1.

Gender and Development

 Historical Background and Origin
i. The UN Charter of 1945 and the UDHR in 1948 established the first official
worldwide recognition of women’s equality and non-discrimination on the basis of
sex - until 1960’s the focus was on women’s reproductive roles, as women were
seen as wives and mothers and their main issues were supposed to be obtaining
access to food, contraceptives, nutrition and health care.
ii. The 70’s and 80’s marked a new phase, in which the debate moved beyond
women’s equality and the domestic sphere of women’s role as wives and mothers
onto the global stage, where the role of women was promoted as an aid for
economic development. – 2nd wave
 Introduction
i. The term “Women, Gender and Development” could be seen as a discipline much
like every other area of knowledge. – major contributors are individuals
ii. Recognition of women’s role in national economies and give a voice in developing
countries through –
o First World Conference of UN
o women decade by UN 76-85
o WID approach
o GAD approach – late 80’s – improving development by removing disparities
in soc, eco, and pol balances b/w men and women
iii. Since 1990’s – gender perspective is struggling to be clearly set into the
development agenda of intl treaties or objs – focus only is on gender equality –
not on women’s centrality to other development areas
2. COLONIAL AND CAPITALISTIC PERSPECTIVES OF GENDER
3.1 Colonial Perspective
 Indian Subcontinent as a colony
i. British as liberalizing force
o British Introduced 9 reforms from 1772 to 1947 including laws
o Forbidding female infanticide,
o Sati – banned
o Child marriage – laws introduced
o Raising the age of consent
o Allowing widow remarriage
o Improving women inheritance rights. – laws
o Criminalized the existence of third gender – still colonial legacy
exists
ii. Women's role in nationalistic movements.
o -Fatima Jinnah, Rana Liaqat Ali Khan
iii. The idea of 'motherland' and nationalism
o Dharti Mata, Bharat Mata – mother connected with land
 iv. Women's right to vote in a limited sense.
 America as a colony
i. African women slaves were seen as profitable as they gave birth to further
slaves.
 Nexus of Colonial and Patriarchal Power
i. Women in colonial environments are bound to suffer the most.
ii. Dual discrimination – slaves in slaves – patriarchy + slavery
 Colonialism, World Systems and Gender
i. Colonialism leads to World Systems which leads to further marginalization
of women.
ii. Marxist perspective – women suffer the most
 Colonialism as a gendered act
i. Colonization itself was a gendered act, carried out by imperial workforces,
overwhelmingly men, drawn from masculinized occupations such as
soldiering and long-distance trade.
ii. The rape of women of colonized societies was a normal part of conquest.
iii. The colonial state was built as a power structure operated by men, based
on continuing force.
iv. Brutality was built into colonial societies
 Colonialism and Eurocentric understanding of Gender
i. All debates concerning gender are dominated by Western and Eurocentric
perspectives. – westernized understanding of gender
ii. Two categories of subordination: Race and gender.
 Institutionalized red-light areas – for money
 Colonialism promoted Feudalism – subjugated women
i. Reinforced feudal landownerships – male elite dominancy – tenants and
peasants mostly women – financially dependent
 Destroyed indigenous women perspective and imposed misogynistic
European perspective
 Orientalist Narratives:
i. Colonial discourse often constructed narratives about the supposed
"backwardness" or "barbarism" of colonized peoples, particularly in how
they treated women – creating perception that western culture was more
civilized – used condition of women as justification to rule
ii. This is exemplified in the British colonial narrative around "saving brown
women from brown men," as Gayatri Spivak famously critiqued.
 Economic Exploitation and Gendered Labor:
i. Colonialism reshaped the economic structures of many societies, often
exploiting local resources and labor.
ii. gendered aspect - men's labor was privileged in formal economic roles,
while women's labor became further devalued or relegated to the informal
or domestic sphere.
3.2 Capitalistic Perspective
 Women are paid wages less than that of men – eco perspective
 Liberal feminism and Gender – positive aspect
o Women should have equal opportunities.
o Equality of wages.
o No glass ceiling.
 Nexus of capitalism and Patriarchy
o Women are oppressed on two accounts.
o Capitalism and patriarchy
 Modernization theory and Gender
o Modern cultures have strong economy and less gender inequality.
 Globalization, Free trade and Gender
o The impact of Globalization and gender. – goes both ways -ve and +ve
 Neo-Liberal Agenda: IMF, World Bank and Structural Adjustment
Programs
o SAPs have a negative impact on gender.
 Antonio Gramsci: Critical theory and Ideological Hegemony/ Cultural
Hegemony – Marxist perspective
o Cultural Imperialism
o Universalization of Western Gender values- gender is westernized
 Labor Division and Gender Roles:
o Capitalism has historically utilized and reinforced a division of labor
based on gender. – women pushed to unpaid domestic labors – men
associated with roles in public sphere
 Exploitation of Labor:
o MNCs exploit women cheap labor
o Capitalism benefits from the undervaluation of women’s labor, both in paid
work (through wage gaps) and in unpaid domestic work.
o Feminist critiques argue that this exploitation is integral to capitalism, as it
allows for the accumulation of wealth by minimizing labor costs.
 Gender, Capital Accumulation, and Globalization:
o In a globalized capitalist system, gender plays a role in how labor markets
are organized across different countries. For example, women in developing
countries often work in export-oriented industries (e.g., garment factories)
with poor working conditions and low pay – Bangladesh garment factories
conditions

