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Two conceptual frameworks: Women in Development and Gender and Development

Different policy approaches: welfare, equity, anti-poverty, efficiency, empowerment and gender mainstreaming

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Women in Development Gender and Development

Focus on women

Focus on gender relations

Stress on practical needs

Rationale is effectiveness Enabling Changes the condition of women Aims to enhance womens participation

Stress on strategic interests/needs

Goal is equality Empowering Changes the position of women Aims to integrate gender consideration into mainstream Women primarily as agents

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Women in Development

Gender and Development

The Approach An approach which views women as the problem An approach to development

The Focus

Women

Social relations between men and women

The Problem

The exclusion of women (half of the productive resources from the development process)

Unequal relations of power (rich and poor, women and men) that prevents equitable development and womens full participation

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Women in Development Gender and Development

The Goal More efficient , effective development Equitable, sustainable development with women and men as decision-makers The Solution Integrate women into the existing development process Empower disadvantaged women and transform unequal relations

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Women in Development

Gender and Development

The Strategies Womens projects Womens components Integrated projects Increase womens productivity Identify/address practical needs determined by women and men to improve their condition

At the same time address womens strategic interests

Increase womens ability to look Address strategic interests of after the household the poor through peoplecentred development

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Different policy approaches:

welfare, equity, anti-poverty, efficiency, empowerment gender mainstreaming

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earliest approach, predominant 1950-1970. aim is to bring women into the development as better mothers. women are seen as the passive beneficiaries of development emphasizing their reproductive role seeks to meet practical gender needs in that role through a top-down handouts of food aid, measures against malnutrition and family planning not challenging, especially of gender division of labour, and still widely popular.

Source: March, C., Smyth, I., and Mukhopahhyay, M. (1999). A Guide to Gender Analysis Frameworks. Oxfam: Oxford

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original WID approach, emerged during in the 76-85 UN Womens Decade, within the predominant growth with equity development approach aim is to gain equity for women who are seen as active participants in development recognizes womens triple role (productive, reproductive and community), and seeks to meet strategic gender interests by direct state intervention giving political and economic autonomy and reducing inequality with men. challenges womens subordinate position criticized as western feminism, is considered threatening to men and is unpopular with governments and donors.

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2nd WID approach, a toned-down version of equity, from 1970s onwards in the context of Basic Needs approaches to development women seen as disproportionately represented among poor aim is to ensure that poor women increase their productivity womens poverty is seen as a problem of underdevelopment, not of subordination recognizes the productive role of women, and seeks to meet their practical to earn an income, particularly in small scale income generation projects still most popular with NGOs

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3rd WID approach, adopted since the 1980s debt crisis. aims to ensure that development is more efficient and effective through womens economic contribution, with participation often equated with equity and decision making seeks to meet practical gender needs while relying in all three roles and an elastic concept of womens time women seen in terms of their capacity to compensate for declining social services by extending their working day

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articulated by third-world women with aim to empower women through greater self-reliance explicitly acknowledges centrality of power and womens need for more power to improve position womens subordination is expressed in terms of male oppression and colonial and neo-colonial oppression recognizes the triple role; seeks to meet strategic gender interests indirectly thru grassroots mobilization of practical gender needs potentially challenging, but its avoidance of western feminism makes it unpopular except with third world womens NGOs.

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associated with the 1995 World Conference on Women in Beijing and the Beijing Platform of Action that signaled the UNs first official use of the term call for gender mainstreaming was a culmination of two inter-related changes in discourse prior to Beijing: Women in Development to gender and development integrating women to mainstreaming gender

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Women in Development to gender and development

some improvements in womens material conditions, but little progress in their status the nature of womens relational subordination was ignored and unequal gender power relations remained unaltered relates to the second problem associated with WID, the continued marginalization of women and womens issues from mainstream development mainly due to how WID was implemented: the establishment of womens national machineries and WID units and the emphasis on womens projects mainstreaming was seen as a way of promoting gender equity in all of the organizations pursuits

integrating women vs. mainstreaming gender