Explain the evolvement of the theories of Gender and Development from the 1970s to 2000

UGANDA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY –
MUKONO
FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

COURSE : MA DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

COURSE UNIT : GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT

LECTURER : DR KUKUNDA ELIZABETH BACWAYO.
NAMES : NATAMBA SHADRACK

REG.NO : RS09M13/503

DATE DUE : 01/11/09

Question: Explain the evolvement of the theories of Gender and Development from the 1970s to 2000.


The term 'gender' refers to the social construction of female and male identity. It can be defined as 'more than biological differences between men and women. It includes the ways in which those differences, whether real or perceived, have been valued, used and relied upon to classify women and men and to assign roles and expectations to them. The significance of this is that the lives and experiences of women and men, including their experience of the legal system, occur within complex sets of differing social and cultural expectations (Ministry of Women's Affairs, New Zealand) whereas “Development” according to Korten. D, (1990:67) is a process by which the members of a society increase their personal and institutional capacities to mobilize and manage resources to produce sustainable and justly distributed improvements in their quality of life consistent with their own aspirations. The above definition emphasizes the process of development and its essential focus on personal and institutional capacity.
Introduction:
During the past few years, the term "women in development" has become common currency both inside and outside academic settings. But while "women in development (WID), is understood to mean the integration of women into global processes of economic, political and social growth and change, the student begins by examining the origins, meanings and assumptions embedded in "WID" and "GAD", how WID entered the conversation of development and then the extent to which differing views of the relationship between gender and development have influenced research, policymaking and international agency thinking since 1970s up to date. It is suggested that each term has been associated with a varying set of assumptions and has led to the formulation of different strategies for the participation of women in development strategies.

Firstly the term “women in development” was coined in the early 1970s by a Washington-based network of female development professionals (Tinker, 1990:30). On the basis of their own experiences in overseas missions, they began to challenge trickle down theories of development, arguing that modernization was impacting differently on men and women. Instead of improving women’s rights and status, the development process appeared to be contributing to a wear and tear of their position. In particular, the work of the Danish economist, Esther Boserup was most significant in influencing WID. From the perspective of the WID movement, the importance of Boserup’s ‘Women’s Role in Economic Development’ (1970) was that it challenged the assumptions of the welfare approach and highlighted women’s importance to the agricultural economy. Boserup posited a positive correlation/relationship between the role women played in agricultural production and their status vis-à-vis men.

Tinker and Bramson (1976), argued that through massive expansion of education systems, stocks of well-trained workers and managers would emerge; this in turn would enable the evolution of static, essentially agrarian societies into industrialized and modernized ones. With the growth of the economies of these countries, the benefits of modernization, that is better living conditions, wages; education, adequate health services, etc. would "trickle down" to all segments of the society.

By the 1970s, this view of modernization was being questioned by many researchers. It was argued that the relative position of women had, in fact, improved very little over the past two decades. There was even evidence which suggested that the position of some women had declined (Boserup, 1970; Tinker and Bramson, 1976; Boulding, 1976; Kelly and Elliot, 1982). For example, in general, women were less likely to benefit from the course of educational expansion (Muchena 1982). Enrolment figures, especially at the tertiary level, tended to be lower for females.

Moser (1989) identifies five broad ideological approaches under the rubric of Women in Development (WID), each with its own implications for development policy and practice. Although Moser attempts to trace these approaches chronologically, she acknowledges that it would be misleading to view them as independent and exclusive of each other. In practice, many policies have appeared more or less simultaneously, appealing to different institutions for example, government, donor agencies, activists, non-governmental organisations and women’s groups. It will be useful to look at the range of approaches focusing on WID and make distinctions between the main categories and how each views women.

