Women in Development Approach

A Project Proposal

Submitted to:
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Department of Rural Development, Patan Multiple Campus (TU)
In the Partial Fulfillment for the award of bachelor’s degree
In Rural Development.

Submitted by:
Srijana thakur Asmita Khadka
Roll no:267/076 Roll no:350/076
Tu reg no: 6-2-22-1456-2019 Tu reg no:6-2-22-1877-2019

December 2020

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 Declaration

I hereby declare that the project proposal entitled “women in development

approach” submitted to the Department of Rural Development (RD), Patan
Multiple Campus is an original piece of work under supervision of Mr. Bhaba
Datta Sapkota and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
award of the degree of Bachelor of Arts (BA). This project proposal has not been
submitted to any other university or institution for any purpose.

Sincerely,
Srijana thakur
Asmita Khadka

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 Letter of Recommendation

This is to certify that Srijana thakur and Asmita Khadka have prepared and
submitted this project proposal entitled “women in development approach”
under my supervision and guidance. I, therefore, recommend this project
proposal for its final approval and acceptance.

………………………………..
Bhaba Datta Sapkota
Supervisor

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 Acknowledgement

This project entitled “women in development approach” has been conducted to

satisfy the partial requirements for the award of the Bachelor of Arts in Rural
development.
First, I would like to thank my supervisor Mr. Bhaba Datta Sapkota for his
supervision and guidance in completing this project work. We have given our full
effort in this project and want to thank every individual who helped me during the
process. I am indebted and very thankful for his continuous support and
constructive suggestion for finalization of this project. I would like to thank our
friends, respected teachers and our families who helped us in finalizing this
project work.

Srijana Thakur
& Asmita Khadka
30 March 2021

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 Letter of Approval

The project proposal entitled “Women in Development Approach” prepared and

submitted by Srijana thakur and Asmita Khadka in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the bachelor’s degree in Rural Development has been evaluated
and approved by the evaluation committee.

Evaluation Committee Signature

Mr. Ram Raju Adhikari ….…………

Head of Department

Mr. Bhaba Datta Sapkota ….…………

Supervisor

…………..
External

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Table of contents

S.N CONTENTS PAGE NO.

Declaration 2
Letter of recommendation 3
Acknowledgement 4
Letter of approval 5
1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………. 7
2. Origin and concept……………………………………………………………………. 8
3. Comparison of WID with GAD and WAD……………………………………. 9
3.1 WID and GAD……………………………………………………………………………. 9
3.2 WID and WAD…………………………………………………………………………… 10
4. Different policy approaches to the third world women:WID……… 11
4.1 Welfare approach……………………………………………………………………... 11
4.2 Anti-poverty approach………………………………………………………………. 12
4.3 Equity approach………………………………………………………………………… 12
4.4 Efficiency approach…………………………………………………………………… 12
4.5 Empowerment approach…………………………………………………………… 13
Practical general needs……………………………………………………………… 13
Strategic general needs……………………………………………………………… 14
5. Features of WID approach…………………………………………………………. 14
6. Criticisms of WID approach………………………………………………………… 15
7. Proposals for the future: Recommendations…………………………………16
8. Conclusions………………………………………………………………………………… 17
9. Abbreviation………………………………………………………………………………. 19
10.References…………………………………………………………………………………. 20

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1. Introduction
Women in development is a planning project strategy originated in the 1960s,
pushing for the incorporation of women's problems in development projects. It is the
incorporation of women into global economies by increasing their status and assisting
with overall growth. Later, the gender and growth approach proposed a stronger focus
on gender relations rather than presenting women's problems in isolation (Wikipedia).
This is the kind of approach that gives much attention to the women in the development
process and mainly focuses on the women’s involvement in the economic development
process.
This approach is now considered as one of the major five feminist development
theories. As it is mentioned, there are five major feminist development theories which
includes WID, WAD, GAD, WED and PAD. The WID approach became very popular in
1970s and was made more successful by the united nations by naming the wave of
feminism between the period 1976-1985 as “United Nations decade for Women”. The
solution was founded on the premise that women's pitiful social and economic situation
was due to their lack of involvement in the development process. Therefore, the WID
approach was given emphasis on the involvement of women into development projects.
It was also characterized as “setting up women only projects primarily aimed at
addressing women’s issues.” (Rai).
It is believed that WID approach was initiated or proposed because the initiators
saw that gender equality was important in order to maintain the balance between two
gender and furthermore it enhances the quality and quantity of human resources
required for the sustainable development of the country. Therefore, this approach
seems to be one of the major one and undoubtedly a necessity for the development.
Also, it not only focuses about the development but also promotes and supports
women’s empowerment. This approach emphasizes women’s access to income-
generating activities, entry into work force like policies on industrialization, science and
technology, food and agriculture and more.

