The WID, WAD & The last four decades have
GAD Approach witnessed three specific
approaches in the manner that
women and men access and
benefit from development efforts.
These models or approaches
sought to explain why women do
not experience development the
same way men do.
Women in Development (WID) is an approach or paradigm of
Women in development that emerged during the 1970s. The WID program
Development (WID) responded to the universal ‘male bias’ in development programs by
demanding for women’s inclusion through targeted and segregated
women-only projects. This move was in response to studies
revealing how gender-blind government programs/ projects can
intensify gender inequality. Similarly, “male blindness” or lack of male
involvement in women empowerment programs contributed to
reinforcing marginalization and further isolated women from the
mainstream of development. WID examined the sexual division of
labor and the differential impacts of gender in development but
ultimately did not challenge gender relations in the assumption that
these will change as women become economic partners of men in
development ( NCRFW and CIDA, 2003, p. 39-40).
The Women and Development (WAD) Approach
Women and veered away from the sole focus on women and began
Development (WAD) to examine the relationship between men and women
and the role of both in the development process. WAD
recognized that women have always been part of
development and that their position will improve “once
the need for structural and institutional reforms are
installed at the local and international levels” (NCRFW
and CIDA, 2003, p. 3940).
WAD focused on productive and income generating
projects to involve women in development. However,
some of its interventions failed to take into
consideration women’s reproductive roles. Aside from
this, critiques also noted that the WAD approach
tended to lump women’s concerns together without
consideration of class, race or ethnicity. Hence, this
approach failed to address the gendered nature of the
mainstream structures and power dynamics (NCRFW
and CIDA, 2003, p. 39-40).
Both WID and WAD were less successful in
improving the overall situation of women.
While both approaches promoted the visibility
of women in development, both also failed to
adequately consider the inequalities between
men and women.
Gender and
Development The Gender and Development (GAD) Approach
(GAD) originated in the early 1980s as a strategic response to
the limitations of the WID & WAD approaches to improve
the status of women. It is a development perspective
anchored on rights based and people-centered
development. It recognizes the legitimacy of gender
equality as a fundamental value that should be reflected
in developmental choices. This approach focuses on
social, economic, political and cultural factors that
determine how differently women and men participate
in, benefit from, and control resources and activities.
GAD shifts the focus from the need to include women in
development to the examination of socially determined
relations between women and men (NCRFW and CIDA,
2003, p. 28-29).
