Gender and development

Gender and development

1. Women: 1/2 adult population, 1/3 official labour force, 2/3 of all working hours, get 1/3 of all world income, 1% of worlds property

2. 5 approaches

   • Women In development (WID)
     • put women into modernisation theory. women experience the most poverty, sought to draw women into modernisation process to alleviate poverty. modernisation does not guarantee progress for women: It needs enlightened policies from national states and international agencies to correct mistakes. WID programme started in washington: office for WID was set ip to serve networks of researchers in universities and major foundations. approach adopted by the IMF, WB. call for equity advanced during UN decades for women. Efficiency: tied to IMF, SAP in restructured economies. empowerment= reflecting feminist writings, calls for bottom up approach.
     • criticisms: ahistorical, assumes a single convergent trajectory, 1 dimensional, ignores influence of factors such as class, race and culture, emphasis on poverty not oppression, woman as vulnerable?
   • Women And Development (WAD)
     • draws from dependency theory and seeks to examine oppression. concentrates on the origins of patriarchal and it intensification in capitalism, focus on marginalisation and oppression
   • Gender And Development (GAD)
     • Draws on marxist work on social change and feminist account of patriarchy. Deepens analysis by stressing nature and diversity of gender relations. Women Working Worldwide (WWW)
   • Women, Environment and Development (WED)
     • Argues that patriarchal society is built on four interlocking pillars: sexism, racism, class exploitation and nature. Women are victims of the violence of patriarchal development, women should resist development to protect nature and sustainable agriculture and preserve their substenance
   • Post modernism and Development (PAD)
     • post modernists argue that specific bodies and worlds are created through language. language must be deconstructed to uncover sources of power and voices of the marginalised. post modernist feminists found that the WID view embedded in colonial and neocolonial discourse and enshrined in the liberal discourse on markets, both of which disempowered women

3. Application:

   • microfinance= based in WID model, a way to empower women and turn women into entrenuers
   • a gender targeted initiative, is it helping women in developing countries? has it turned from non-profit making in to profit making?
   • mixed evidence generates different hard questions?
   • WID: do microfinance banks aim for continuing profits after first loan? is it orientated to profit or empowerment? does microfinance crowd out other programmes? education?
   • WAD/GAD: does the practice of microfinance lead to the reproduction of institutions that are oppressing women?
   • PAD: part of the Millenium Development discurse. how does the discourse of poverty reduction an empowerment frame macro credit? In what ways have women become financial object/subjects and part of global debt scapes? identity as debtor?