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2. Origin and concept

It is assumed that Ester Boserup was the first female to have mentioned about the
role of women in development. Ester Boserup’s pioneering work ‘Women's Role in
Economic Growth’ drew attention to the significance of women's roles in agricultural
economies, as well as the lack of alignment of development projects with this fact.in her
book she wrote “in the vast and everlasting literature in economic development, reflections
on the particulars problems of women are few and far between”(Wikipedia). Whereas in
Africa, Hermann Baumann was the first person to point out the importance of women in
farming in 1928 with his article called ‘The division of work according to African hoe
culture’.
In the early 1970s, a widespread frustration with Third World development
initiatives sparked a hunt for new development solutions and an increasing awareness that
women, like the poor, were on the fringe of major aid donors' development efforts. In 1972,
the United Nations declared 1975 as International Women's Year, emphasizing the
importance of including women in economic development issues (Koczberski).
It is indeed believed that the WID approach was originated in 1970s. Two distinct
groups of women provided the impetus for bringing women into development programs.
These organizations included the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women and
the American women's movement. While the Commission advocated for equality before
the law and better access to education for women, US women activists advocated for the
right to fair jobs, which was seen as the only way to obtain equal status for women in a
society that prioritized income and employment status. However, both parties advocated
policy reform in the United States. The module mentions that although the First
Development Decade made no mention of women, the General Assembly for the Second
Development Decade contained in its plan the importance of promoting ‘full involvement of
women in the overall development effort.' This brief mention in the second decade pointed
at the possibility of a new consciousness.

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 The revelation of Boserup's book by the WID collective in 1974, while writing a
bibliography, was a turning point in women's thought and strategy which authenticated the
need for efforts of involving women in development policies and program. Women who
used the WID method continued to use Boserup's observations. This, along with the First
Decade for Women's experience, disproved earlier assumptions that global benefits filtered
down to women. As a result of their analysis, the WID women were able to control the
actions of the United Nations Agency for International Development (USAID).
Some agencies created WID offices and had staffs as well in countries like canada,
netherlands, etc to collect the statistics of the women to engage and give them access to
the development. The sole goal of this activity was to give women access to property,
education, work, policies and more because assumption was made that taking advantage of
women’s ability, efficiency as well as their opinions would become a augmentation for
economic development.
With these assumptions and thoughts, this wave of WID Approach reached
international level other than canada, netherlands, etc and soon became obvious with the
concern relating WID Approach. Subsequently, WID offices and staffs were arranged to look
further into the development issues of women (Tata Institute of Social Sciences 5).

3. Comparision of WID with GAD and WAD.

As mentioned before, WID, GAD and WAD are one of the five major feminists
development theories. Based on the findings, three of these may have some similarities
and variances regarding purpose, background and more.

 WID and GAD

WID refers to the inclusion of women in the global expansion of politics, economics,
and culture. It marked the beginning of research into the labor pool's gender divisions. WID is a

