing, household care
– Earning chances limited, no control over funds
• Prostitution
– Informality and vulnerability
• Slavery and the underground economy
• Economic constraints on women and
instability.

5. Sanitary Care and Secondary School
• Development lever: multiple, rapid benefits
– Better work force, national prosperity
– Fertility rates improved
– Maternal and infant mortality reduced
– Child well-being increased
– Violence and disease transmission reduced
• Dropout rates steep at secondary level
• West African site, GT sponsor:
– Dolan, Dopson, Montgomery, Ryus
– Effect of pads on school attendance, retention.

6. Conditions on the Ground
• Generational divide: modernity and taboos
• Cloth usage: “as found,” scarce
– Limited access to clean water, soap
– Private space for drying
• Long walk to school
– No toilet or water to change
• Odor and embarrassment
• Difficulty concentrating in classroom
– Memorization and recitation
• Pads have expected effect:
– Attendance, activities, concentration, confidence.