Gender and Development

Class Lecture 7: Date: 20/07/12

Gender and Development

What is Gender inequality? Inequality in Education Inequality in employment and Earnings Inequality in Voices Inequality in Wealth Inequality in division of labor Inequality in Time of work Inequality in Household allocation And……..?

Theoretical Approaches Women in Development (WID) Women and Development (WAD) Gender and Development (GAD) Women, Environment and

Development (WED) Ideas of Women, Environment and

Sustainable Development Southern Theoretical Perspectives Discourse/Language of WID

Women in Development (WID)

Traditional/Modern and Liberal/Progressive

Boserup(1970): Integration women as workers and producers.

Three World Conference: International women’s year in 1975 in

Mexico and start of women’s decade Mid-Decade conference in Copenhegen in

1980 Colossal Nairobi Conference in 1985

Women in Development (WID)

Meaning of WID: Economic development with Equality in Law and Political Rights Education Employment Empowerment Economic development

Perspectives: Early Practitioners: Welfare for mothers Scholars

Documenting Women’s work Adapting Development Theory and DAWN

Women in Development (WID)

Five Categories in WID Welfare Approach: Control population

growth Equity Approach: Civil and Political

Rights Anti-poverty Approach: Waged work Efficiency Approach: Economic structural

adjustment Empowerment Approach:

Women and Development (WAD) Debates between Marxist and Liberal

feminist Dependency Feminism Global Capitalist Patriarchy and Male

violence Capital accumulation and the social

relations of gender

Gender and Development (GAD) From 80’s. Focus not only women rather the social

relation between man and women. Main points: Gender relation not women Women as active agent but men and women are

unaware of the discrimination. Holistic Approach to understand inequality Development in a complex process involving social,

economic, political and cultural betterment of individual.

Welfare or anti-poverty is not the goal rather these are the necessity to achieve goal.

Strategies: Collective grouping to increasing the bargaining power rather

than access to cash economy Role of the state is important Local communities to support

Women, Environment and Development (WED) Ecofeminist: Male control over nature and women.

proposing fundamental changes in dominant discourse of development to incorporate women’s voices and contextualize local-knowledge to protect environment and women Oil crisis and fuel issue

Reduce wood fuel consumption by introducing wood saving stove

Initiate afforestation 1972 UN conference on Human environment and

Chipko movement Nairobi Forum 1985: women as environmental

manager

Ideas of Women, Environment and Sustainable Development Minimizing negative effect to target women as

recipient of economic development with critique of western development model and proposing and alternative development model.

Economistic view where sexual division of labor: production/reproduction, Women as nature thus double exploited.

More ‘cultural’ thinking where women are presumed to be associate with nature.

Colonialism Western, patriarchal reductionist science and

technologies serving capitalism verses traditional cultivation in mutual relation with nature.

Commoditizing nature

Ideas of Women, Environment and Sustainable Development

Development Agencies’ Conceptualization of WED Considering women and environment solves the

problem of development thus development planners are emphasizing women’s role to protect environment.

Reinforcing women/nature connection continued subordination

Associating GAD with WED Struggle with ideology and actual sexual division

of labor

Southern Theoretical Perspectives

WID, WAD, GAD and WED are northern perspectives, and Third world women have proposed alternatives Race, Class, Nation: not universal Empowerment from collective

Southern Women’s movement and Empowerment process:

Women's movement: Not from anti-colonial movement Not only survival rather political activism

Movement is not monolithic

Discourse/Language Feminist post-modernist critic of

terminologies and categories of western feminism

Category of women and Third world women

Problematising Purdah