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very simple notion that looks at what is thought to be an unfair division of labor. The
framework inspires action plans that aid in addressing labor pool issues. Whereas GAD is the
term that became popular in the 1980s and it is the newer version of WID approach and it has
the holistic approach of not just focusing on the women but looking unto the development
strategies in gender perspectives where women and men are counted in one category. In
simple sense, WID approach was more focused on the rights of women where detailed
investigation and analysis of women were conducted to involve them in the nondomestic
economic sector and on the other hand GAD approach, considered as the feminist approach
but is more inclined to the detailed study of both the genders or say the stereotypes of both
men and women and their roles in the society thinking that framework would indulge both the
genders while applied to the economic and nation’s development (My Essay Writer 2017).
The WID approach tended to focus on the productive perspectives of women and
seemed to minimize the reproductive aspects of women. Thus, WID projects typically have
income generating activities that will engage women in particular skills and craft and they are
put into some marketing cooperatives (Buvinic 1986). As a result, Women making themselves
as full economic partners with their opposite gender will bring changes in the development
(Rathgeber 1989).
The main difference is that GAD is more inclined into the aggregate development of a
nation as in a whole that will require both the genders. It looks at the roles primarily that will
concern both genders and it minimizes the dedicated study of women. Because of its
generalization concept and because it doesn’t utilize the opinions and perspectives of women,
it has a bit more advantage over WID. The research of GAD was broader, and it was much
easier to integrate different roles of gender. Along with that it was the concept that fits in the
society (My Essay Writer 2017).

3.2. WID and WAD

On previous comparison between WID and GAD, conclusion was made that both of
those approaches were planned from different initiatives and perspectives in contrast to the
ultimate motive. However, evaluating WID and WAD, it can be brought to close deduction that

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jointly they tended to focus on the perspectives of women only, unlike the GAD approach. The
main approach of WID approach was to integrate women into the development process by
providing them with the money and other necessities to be a part in income-generating
activities and also by innovating or inventing various technologies specifically for women in
laborious tasks and work that requires effort. On the other side, the WAD approach, which was
advocated in the 1970s by the women from the south who felt that the bigger issues like
colonialism and the unequal universal relationship was not explained in WID perspectives.
One thing common was that both the approaches provided amount and assistance
needed for women regardless of the concept and their initiatives. WID and WAD played equal
role as a supporter by offering share in resources, money, and income. However, due to slight
difference, small contrast arises between WID and WAD. WID perspectives is about integration
of women into the development process or into the income-generating activities for the
sustainability and the growth of the nation overall but WAD perspectives is more concerned
about the relationship between women and development rather than integration of
development because WAD approach debates that women has always been a part of
development process but their work was exploited in the north only to profit others (UGRC).

4. Different policy approaches to the third world women: WID

WID trend has been popular since the 90s and is still limitedly popular. This approach
has led millions of women from all over the world to make themselves an economic person and
has equally played significant part in the development of a nation. This approach has leading
the women to engage themselves not only in the reproductive roles but also along with that
productive roles as well. Different policies were formulated to the third world women that
increased the efficiency of the approach.

 Welfare approach

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 According to the united organizations, this policy was popular between the period
1950-1970 but is still widely used. The primary aim of this strategy was to put women into
development as better mothers, as mothers are considered as the most significant role in
development. This policy resulted in the acknowledgment of women's roles and the
fulfillment of women's needs, i.e. meeting practical gender needs in reproductive roles,
especially food relief, hunger, and family planning.

 Anti-poverty approach
This policy started growing its popularity since 1970s and onward still having
limited popularity. The key aim was to ensure that poor women improved their
productivity because poverty among women was perceived as a matter of
underdevelopment rather than subordination. This program assisted in addressing
realistic gender demands in the reproductive position in order to gain a wage,
typically in small-scale income-generating ventures.

 Equity approach
This policy was mostly efficient and effective between 1975-1985 and the
attempt was to popularize it during and since the decade of women. The sole goal of
this policy was to achieve equality for women in the growth process, where women
are seen as active participants in development. Women's interests and
responsibilities were met by fulfilling SGN in terms of triple roles—directly by top-
down state interference, granting political and economic control through reducing
inequalities with men.

 Efficiency approach
This policy approach was mostly popular in period between the 1980s and is
still considered as the most popular approach till now. The main purpose is to

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 ensure that the development is more efficient and more. effective women's
economic participation is being associated with equity. By drawing on all three
positions of women and the elasticity of women's time, this solution helps meet
realistic gender demands in the light of declining social care.

