NATURAL SCIENCE

(GENDER AND SUSTAINABLE

DEVELOPMENT)

Class: BS Economics (Sem,1)

Lecture

By: Ms. Seemal Naeem

 GENDER

• Gender: is a term used to describe socially constructed roles for

women and men.
is an acquired identity that is learned, changes over time, and varies
widely within and across cultures.
• Example : A gender role is that women are expected to take care of
the children and elderly and work without pay, while men are expected
to work outside the home and earn money to sustain the family.
Gender roles are also visible in jobs, which are considered typically
female or male: nurses, kindergarten and primary teachers are
predominantly female; technicians, workers in public transport,
forestry or water management are predominantly male workers.
 GENDER

Gender balance: Equal representation and participation of women

and men.
Example: Gender balance should be considered when organizing
training in your mission i.e. the participants list should show a balanced
number of women and men, in relation to the overall gender balance of
staff.
Gender stereotypes: are generic attitudes, opinions or roles applied
to a particular gender and which function as unjustifiably fixed
assumptions.
Examples: Women are not hired as drivers as they are generally not
considered to be good drivers or because is not a typical female job.
 GENDER

Empowerment:
The process of gaining access to resources and developing people’s capacities in order
to actively participate in shaping one’s own life and community in economic, social and
political terms.
Gender equality:
Where women and men have equal conditions for realizing their full human rights and
potential to contribute to and benefit from development.
Taking into account their similarities, differences and the various roles they play.
Gender inequality:
 Inequality in Education  Inequality in employment and Earnings
 Inequality in Voices  Inequality in Wealth
 Inequality in division of labor  Inequality in Time of work
 Inequality in Household allocation
 GENDER ROLES

Functional responsibilities that are given to men and women by

society and are influenced by the cultural, political, economical,
religious and social situation.
TRIPLE ROLES
There are three types of gender work roles that people do to maintain
households and communities.
The three categories of work are
1. Productive Roles
2. Reproductive Roles
3. Community work
 G E N D E R A N D D E V E LO P M E N T T H E O R I E S
OR
T H E O R I E S O F W O M E N ’ S I SS U E S I N D E V E LO P M E N T

 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.
 THEORIES OF GENDER/ WOMEN’S ISSUES
IN DEVELOPMENT

Development have led to the emergence of three distinctive

Approaches or Theories. These models seek to explain how
development affects women and why women and men are
affected by development differently
1. Women in Development (WID)
2. Women and Development (WAD)
3. Gender and Development (GAD)
 1. WOMEN IN DEVELOPMENT (WID)

Meaning of WID:
• Economic development with Equality in Law and Political Rights
• Education
• Employment
• Empowerment
• Documenting Women’s work
• Adapting Development Theory
 1. WOMEN IN DEVELOPMENT (WID)

Origin: By the 1970s it had become very clear that women were
being left out of development and women as a group being treated
as lacking opportunity to participate in development.
 The UN declared 1975 to 1985 the Decade for Women.
Focus: The WID approach, although it had limitations, increased the
visibility of women in development issues. WID was successful in
helping secure a prominent place for women’s issues at the United
Nations (UN) and other international development agencies.
 The main task was to improve women’s access to resources and
their participation in development programs and planning.
 Major emphasis on income-generating projects and activities
mostly aimed at women’s reproductive role, where nutrition
education and family planning were a main feature.
 WOMEN IN DEVELOPMENT (WID)

 WID sees women problems are due to exclusion of women from

development programs.
 Integration of women in development programs are a solution. It
recognizes that women need to be integrated into economic
development through legal and administrative support.
Criticism: Did not address gender discrimination. Does not question
the existing social structures or explore the nature and sources of
women’s abuse/ illtreatment.
WID sees women merely as a unit of analysis, and fails to consider
the implications race, class and gender have on women's
oppression.
 2. WOMEN AND DEVELOPMENT
(WAD)

Origin: As a result of criticisms of the WID approach, the Women and

Development (WAD) approach arose in the latter part of the 1970s.

 WAD asserts that women have always been important economic and
development actors. The work they do both inside and outside the
household is critical to the maintenance of society.
Focus: The main focus of WAD is on the interaction between women and
development processes rather than purely on strategies to integrate women into
development.

 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.
 2. WOMEN AND DEVELOPMENT
(WAD)

 WAD saw global inequalities as the main problem facing poor

countries and, therefore, the citizens of those countries.

