Gender Studies

Lecture 5
PART V. Gender and Development

Colonial and Capitalistic Perspectives of Gender

Gender Analysis of Development Theories; Modernization Theory, World System Theory, Dependency Theory,
Structural Functionalism.
Gender Approaches to Development: Women in Development (WID), Women and Development (WAD), Gender and
Development (GAD); Gender Critique of Structural Adjustment Policies (SAPs).
Globalization and Gender
Gender, Globalization and Development
• Caroline Moser described 3 roles for women
• Reproductive role; Household care and bearing & rearing of children
• Productive role; Production of goods & services for consumption
• Community role; Organizing social events, participating in groups
• Moser distinguished b/w women’s needs
• Practical Needs; Requiring urgent attention – Employment, Health
• Strategic Needs; Resolving gender based inequalities
• Transformation of the sexual division of labor
• Establishment of political equality
• Removal of institutionalized discrimination – Right to legal property
• Freedom of reproductive choice
• Financial Independence
• Provision of both can be combined by changing the way practical needs are provided for
into a more strategic manner i.e. health care with greater control over reproductive
decisions
Theories of Women Development
• Reasons why issues of women’s development is separated from broader
development
• Women have not benefited from development processes, programs and projects to
the same extent as men
• Women are very often not included in the planning or implementation of development
• Development can undermine the role, status and position of women in society
• Development affects women and men differently, often with a negative impact on
women
• The debates about women and to what extent they benefit or do not benefit
from development have led to the emergence of three distinctive models.
These models seek to explain how development affects women and why
women and men are affected by development differently.
Modernization Theory
• During 1950s and 60s modernization, that is economic development
due to industrialization, was thought to improve the standards of
living of developing countries
• It assumed that the positive economic effects would trickle down to
the smallest level benefitting everyone equally.
• Another important assumption was that the impact of development is
gender neutral i.e. that development affects men and women equally
• During the first Decade of Development (1961-1970) women were
regarded as passive recipients only responsible for child rearing
Women in Development (WID)
Women in Development (WID)
• By the 1970s it was clear that women were being left out of development,
not benefiting significantly from it and sometimes actually being worse off
(Agriculture, Industry)
• Ester Boserup’s book ‘Women’s role in Economic Development’ challenged
the welfare approach of modernization theory regarding women as merely
wives and mothers
• For example, agriculture in Africa had been a female farming system with
men and women playing complementary roles, but as agriculture technology
advanced, women were increasingly marginalized. New farm techniques
exacerbated problems as women were not trained in the new methods
• Boserup noted that women could be brought in to the existing institutional
structures by asserting that women have not only been equal to men in
terms of status in past but also equally productive
Women in Development (WID)
• WID term initially used in Women’s Committee of Society of Int’l Development.
• WID approach argued for the integration of women into development programs and planning.
The main task, therefore, was to improve women’s access to resources and their participation
in development
• Women can be seen as the ‘missing link’ in development
• Welfare oriented projects dealing with small income-generating projects and activities mostly aimed at
women’s reproductive role, where nutrition education and family planning were a main feature.
• This increased the visibility of women in development issues.
• WID was successful in securing a prominent place for women’s issues at the UN and other
international development agencies. The UN declared 1975 to 1985 the Decade for Women
• Efforts resulted in 1973 Percy Amendment to integrate women in national economies of their
countries. Likewise, the First Women’s Conference by UN and its achievements were also a
result of WID (INSTRAW & UNIFEM)
• WID represents a merging of modernization and liberal feminist theories as the liberal
perspective impregnates modernization theory with emphasis on equal opportunities for men
and women
Women in Development (WID)
• Caroline Moser’s 5 policy approaches:
• Welfare Approach (1950-1970) – [Pre WID]
• Based on modernization theory perceiving motherhood as women’s primary role in society i.e.