These ideological approaches include; the welfare, anti-poverty, equity, efficiency and empowerment. They are the Third World policy approaches to Women in Development (WID) whose goal is a more efficient and effective development through the integration of women in the development processes. They were formulated as a result of concern for the low income women needs on one hand and the recognition of their important role in the development process on the other. They are a reflection of changes in macro-level economic and social policy approaches to Third World development as well as in state policy towards women. The student examines these policy approaches in terms of their roles recognized, gender needs met (practical or strategic) and the extent to which participatory planning procedures are included on top of the origin and purpose of each approach as a basis on which we can draw the comparisons that exist between the five approaches and these are:

Welfare approach; is the earliest approach (pre-WID) that emerged in 1950s -70s and it is still most popular. It emerged out of the residual model of social welfare under the colonial system and the Women were seen as passive recipients of development and the major purpose was to bring women into development as better mothers. The key concerns of the welfare approach therefore include; Family physical survival and this was done through handouts like food aid given especially to low-income women in their mothering roles who are seen as the primary targets for improving family welfare particularly of children; Nutrition education; targeting children under five years as well as pregnant and nursing mothers. It was assumed that extra provision of food aid would make them better mothers, population control through family planning; which was assumed that limiting fertility through widespread dissemination of contraceptive knowledge and technology to women would reduce poverty. Finally, the approach assumes that motherhood is the most important role for women in Third World Countries thus its concern is to meet practical gender needs associated with women’s reproductive role and Identifies women rather than lack of resources as the problem and places the solution to family welfare in their hands and finally, it is based on a top down development approach which creates dependency rather than assisting them to become independent.
The World Bank has had an Advisor on Women in Development since the early 1970s, but in the mid-80s this office was expanded and given a higher profile within the Bank. A major focus of the expanded office during the 1980s has been on "Safe motherhood" under the argument that: "Improving maternal health helps involve women more effectively in development" (Herz and Measham 1987).

Unfortunately, the approach is not concerned about strategic gender needs (the needs women identify as a result of their subordinate position to men in the society and are related to gender divisions of labor, power and control such as legal rights, domestic violence, equal wages and control over their reproduction such as those which give women the mandate to have control over their reproduction).
The Equity Approach; the equity approach dates from the mid-1970s. It draws on research highlighting women’s significant economic contributions. The purpose of this approach was to gain equality for women in all spheres of life. The equity approach began on the promise that development had failed by ignoring productive (paid) roles of women. Often, the equity approach is referred to as the original WID approach (Buvinic, 1983; 1986). This approach recognizes that women are active participants in the development process. They can play both productive and reproductive roles and can contribute to economic growth. The approach starts with the basic assumption that economic strategies have frequently had a negative impact on women. It acknowledges that women need to be brought into the development process through access to employment and the market.
The Anti-poverty Approach; (often referred to as the second WID approach) stresses that the inequalities between men and women were linked to poverty and not simply the subordination of one sex by a more powerful other. It recognizes women as the ‘poorest of the poor’ and focuses on their productive roles, usually through small-scale income generation projects. Through the productive role of women, the approach focuses on poverty alleviation and the promotion of balanced economic growth of women in low-income households. Underlying this approach is the assumption that the origins of women’s poverty and inequality with men can be attributed to their lack of access to private ownership of land and capital, and sexual discrimination in the labour market. Consequently, this approach aims at employment and income generating options for women with low income through better access to productive resources.

Experience with the anti-poverty approach has shown that income generating programmes have tended to be small scale and have not questioned who controls income within the family. Further, since it was based on the assumption that women have free time they have often ignored women’s productive roles and this has been the cause of additional work. Anti-poverty income generating projects may provide employment for women and thereby meet practical gender needs. But unless employment leads to greater autonomy/independence, it does not meet strategic gender needs. This is the indispensable/essential difference between the equity and anti-poverty approaches.

The Efficiency Approach; its emphasis has shifted from women towards development on the assumptions that increased participation of women is automatically linked with increased equity. The deteriorating economic conditions prevalent in the 1980s and emergence of its structural adjustment programme resulted in the initiation of this approach, which focuses on productive roles of women as an underutilized resource for development. Efficiency approach relies heavily on the elasticity of women’s labour in both the reproductive and community managing roles and only meets practical gender needs at the cost of longer working hours and increased unpaid work. While this approach is pragmatic, it can be seen as an entry point for women to redefine the development agenda.