 WAD was very persuasive in raising the debate that women have a
role not only in reproduction but in production as well.

 Women’s work in the public and private domain is central to the

maintenance of their societal structures.

 Advocates of this approach say that both the paid and unpaid labour
of women is essential to development
 2. WOMEN AND DEVELOPMENT
(WAD)

Criticism: WAD has been criticized for assuming that the position of
women will improve if international structures become more equitable.
 It therefore underplays the role of undermining women’s development
and does not adequately address the question of social relations between
men and women and their impact on development.
 Fails to analyze the relationship between patriarchy and women’s
subordination and oppression.
 Once international structures become more equitable, women’s position
would improve.
 WAD doesn't question the relations between gender roles.
 3. GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT
(GAD)

Origin: As an alternative to the WID and WAD this approach developed

in the 1980s, influenced by socialist feminist thinking.
 It sought to bring together both the lessons learned from, and the
limitations of,
the WID and WAD approaches.
Focus: It seeks to ensure that both women and men participate in and benefit equally
from development and so emphasizes equality of benefit and control.
 It offers a holistic perspective looking at all aspects of women’s lives. It questions the
basis of assigning specific gender roles to different sexes.
 Contribution does not exclusively emphasize female solidarity- welcomes contributions
of sensitive men.
 Recognizes women’s contribution inside and outside the household, including non-
 3. GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT
(GAD)

 This approach also pays particular attention to the oppression of

women in the family or the ‘private sphere’ of women’s lives. As a
result, we have seen projects develop addressing issues such as
violence against women.

 GAD focuses on the social or gender relations (i.e. the division of

labour) between men and women in society and address issues of
access and control over resources and power.

 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
 3. GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT
(GAD)

 GAD treats development as a complex process that is influenced by

political, social and economic factors rather than as a state or stage of
development. It therefore goes beyond seeing development as mainly
economic well-being but also that the social and mental wellbeing of a
person is important.

 A rising from the GAD analysis is the need for women to organize
themselves into a more effective political voice in order to strengthen
their legal rights and increase the number of women in decision making.

 Development theory has also changed from a focus on needs to support

for rights. This is because they did not challenge fundamentally the
 APPROACHES OF GENDER
DEVELOPMENT

1. The Welfare approach

2. The Equity approach
3. The Anti-poverty approach
4. The Efficiency approach
5. The Empowerment approach
 1. THE WELFARE APPROACH

 Focus on poor women, mainly in the roles of wife and mother. This was the
only approach during colonial periods, and was favoured by many
missionaries.

 The focus was clearly on meeting practical needs. But the assumptions
that women’s position would improve together with general improvements
in the economy, or with the economic positions of their husbands, began to
be challenged as it became clear that women were in fact losing out.

 Women, as a result, were being increasingly associated with backwardness

and the traditional while men were assisted with economic development
projects, such as the introduction of cash crops, and new agricultural
technologies that excluded women.
 2. THE EQUITY APPROACH

 Focus on equality between women and men and fair distribution of

benefits of development.

 The main aim was to eliminate discrimination.

 The equity approach also dealt with both the productive and
reproductive roles as a responsibility of government.

 The equity approach, in contrast to the welfare approach, saw women

as active participants organizing to bring about necessary changes.
 3. ANTI-POVERTY APPROACH

 Women targeted as the poorest of the poor, with emphasis on

income-generating activities and access to productive resources such
as training and micro-finance.

 This approach focuses on both the productive and reproductive role

of women with an emphasis on satisfaction of basic needs and the
productivity of women.

 The tendency with this approach was to reinforce the basic needs
and ignore the strategic needs of women.
 4. THE EFFICIENCY APPROACH

 The efficiency approach targets women as workers and is a product

of the 1980s’ economic reforms known as the Structural Adjustment
Programs of the International Monetary fund and the World Bank.
 Its aim has been increased production and economic growth with an
emphasis on full use of human resources. Education and training are
therefore key strategies.
 The understanding of men’s and women’s roles and responsibilities
as part of the planning of development activities helps improve
effectiveness and ensures that women, as well as men, can play their
part in national development.
 The efficiency approach succeeded in bringing the concerns about
women and gender into the mainstream of development, focusing on
what women could do for development, rather than on what
 5. THE EMPOWERMENT
APPROACH

 Focus on increasing women’s capacity to analyze their situation and

determine their own life choices and societal directions.