women seen as passive beneficiaries of development Purpose was to bring women as mothers in
development
• Entire focus on women’s reproductive roles (family planning programmes, malnutrition eradication,
maternal and child health
• Targets the practical needs of women through a top-down approach which has resulted in reduction
in infant and maternal mortality but also increased dependency on welfare programmes
• Equity Approach (1975-1985) – [1 st WID Approach]
• Gender equity: Equivalence in life outcomes for men & women recognizing differences in needs
through redistribution of power and resources
• Used in UN Decade for Women challenging the subordinate position of women through top-down
social and political legislation e.g laws against violence
• Targets strategic needs; also dubbed as western feminism as the primary problem to women in
developing countries was poverty (practical needs were not satisfied)
• The recognition for need of gender equity did not guarantee its provision to women since legislation
alone without change in socio-cultural context can hardly bring any change
Women in Development (WID)
• Anti-poverty Approach – [2nd WID Approach]
• Poverty or Economic inequality considered to be the main problem for women and catered
to through small scale income generating projects
• Efficiency Approach (Post 1980s) – [3rd WID Approach]
• Associated with IMF and World Bank’s Structural Adjustment Programs emphasizing
efficiency and productivity
• Women must be used efficiently in the workforce otherwise their potential is being wasted
• Linking women’s economic participation with greater efficiency and gender equity has led
to rise of low paid or unpaid women workers
• Empowerment Approach [GAD Approach]
• Empowerment through self reliance i.e. bottom-up/grassroot mobilization like
microfinance schemes
• Addresses strategic needs changing laws and structures that oppress them
Women in Development (WID) - Critique
• Over time, it was felt women’s integration into development was not
taking place due to the lack of an established structure within
government to plan, coordinate and monitor the implementation of
policy to integrate women
• WID concentrated narrowly on the inequalities between men and
women and ignored the social, cultural, legal and economic factors
that give rise to those inequalities in society.
• WID tended to focus on women almost exclusively and assumed that
women were outside the mainstream of development.
Women and Development
(WAD)
Women and Development (WAD)
• After criticisms on WID, WAD emerged in late 1970s relying largely on the Marxist feminist
ideology
• WAD argues that women have always been part of development processes and worked as
important economic actors. Their work is critical both inside and outside the household
for the maintenance of society. However, this integration has only served to sustain global
inequalities – It considers WID to be an ‘add women and stir’ approach
• WAD saw both women and men as not benefiting from the global economic structures
because of disadvantages due to class and the way wealth is distributed – thus global
inequalities are reason behind oppression of men and women in less developed countries
• WAD asserted that women have always been part of the development process but
women would not benefit until international systems were made more equitable.
Development should not be a process of rich getting richer and only radical, systemic
reform can help in mending the systems
Women and Development (WAD)
• WAD is a neo-Marxist approach stemming out of dependency and world
systems theory
• Originated in 1975 to discuss women’s issues i.e. explaining the relationship
b/w women and process of capitalist development in terms of material
conditions that contribute to their exploitation
• Neo Marxism; Dependency Theory and World Systems Theory: Development
of First World States [the core] is based on the exploitation of Third World
States [the periphery] caused by the European colonization and neocolonialism
• As long as First World States rely on cheap labour and resources of Third World states
keeping them stuck in foreign debt, this unequal relationship of dependency will persist
Women and Development (WAD)
• WAD scholars believe women, especially poor, working women have
always been active participants in the development process and their
oppression stems out of their countries historical dependency on
industrial capitalist states
• WAD advocates emphasize classism not sexism, seeing gender
inequality as part of class inequality perpetuated by culprit of
capitalism – do not see gender relations as problematic
Women and Development (WAD) -
Critique
• WAD underplays the role of patriarchy in undermining women’s
development and does not adequately address the question of social
relations between men and women and their impact on
development.
• Although theoretically WAD recognizes the role of class in
inequalities, practically it tends like WID to group women together
irrespective of other considerations such as class divisions i.e. only
focusing on income generating (productive) activities rather than
unpaid (reproductive) activities
Gender and Development
(GAD)
Gender and Development (GAD)
• Further reflections on development of women led to the rise of GAD in 1980s
through culmination of many feminist ideas and lessons learnt from WID and WAD
approaches
• GAD isn’t concerned with women exclusively, it looks at the impact of development
on both women and men, seeking to ensure that both participate in and benefit
equally from development thus emphasizing equality of benefit and control
• GAD is concerned with the way in which gender relations allot specific roles,
responsibilities and expectations between men and women, often to the detriment
of women.
