THE CO-OPERATIVE UNIVERSITY OF KENYA (CUK)

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SCHOOL OF COOPERATIVE AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT (SCCD)

DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT (DCEM)

GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT

LECTURE ONE:
INTRODUCTION

Author:
Dr. Wanjiku Musili

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Introduction
This topic is an introduction to gender and development. It will cover the definition of
the terms gender and development. The topic will also explore historical development
of gender and development as well as the importance of gender issues in
development.

Learning Objectives
At the end of this topic, learners will be able to:
1. Define gender and development
2. Understand the historical background of gender and development
3. Appreciate importance of gender issues in development

1.1 Definition of Gender

- Gender refers to the characteristics of women, men, girls and boys that are socially
constructed.
- This includes norms, behaviours and roles associated with being a woman, man,
girl or boy, as well as relationships with each other.
- As a social construct, gender varies from society to society and can change over
time.
- Gender is hierarchical and produces inequalities that intersect with other social and
economic inequalities.
- Gender-based discrimination intersects with other factors of discrimination, such as
ethnicity, socioeconomic status, disability, age, geographic location, and gender
identity, among others.
- Gender often define and shape the roles and responsibilities of men and women
that are assigned within our families, society and cultures. It includes the
expectations held above the characteristics, attitudes and likely behaviour of men
and women boys and girls. They are learned and can change overtime and varying
in and between cultures. Gender interacts with but is different from sex, which
refers to the different biological and physiological characteristics of females and
males.Gender influences people’s experience of and access to healthcare. The way
that health services are organized and provided can either limit or enable a
person’s access to healthcare information, support and services, and the outcome
of those encounters.

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1.2 Historical Development
- The seeds of the women and development concept were planted during the 1950s
and 1960s. During this time, 50 countries were freed from colonialism, and the
women who had participated in independence movements acted on their
convictions that they must join with men in building these new nations. For
example, at the beginning of the 1960s, women of East African countries, led by
Margaret Kenyatta, met at seminars to adopt strategies aimed at reaching their
goals. Before that time, in 1947, just 2 years after the formation of the United
Nations, the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) was established to
monitor United Nations activities on behalf of women.
- To a large extent, however, its efforts were limited within the legalistic context of
human rights. By the 1950s and 1960s, women of these newly independent
countries began taking their delegations to the United Nations (though in small
numbers) and were able to challenge the legalistic agenda of CSW by raising
development-oriented issues.
- By 1970, when the United Nations General Assembly reviewed the results of the
First Development Decade of the 1960s, three factors that would eventually
converge to foster the various approaches to women’s development had become
evident: It was found that the industrialization strategies of the 1960s had been
ineffective and had, in fact, worsened the lives of the poor and the women in
Third World countries. The Second Development Decade was therefore designed
to address this and “bring about sustainable” improvement in the well-being of
individuals and bestow benefits on all.
- In 1970, Boserup, an agricultural economist, used research data from Africa, Asia,
the Caribbean, and Latin America to highlight women’s central positions in the
economic life of these societies, and she described the disruptive effects of
colonialism and modernization on the sexual division of labor through the
introduction of the international market economy. Among other things, this
process drew men away from production based on family labor and gave them
near-exclusive access to economic and other resources. Boserup concluded that the
economic survival and development of the Third World would depend heavily on
efforts to reverse this trend and to more fully integrate women into the
development process.

