Padgett and Warnecke take up a problem the 2010 earthquake made visible but did not create: Haiti's development had been faltering for decades before the ground shook. Their diagnosis centers on the unequal position of women, and they propose human development theory as the framework most likely to produce change.

The article sets out recent decades of Haitian economic history alongside the state of women's rights there and the divergent social and economic outcomes men and women experience. From that base it examines how leaving gender equity out of policy has fed the country's record of development failure.

The closing section turns comparative, drawing on developing countries that have built attention to gender equity into their development strategies, including after disasters and during financial crises. The aim is a body of practice, grounded in institutionalist economics, that connects gender inequality to economic development.