The Empowerment Approach; It emerged in 1970s but gained in 1980s and its origin lies on the grass-roots of organisational experience and feminist writings of women from the developing world. The major proponents of this approach are the Third World women. It is the most recent and still less recognized. It describes empowerment as increasing the capacity of women to develop their self-reliance in order to identify problems, development and change. Since then the word empowerment has become popular in development and social change and refers to the form of processes which leads to participation. It links women subordination not only to male dominance but also to colonial and neo-colonial oppression. It recognizes women’s triple roles and seeks to meet strategic gender roles in a bottom-up manner of mobilization around practical gender needs. It is still unpopular except with Third World women NG0s and their supporters. It is said to have emerged because of the dissatisfaction with the equity approaches perceived co-option with anti-poverty and efficiency approaches. This approach acknowledges inequalities between men and women and the family as the source of women’s subordination. It also attributes women oppression to factors like race, class, colonial history and current position in the international economic order and stresses that women should work to challenge these oppressive factors. Compared to equity approach, It acknowledges the need for power for women only mainly for purposes of enhancing their capacity to increase their own self reliance and internal strength and not for dominance; to give them the right or ability to determine choices in life and to influence the direction of change through the ability to gain control over crucial and non material resources.
According to Buvinic (1983), the shift in policies from welfare, to equity, to anti-poverty and finally to efficiency and empowerment reflect the general Third World development policy trends from policies such as modernization characterized by accelerated growth to basic needs characterized by growth with redistribution and to policy measures associated with structural adjustment policies.

Because the socialist feminists identified social construction of production and reproduction as the basis of women's oppression, there came a need to focus their attention to the social relations of gender, and the question on the validity of roles which were endorsed to both women and men in different societies led to Gender and Development approach. This approach emerged in the 1980s as an alternative to the earlier WID focus. It finds its theoretical roots in socialist feminism and has bridged the gap left by the modernization theorists, linking the relations of production to the relations of reproduction and taking into account all aspects of women's lives (Jaquette 1982).

Kate Young (1987) has identified some of the key aspects of the GAD approach. Perhaps most significantly, the GAD approach starts from a holistic perspective, looking at "the totality of social organization, economic and political life in order to understand the shaping of particular aspects of society" (Young 1987: 2). GAD is not concerned with women per se but with the social construction of gender and the assignment of specific roles, responsibilities and expectations to women and to men. In contrast to the emphasis on exclusively female solidarity which is highly prized by radical feminists, the GAD approach welcomes the potential contributions of men who share a concern for issues of equity and social justice (Ben and crown 1987).

It analyses the nature of women's contribution within the context of work done both inside and outside the household, including non-commodity production, and rejects the public/private dichotomy which commonly has been used as a mechanism to undervalue family and household maintenance work performed by women. Both the socialist/feminist and GAD approaches give special attention to the oppression of women in the family and enter the so-called "private sphere" to analyze the assumptions upon which conjugal relationships are based. GAD also puts greater emphasis on the participation of the state in promoting women's emancipation, seeing it as the duty of the state to provide some of the social services which women in many countries have provided on a private and individual.

The approach sees women as, agents of change rather than passive recipients of development and it stresses the need for women to organize themselves for more effective political voice. It also recognizes the importance of both class solidarities and class distinctions but it argues that the beliefs of patriarchy operate within and across classes to oppress women.

Some governments like Uganda and NGOs are fronting GAD perspective in order to strengthen women's legal rights, including the reform of inheritance and land laws. Research also is examining the confusions created by the co-existence of customary and statutory legal systems in many countries and the tendency for these to have been manipulated by men to the disadvantage of women for instance in Uganda the Domestic relations Bill was tabled and passed as a law to protect women’s rights in marriage.

Gender mainstreaming; is a way or process of ensuring that men’s and women’s constraints, needs, potentials and capabilities are incorporated in the development policies, processes and strategies at all stages including planning, implementation and evaluation ( Kyasiimire C 2003:3).
The approach considers why gender analysis is integral to the policy and program process and incorporates women’s views and priorities into the core of policy decisions, institutional structures, and resource allocations. It is the conceptualizing stage of a gender management system. It recognizes the need not just to ‘add-in’ gender, but to challenge the status quo so that these issues are not marginalized and/or ignored (Schalkwyk et al., 1996). A mainstreaming approach assumes that virtually all policies and programs have the potential for differential impacts on men and women, not just ‘women’s issues’. Moreover, a mainstreaming approach assumes that gender analysis is central/fundamental to the policy and program processes and results in changes that ‘add value’ to these processes. A mainstreaming approach should not marginalize differential gender impacts.

