There are diverse opinions today on whether such programmes have contributed to women's empowerment or, on the contrary, have reinforced traditional gender roles, increased the time women are forced to devote to unpaid domestic and care work and limited their participation in the labour market. It must also be considered that making autonomous income dependent on a conditional cash transfer from the State treats women as just another adjustment variable for the economic crises that the region's countries face on a cyclical basis. As many cases have confirmed, o+nce a crisis sets in and public spending is reduced to address it. The result is income fragility with very little certainty of continuity.