 Empowerment approach
This policy approach came in practice in 1975 and started getting popular 1980s
onward. However, it still has limited popularity. The whole goal was to inspire
women by increased self-reliance. Women's subordination was seen not just as a
challenge, but also as a manifestation of colonial and neo-colonial oppression. This
strategy was developed to address strategic general needs in terms of the triple
position indirectly by bottom-up mobilization as a way of confronting practical
general needs.

Here are some explanations for what practical general needs (PGN) and strategic general
needs refer to in the above-mentioned points:

PRACTICAL GENERAL NEEDS

 Short term immediate. E.g. clean water, food, housing, income, etc.
 Unique to particular women ( i.e. site specific)
 When asked women can identify their basic needs.
 Involves women as beneficiaries or participants.
 Problems can be met by concrete and specific inputs, usually economic inputs. E.g. water
pumps, credit, seeds, employment, etc.
 Benefits the condition of some women.
 It is potentially successful in perfecting the condition of some women.

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STRATEGIC GENERAL NEEDS

 Long term
 Common to all women. E.g. vulnerability to physical violence, legal limitations on right
to hold or inherit property difficulty of gaining higher education.
 Women are not always in position to recognize the sources or basis of their strategics
disadvantages and limitations
 It includes women as active agents
 Must be addressed through consciousness raising, education and political mobilization
of all levels of society.
 Improves the status of all women in the society
 It has the potential to transform or fundamentally change one or more aspects of
women in a society. This is considered as the “transformatory potential” in the project
policy. (United Nations 1992)

5. Features of WID approach

a) Integration of women: WID approach is usually appreciated for initiating and enhancing
the understanding of women’s needs. The most corrective measures taken by WID
approach was to integrate women actively in the development process and programs
without bringing any structural change. Therefore, this approach focuses on the
productive role of women.
b) Improved and statistical measures and sex-disaggregated data: this approach has
called for the indexing process of women performance in the development progress, so
that they can get the better understanding of women’s work and needs and sex-
disaggregated data came to effectiveness as well.
c) Practical needs: WID's emphasis on meeting women's practical needs through the
enhancement of paying jobs was one of its defining characteristics. WID strategists and

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 educators used a variety of welfare-oriented programs, including lending services,
technology transfers, and job creation, in addition to lobbying campaigns. Thus, WID
focused on efforts on enhancing women household management and family planning
skills.
d) Policy change: the main goal of WID agenda was to influence the policy reform. They
tried to begin changes by rethinking the plans and policies keeping women in mind.
Many branches of the WID agenda have been based on these main goals, both
individually and collectively.
e) Accepted existing social structures- did not question the sources of women’s
subordination and oppression.
f) Non-confrontational approach( tending to deal with the situation calmly and
diplomatically, not aggressive, or hostile): It did not question why women had not been
benefitted from development. This approach avoided the confrontation, or it tended to
avoid the arguments and conflicts which welcomed the criticisms.
g) Based on politics of access- getting women into development programs.
h) Focused on the productive aspects of women’s work, minimizing the reproductive
aspects of women’s side.

6. Criticisms of WID approach

By the mid late 1970s, It was increasingly apparent that women had always done
worse under the previous decade's modernization and growth efforts. WID focused on
women's integration and campaigning for greater participation. It didn't ask why women's
positions were always worsening or what the causes and natures of women's subordination
and inequality were. It was contemporary, and it shared the modernization paradigm's
drawbacks. It appeared to concentrate on women as producers while overlooking women's
reproductive features. The focus was on economic activity rather than on concrete difficulties
and challenges faced by women.
WID sometimes lead to worse problems for women as their workload was increased.
However, increase in women’s participation in market economy were seen to lead to both

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equity and efficiency. Nevertheless, women were nothing more considered than just a cheap
delivery system for increased economic development. Criticisms raised when approaches or
programs like “ add women and stir” were proposed. In fact, the worst case was that no one
was willing to redistribute the power to women. Women who were treated the same as men-
gender-based barriers to their involvement was not explored. These were the concerns as well
as the criticisms of WID approach according to various researchers and authors.
WID approach was criticized for viewing women in isolation and ignoring their relative
position to men. It was criticized for miscalculating the responsibilities, women’s time, and
labor. WID is criticized for treating women as homogenous group, regardless of class, ethnicity,
intra household gender differences. Even though this approach was well focused for the
involvement of women, many argued for activities that were promoted for women based on
the situation analysis without engaging men in understanding their needs and allowing to take
part in them, knowing the fact that both genders play an important role in the sustainability
and the economic development of a nation. (UGRC 2016)