3. GENDER ANALYSIS & DEVELOPMENT THEORIES

 Introduction
i. Three theories have been used to describe the differing levels of inequality
and development between different countries.
 o Modernization Theory.
o Dependency Theory.
o World Systems Theory.
 What is Gender Analysis?
i. Gender analysis is a type of socio-economic analysis that uncovers how
gender relations affect a development problem.
ii. The aim may just be to show that gender relations will probably affect the
solution, or to show how they will affect the solution and what could be
done. Gender analysis frameworks provide a step-by-step methodology for
conducting gender analysis.
iii. Gender Analysis highlights the differences between and among women,
men, girls and boys in terms of their relative distribution of resources,
opportunities, constraints and power in a given context.
 Importance of Gender Analysis
i. An example of the effect of skipping gender analysis is provided by a
project that introduced handcarts to a village for use in collecting firewood.
It was thought that the men would use the carts to collect the wood,
freeing up the women for other activities. In fact, the men collected the
wood for sale, keeping the money. As they depleted supplies near the
village, the women had to travel further to collect wood.
3.1 MODERNIZATION THEORY
 What is Modernization Theory? – development theory
o Walt Whitman Rostow
o Developed out of mainstream US economics and sociology in the 1950s
and 1960s.
o It proposes that economic development is linear and all countries
progress through similar stages and processes.
o In order for the underdeveloped countries to grow they must emulate
model of the already developed countries. – 3rd world states need to
modernize
o Lagging development was explained by deficient norms, morals or
cultural values.
o The traditional values of these countries were believed to impede the
'natural process of development'
 Welfare Approach
 Gender Analysis of Modernization Theory
o WID theorist Ester Boserup theorized that women had been left out of
the developmental process because of their exclusion from waged labor.
She argued that women need to be included in the development at
process.
 o She argued that gender inequalities are likely to decline as a country
developed because of an increase in economic opportunities and firm
cooperation. -
o WID argued in favor of women's access to education, jobs, and capital to
achieve gender equality.
o It is claimed that trade policies like, the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA), have created long-term employment opportunities
for women.
o Women's inclusion in the labor market can aid development of the poor
countries.
 Criticisms and development of WID
o With increased women participation in low wage jobs there is an increase
in 'feminization of poverty'
o Women receive so much low wage that it is better not to have any.
o Although women have seen a growth in diverse kinds of jobs but this has
not resulted in redistribution of domestic, household responsibilities.
o This view does not challenge the capitalist and patriarchal systems that
dominate the world.
o WID theorists fail to see WHY women have been exploited.
o WID focuses on HOW women can have greater participation into an
already capitalist and patriarchal system.
o WID ignored influence of class, race and culture and treated women as a
homogenous group.
o Has a top-down structural approach and ignores women's agency.
3.2 DEPENDENCY THEORY AND WORLD SYSTEM THEORY
 What is Dependency theory? – IR – Karl Marx theory
o Rich countries are rich cuz they exploit poor countries
o Dependency theory grew out of the Marxist tradition with an explicit focus
on exploitation.
o The lagging development of poor countries in the effect of long standing
'Unequal exchanges' between poor and rich countries.
o The global system has benefited handful of rich countries.
o The study of development requires an analysis of the world economy.
 What is World System Theory?
o Exploit peripheries – take raw resources and give refined products
o The World System theory was developed by sociologist Immanuel
Wallerstein.
o Within the world system, countries are located as core, periphery and or
the semi periphery countries.
o These positions are the result of uneven development in colonialism.
 o Core countries are highly industrialized and exploit the periphery
countries.
o Periphery countries are usually former colonies.
o Semi peripheries lie between the core and periphery.
 Three types of dependencies
o Classical
 Periphery countries trade raw materials for finished goods creating
an unequal relationship.
o Investment
 Role of foreign investment in creating dependency.
o Debt Dependency
 When periphery countries borrow debt.
 When loans cannot be paid back then there is cycle of borrowing.
 Gender perspectives on Dependency theory
o A country's world system position is telling of the gender inequality in that
country as well.
o Most core sponsored programs have ignored women as agents of
development, peripheral women are disadvantaged compared to people
in the core, but also in relation to peripheral men.
o Exploited countries’ women are oppressed more
 GAD Gender and Development
o Unlike the WID perspective, GAD called past and present social,
economic, and political structures into question.
o The theoretical roots of GAD are in socialist feminism, which links the
relations of production to the relations of reproduction and the system of
capitalism to patriarchy.
o Development should target patriarchy and capitalism both.
o There is an analysis of intersectionality.
o Interventions need to be gender analysis – else they will prove counter-
productive
o Women can become agents of change and development.
3.3 STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM
o Structural functionalists posit that gender roles arise from the need to
establish a division of labor that will help maintain the smooth running of
the family and concurrently contribute to the stability of society.
o In this view, girls and boys are taught different approaches to life. Boys
are taught instrumentality, that is, to be goal-oriented, to focus on tasks,
and to be concerned for the relationship of the family to outside societal
structures. Girls, on the other hand, are taught to be expressive, that is,
to express their emotions and to look for and react to the emotions of
others.
o In many ways, the functionalist perspective of gender equality is a
product of its times, describing the realities of gender roles and
inequalities of the 1950s, but not explaining them. However, the
functionalist perspective is less useful for describing the realities of
gender in the post-industrial age where many women work outside the
home, men can stay at home with the children, and everyone helps with
the housework.