• This approach also pays particular attention to the oppression of women in the
family or the ‘private sphere’ of women’s lives. Thus, many projects involve issues
like violence against women
Gender and Development (GAD)
• GAD also recognizes that gender division of labor operates differently
from one society and culture to another
• GAD goes further than the other approaches in emphasizing both the
reproductive and productive role of women and argues that it is the
state’s responsibility to support the social reproduction role mostly
played by women of caring and nurturing of children – giving equal
importance to economic, social and mental well being
Gender and Development (GAD)
• GAD operates primarily through the concept of Gender Mainstreaming;
Introduced in 1985 3rd World Conference on Women and fully incorporated in
the 4th World Conference
• “Process of assessing the implications for men and women of any planned
action, including legislation, policies or programs, in all areas and at all levels. It
is a strategy for making women’s as well as men’s concerns and experiences a
central dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of
policies and programs in all political, economic and social spheres so that women
and men benefit equally and inequality is not perpetuated” – UNECOSOC
• Goal is to reassess all development policies with respect to impact on men and
women to achieve gender equity
WID vs GAD
• Integrating within the system – WID aimed to integrate women into
development not asking why women were not favored through a non
confrontational approach
• Focus on sex – WID only focused on women resulting in isolation of
women from mainstream whereas GAD wants to amend the power
relationships between genders
• WID was able to improve the economic conditions of women but GAD
worked towards improving the economic and social power of women
in relation to men
Structural Adjustment
Programs (SAPs)
Gender Critique of Structural Adjustment
Policies
• Women as workers, consumers, wives, mothers are the shock
absorbers of adjustment efforts at immense cost to their well being
• Women may often bear the brunt of the burden when developing
countries receive financial aid from international institutions due to
the" conditionality" of these loans.
• IMF provides loans to countries experiencing balance of payments
problems. The most common type of loan is called the Poverty
Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) aiming for poverty reduction.
All that the country needs to do is to follow the structural adjustment
policies (SAPs) set by IMF, which are widely used and continually
effecting populations worldwide
Gender Critique of Structural Adjustment
Policies
• SAPs typically mean significant changes in economic policies to ensure that the
country's domestic and external deficits are drastically lowered or even
eliminated
• The typical components of an SAP include policies that encourage price stability
to control inflation, encourage savings, and implement austerity measures
• IMF does not specify which programs to cut or reduce in funding, however it
does require a net decrease in government expenditures. The country's
necessary decrease in spending must come from somewhere in the budget.
More often than not, countries begin the budget cuts with social programs and
subsidies like health care, welfare programs, social security, education, and
agricultural subsidies
Gender Critique of Structural Adjustment
Policies
• Ways in which IMF program may have unintended consequences
• Encourages net decrease in government expenses. The country's necessary
decrease in spending must come from the budget. Mostly, countries begin the
budget cuts with social programs and subsidies like health, welfare, social security,
education.
• Encourages privatization of many state industries leading to privatization of
education and health in the country
• Encourages devaluation of currency to generate trade and higher interest rates to
attract foreign investments in the short run
• An overall policy of liberalization is aimed at using all resources in the
most efficient manner to maximize output by reducing state intervention
in the economy
Effects of SAPs
• Initially, it may appear that SAPs are working. GDP appears to be increasing and
debts are being paid off.
• However, this data is misleading. Structural adjustment programs have been
characterized, through growing amounts of evidence, as creating an economic and
social environment in which the rich become richer and the poor become poorer.
• Two main problems regarding the effects of SAPs on women:
• Majority of women work in the ‘reproductive economy’. Economists assume that this part of
economy would never be affected by the reallocation of resources
• This oversight is huge given "Women do 70 percent of the world's work but receive only 10
percent of the revenues, and own only 1 percent of the wealth" (Mothering, 2003)
• In Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, women work twelve to thirteen more hours a week than men
(Finance and Development 1992)
• Even though women contribute "a lion's share of work," it is viewed as "unproductive in the
eyes of government statisticians, economists, development experts, and even their husbands"
(Qacobsen 1992)
Effects of SAPs
• The ramifications of the loss of social programs are huge and are felt
especially by women. Due to the patriarchal societies in which women
live, they have less access to public resources, such as health care and
education, than men do.
• In Tanzania, for example, seventy-one mothers died in the first
thirteen weeks of 1988, when economic reforms were in force-four
times the maternal death rate of previous years. The deaths were
attributed to poor hospital conditions as well as a shortage of blood,
drugs, and transport facilities
Gender Critique of Structural Adjustment
Policies
• Neo-feminism: Studying women’s roles in international political
economy, discussing how experiences of women, purposely or not,
are not viewed as important as men or ‘trivialized’
• Men's and women's unequal access to resources and authority is
important to understanding the effects of structural adjustment
programs on women.