7. proposals for the future: recommendations

 Government must be held accountable for the effectiveness of WID programmes by
collecting adequate funds and resources with sufficient authority in all policies and
planning.
 The relationship between global trends and productive and reproductive roles of
women should be systematically researched.
 Within national machineries and WID offices, staff should have strong skills in political
analysis. They should have a better understanding in the gender bias in the relevant
policy sector. Training could strengthen their skills, but recruitment is even more
important.
 For women’s advancement, they should enhance alliance by funding joint meetings, by
including women’s support group in the policies.

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  Programs should be planned in such a way that it will close the relation or the gap
between men and women by ensuring all technologies and all education programs that
will include quality teaching.
 Programs should be planned by reviewing health and sanitation of women for their
accessibility and appropriateness.

8. Conclusion

WID approach is the approach that calls for the greater attention of women in
development policy and practice and gives major emphasis on the integration of women in the
development process. The most straightforward goal was to increase the productivity and
earnings of women and engage themselves in the productive roles as initiated by the third
world women. Regardless the fact that it invited numbers of criticisms and arguments, it is
considered as one of the five major feminist development strategies still popular in some areas
and many countries are dedicated in providing major contributions to this approach like japan,
Canada, Netherlands, etc. This approach being mentioned in the book of theories of
development as a study material depicts the importance of the participation of women
specifically as an individual or as a group in the rural development. This approach was initiated
originally by the study the agricultural activity and farming and linking the role and
responsibilities of both men and women by in the study of “women’s role in development” by
Ester Boserup. She was the first to analyze the sexual division of labor on a global scale in the
agrarian economies. She focused on the changes that occurred in the traditional agricultural
practices and the work done by men and women. The study proved that women were involved
in the agricultural work to a greater extent in the sparsely populated areas where shifting
agriculture is practiced. This indirectly hints to the development of rural areas and how this
approach is way too effective by integration of women in full process.

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 This approach not only integrated women in the development plans and programs but
also assisted them in meeting the needs both practical and strategic general needs and how this
approach will help in rural development.

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9. Abbreviations

WID: Women in Development

WAD: Women and Development
GAD: Gender and Development
WED: Women, Environment and Development
PAD: Postmodernism and Development
USAID: United Nations Agency for International Development
IDRC: International development Research Centre
PGN: Practical general needs
SGN: Strategic general needs

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 10.References
Buvinic, Mayra. 1986. “Projects for women in the third world: Explaining their Misbehavior.”
World development 14, no.5.
Koczberski, Gina “Women in development: A critical analysis” Third World Quarterly, 1998.19:3, 395-

410. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01436599814316?journalCode=ctwq20.

Accessed 23 March 2021.

Rathgeber, Eva M. 1990. “WID, WAD and GAD: trends in research and practice”. Ottawa: IDRC, 1991.

https://idl-bnc-idrc.dspacedirect.org/bitstream/handle/10625/5225/34345.pdf?sequence=1.

Accessed 23 March 2021.

Rai, Ajit. “Women in Development approach”. Theories of Development. Adwaitmarga,

Kathmandu: kasthamandap Pustak Ghar,2020. 263-266.
Tata institute of social sciences. “Module 17: Approaches to gender and development.”
Mumbai, 4-5. 150910261817-WomeninDevelopment(WID-Text.pdf . Accessed 23 March
2021.
United Nations. “Women in Development.” Women 2000, no.1, 1992,
www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/public/women%20in%20development%201992.pdf,
Accessed 23 March 2021.
“UGRC 231: SESSION 2- the WID, WAD, GAD Approaches to development.” YouTube, uploaded
by University of Ghana Distance Education, 16 Nov. 2016,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV8qn0gHCUY. Accessed 23 March 2021.
Wikipedia contributors. "Women in development." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia,
The Free Encyclopedia, 18 Feb. 2021. Web. 17 Mar. 2021.

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