It is important that the core policy decisions, institutional structures, and resource allocations should incorporate women’s views and priorities. For instance; the government of Uganda has set up an environment that promotes gender mainstreaming for example; The Constitution of Uganda contains the gender related provisions like Chapter 4 talks about Protection and Promotion of Fundamental and other Human Rights and Freedoms article 21. (1) All persons are equal before and under the law in all spheres of Political, economic, social and cultural life and in every other respect and shall enjoy equal respect of the law, (2) Without prejudice to clause (1) of this article, a person shall not be discriminated against on the ground of sex, race, colour, ethnic origin, tribe, birth, creed or religion, or social or economic standing, political opinion or disability.

Secondly, Affirmative action in Favour of Marginalized groups Article 32. (1) Notwithstanding anything in this Constitution, the state shall take affirmative action in favour of groups marginalized on the basis of gender, age, disability or any other reason created by history, tradition or custom, for the purpose of redressing the imbalances which exist against them. (2) Parliament shall make relevant laws, including laws for the establishment of an equal opportunities commission, for the purpose of giving full effect to clause (1) of this article. And in Article 33. (1) Women shall be accorded full and equal dignity of the person with men. (2) The state shall provide the facilities and opportunities necessary to enhance the welfare of women to enable them to realise their full potential and advancement. (3) The state shall protect women and their rights, taking into account their unique status and natural maternal functions in society. (4) Women shall have the right to equal treatment with men and that right shall include equal opportunities in political, economic and social activities (5) Without prejudice to article 32 of this Constitution, women shall have the right to affirmative action for the purpose of redressing the imbalances created by history, tradition or custom. (6) Laws, cultures, customs or traditions which are against the dignity, welfare or interest of women or which undermine their status are prohibited by the Constitution.

Uganda’s Ministry of Gender and Community Development National Gender Policy; Uganda’s National Gender Policy aims at guiding, and directing planning, resource allocation and implementation of development programmes in such a way that emphasizes a gender perspective. It also states that sustainable development necessitates maximum and equal participation of both men and women in economic, political, civil and cultural development.

In conclusion, it should be noted that none of these approaches can work independently and meet all women’s needs and concerns. In most cases, it takes a combination of the efforts of all the above because much as we may assume that women’s needs are the same throughout all societies, we must recognize that there are differences based on context, interests, culture among others. Gender as a concept is difficult to operationalise unless it is grounded in values. Established male dominance and cultural traditional beliefs and attitudes compound the problem. The positive constitutional and legal provisions not withstanding, gender in Uganda is still largely perceived by many sections of society as an elite affair. Some perceive it as one of those social concepts driven by foreign ideas of feminism that have not been contextualized locally.



Reference:
Beneria, Lourdos and Gita son. 1981. "Accumulation, Reproduction, and women's Role in Economic Development." In Signs 7, no. 3.

Boserup E. Women’s Role in Economic Development, St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1970.

Buvinic, Mayra. 1986. "Projects for women in the Third World: Explaining their Misbehavior." World Development 14, no. 5.

Constitution of the Republic of Uganda 1995, p. 20.

Jaquette, Jane S. 1982. "Women and Modernization Theory: A Decade of Feminist Criticism." In World Politics 34, no-2.

Kyasiimire C 2003. Best Practices in Community Participation and Gender Mainstreaming: Literature Review and Documentation.

Moser, C.O.N. Gender Planning and Development: Theory, Practice and Training, Routledge, London, 1993

Razavi Shahrashoub and Carol Miller; From WID to GAD: Conceptual Shifts in the Women and Development Discourse. UNRISD. Geneva, 1995, p. 12.

The Republic of Uganda, The National Gender Policy, Ministry of Gender and Community Development, Kampala, 1997 p.1.

Tinker, Irene and M.B. Bramson (1976); Women and Development. Washington, D.C.: overseas Development Council.

Young, Kate. 1987. "Gender and Development." Notes for a Training Course on Gender and Development sponsored by the Aga Khan Foundation, Toronto