• Women are often unfairly viewed in International Political Economy
research as a cultural or scientific object, a historical being in
existence, a subject to be stated and passed over, or a difference from
the norm.
Gender Critique of Structural Adjustment
Policies
Although IMF has set goals for having more women, it has not taken the
necessary steps to actually achieve the supposed goals:
• Women are shockingly underrepresented at IMF. Of the thirty senior officials
at IMF, only three are women.
• Of the ten managing directors of IMF, not one has ever been a woman.
• Of the twenty-four-person executive board, only two are women
• Lack of women in senior roles also seriously impacts the amount of weight
and discussion women's issues have at IMF.
• Even though the IMF discusses women and women’s issues in several of its
publications, none of the articles offer specific evaluation of IMF policies or
specific critiques to help IMF be more gender conscious in their policies.
Gender Critique of Structural Adjustment
Policies
• There are many detrimental effects on the poor, particularly on
women, due to structural adjustment programs;
• With patriarchy, cultural constructs ensure that women have less access to
resources and power than men do. SAPs exacerbate the unequal access
• Even when it appears that SAPs are working, in reality rich are becoming
richer
• World Bank evaluations acknowledge that macroeconomic stabilization
policies are not sufficient in reducing poverty or income inequality in all
countries.
• Growing volume of literature shows how gender bias in neoclassical economic
theory renders the effects of SAPs on women invisible and provides empirical
evidence of the heavy transitional costs of adjustment on women.
Gender Critique of Structural Adjustment
Policies
• There are two main problems regarding the effects of SAPs on women
• First, the effects are largely ignored or unseen by the international
community (Women less visible in productive economy)
• "Women do 70 percent of the world's work but receive only 10 percent of the
revenues, and own only 1 percent of the wealth" (Mothering 2003).
• Second, those effects are empirically supported to be detrimental to women
and society
• Fiscal austerity, Decreased spending on social programs like health and
education, Increased exports leading to in cash crops (substitute of
subsistence crops doubling work, available food, malnutrition), interest
rates
Globalization and Gender
Development
Globalization and Gender Development
• Relationship b/w globalization and gender equality and relevance of
globalization for transforming gender relations has been increasingly
documented
• At policy level, impact of globalization on women & gender relations
continues to be neglected nationally and internationally
• Beijing+5 process provides an opportunity to reflect on impact of
globalization
Globalization and Gender Development
• Labor market
• Increased employment > empowerment > power in household
• Increased exploitation and dependency on direct engagement with the market
• Relocation of labor intensive industries from advanced market economies to
middle income developing economies has increased employment of women in
the latter
• Female employment remains concentrated mainly in low skill sectors and the
gender wage gap shows no signs of disappearing
• Rapid increase in the female labor force participation rate has a considerable
positive effect on women’s economic well-being and that of their families.
• In developed countries, declining demand for labor in low skill sectors where
women primarily predominate
Globalization and Gender Development
• Governance:
• Advancement of nation state gave grounds to the women’s movement for advancing civil
identity & claims for equal rights in the sovereign state
• New actors – global and local mean that there is greater assertion of alternative identities &
roles of women
• Poverty:
• With globalization, came the withering away of the welfare state and increasing cost of social
services leading to negative outcome for poor women in both developed & developing
countries alike
• Migration:
• Women’s labor has low opportunity cost, socially considered to be flexible labor, entering in
to new labor engagements more than ever
• Migrant women are increasingly victim to trafficking including for sexual exploitation
Globalization and Gender Development
• Changing Gender Roles
• Ability to leverage position in household by influencing allocation of time and
resources among household members, exercising stronger agency
• Emerging risks and opportunities
• Gender differences in education have limited wome’s access to new
employment opportunities
• Globally 70% of women are poor – Feminization of poverty
• 60 m women of poor states crisscross globe for livelihood – Feminization of
migration
• Filipino women send remittances that pay country’s debts otherwise if they stayed in
Philippines, the unemployment rate would spike to 40%
• Increase in women in paid jobs – Feminization of labor force