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- The feminist movement re-emerged in Western countries around 1968, alongside
other social movements for civil rights. Although the movement’s energies were,
for the most part, directed internally, some Western women used their position to
pressure their government’s foreign-aid offices to ensure that grants to recipient
countries supported women as well as men. The central point of the original
women and development approach was that both women and men must be lifted
from poverty and both women and men must contribute to and benefit from
development efforts. International Women’s Year was declared by the United
Nations in 1975, and the celebration of this at the First International Women’s
Conference in Mexico City marked the globalization of the movement. This unique
intergovernmental conference and the nongovernmental International Women’s
Tribune Centre (IWTC), a networking and communications institution, brought
together women from nearly all countries of the world under the theme Equality,
Development and Peace and extended its work during the United Nations Decade
for Women, 1976–85. This sparked the creation of institutions and networks
worldwide as “women and development” became an area of specialization in the
development field.
- The United Nations Voluntary Fund for Women (later called the United Nations
Development Fund for Women) and the International Training and Research
Centre for Women were soon established within the United Nations system. IWTC
and the Women’s World Bank, a loan-guaranteeing organization, came into
existence as NGOs. At the national level, “national machineries” — commissions
on women, women’s desks, and women’s bureaus — were soon established in
most countries. New women’s organizations and networks sprang up at the
community and national levels. These contributed to the institutionalization of
women and development as an internationally recognized set of concepts and did
much to generalize knowledge and consciousness about women’s issues
internationally.
- In recent years gender equality has become the focus of the GAD approach, a focus
which is reflected in the Platform for Action of the 1995 Fourth World Conference
on Women held in Beijing. The Platform for Action places particular emphasis on
twelve critical areas of concern:
- Enabling women to overcome poverty
- Ensuring women’s equal access to quality education and training

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- Ensuring women’s equal access to health care
- Eliminating violence against women
- Protecting women from armed and other conflicts
- Promoting women’s economic self-reliance
- Promoting women’s participation in decision-making
- Integrating gender equality dimensions into policy and planning
- Promoting women’s human rights
- Enhancing the media’s role in promoting gender equality
- Integrating women in the ecologically sustainable development process
- Eliminating all forms of discrimination against the girl child

1.3 Importance of Gender Issues in Development

- In order to achieve any meaningful development deliberate efforts have to be
made to address gender issues. Large gender disparities in basic human rights in
resources and economic opportunities, and in political voice are evident in Kenya.
Since the mid-1980s there has been a growing consensus that sustainable
development requires an understanding of both women’s and men’s roles and
responsibilities within the community and their relations to each other. This has
come to be known as the Gender and Development (GAD) approach as we have
discussed above.
- The main objective of GAD is mainstreaming women’s needs and perspectives into
all activities. Mainstreaming acknowledges that all development operations have a
gender impact and do not automatically benefit men and women equally. Thus it
is necessary to adopt GAD approach for development programs to benefit men
and women, boys and girls for sustainable development.
- Gender inequalities hinder development. What types of policies and strategies
promote gender equality and foster more effective development. Policymakers
have a number of policy instruments to promote gender equality and development
effectiveness. But effective action requires also that policymakers take account of
local realities when designing and implementing development policies and
programs. There can be no one-size-fits-all formula for promoting gender equality.
Identifying what works requires consultations with stakeholders both women and
men on key issues and actions. Therefore to enhance development effectiveness,

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 gender issues much be an integral part of policy analysis, design and
implementation.
- Engendering Development provides policy makers, development specialists, and
civil society members many valuable lessons and tools for integrating gender into
development work. This helps policymakers and members of the development
community to realize their commitment to sustainable development.
- Gender equality means women and men have equal opportunities to realize their
individual potential, to contribute to their country’s economic and social
development and to benefit equally from their participation in society.
- Gender equality restricts a country’s economic growth. Removing inequalities
gives societies a better chance to develop. When women and men have relative
equality, economies grow faster, children’s health improves and there is less
corruption.
- Achieving gender equality extends beyond improving females livelihoods. It means
access to economic resources, participation and leadership in decision making,
respect for the human rights of women, and an increased capacity to tackle gender
inequalities.
- These are the four interrelated factors that development investments need to
address to advance gender equality:
- Improving the economic status of women, men, girls and boys
- Promoting equal participation of all in decision making and leadership
- Improving equitable health and education outcomes for women, men, girls and
boys
- Ensuring gender equality is advanced in regional cooperation efforts
- Development results cannot be maximized without attending to the different
needs, interests, priorities and roles of women, men, boys and girls and the
relations between them. Development programs cannot succeed without the
participation and cooperation of all members of the community.

Review Questions
1. What is gender?
2. What is the historical background of gender and development
3. What is the importance of gender issues in development?

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