 The aim of the empowerment approach is to increase the self-reliance

of women and to influence change at the policy, legislative, societal,
economic and other levels to their advantage.

 Its main point of reference is the “triple roles” of women and it

emphasizes women’s access to decision-making.
 5. THE EMPOWERMENT
APPROACH

 The strategy is awareness-raising and situates women firmly as active

participants in ensuring change takes place.

 Building organizational skills and self-esteem is an important aspect

of the empowerment approach.

 The empowerment approach has been instrumental in ensuring that

opportunities are opened for women to determine their own needs.
 MEASURING HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

1. The Human Development Index (HDI),

2. Gender-related Human Development Index (GDI)
3. The Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM)
 1. The Human Development Index (HDI)

 The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) constructed the

HDI.
HDI focuses on three key indicators:
a) Health – In this measurement, life expectancy is valued.
b) Knowledge – Literacy is measured.
c) Wealth – The Index looks primarily at GDP, adjusts and relates to the
purchasing power in a country.
 The combination of these three indicators to form the HDI is a useful
step towards comparing poverty, deprivation and development in
different parts of the world.
 2. Gender-related Human Development Index
(GDI)

 The differences between women and men in relation to the different

dimensions of human poverty are measured through the use of a
Gender-related Development Index (GDI) and Gender Empowerment
Measure (GEM).
 The Gender Development Index (GDI) measures gender inequalities in
the achievement of key dimensions of human development:
a) Long and healthy life
b) Good education
c) Decent standard of living
 The ratio is calculated as female HDI to male HDI.
 3. The Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM)

 The Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) is a measure of inequalities between

men’s and women’s opportunities in three major areas.
a) Economic participation and decision making:
This is measured by the share of women and men in senior professional and
technical positions and senior officials and managers.
b) Power over economic resources:
Measured by the share of women and men in the earned income in a country.
c) Political participation and decision making:
This is calculated by the number of parliamentary seats held by men and women.
 The GEM is calculated as the average of the three indices. Calculations are
made for each of these three areas resulting in an index that equals 1 when full
equality is reached between women and men and that decreases as inequality
increases.
 WOMEN’S DEVELOPMENT

(WHAT THE WORLD HAS PROMISED)

1. The United Nations Conferences on Women

 The United Nations International Women’s Year Conference held in Mexico
City in July 1975 recommended that a decade for women be established with
the themes of equality, development and peace.
 It was the largest meeting ever to deal with the problems and concerns of
women. One hundred and twenty five of the 133 UN member nations sent
delegates to the conference and about 70% of the delegates were women.
 The conference adopted the World Plan of Action.
Objectives:
“To define a society in which women participate in a real and full sense in
economic, social and political life and to devise strategies whereby such
societies could develop”.
 1. The United Nations Conferences on Women

 The methods and strategies were included:

Legal rights, free primary education and access to general education,
the right to family planning information and services, child-care and
other social services, reducing women’s work-load, providing access
to employment opportunities and training for employment.

 The national action plans must list five-year minimum goals include:
 Equal access to education, increased political rights and employment
opportunities, and recognition of the economic value of the work
traditionally carried out by women.
 The need for constitutional and legal changes to ensure equality and
remove discrimination.
 1. The United Nations Conferences on Women

 Media was recognized as important both in terms of effecting social

change but also in maintaining the status quo. The media was therefore
called upon to project a more dynamic image of women.

 The World Plan of Action also called for a Decade for Women and
Development and challenged the UN system to do more for and about
women.

 The final section of the plan is devoted to regular monitoring and

evaluation at national, regional and international levels to ensure that
the World Plan of Action is implemented.
 2. The Mid-Decade Conference

 This conference took place in Copenhagen in 1980. Forty–eight resolutions

were adopted by the Conference.
 It was noted that modernization or development had in fact made poor
women even poorer. A strong emphasis was on the inclusion of data on women.
 Appropriate technological transfer could reduce the heavy work-load of
women and increase their productivity.
 Governments should develop programs to inform women of their legal rights,
and establish commissions to assess women’s legal status, carry out
investigations into the extent of protection, oppression and discrimination
experienced by women under customary law.
 Every effort should be made to enact laws guaranteeing women the right to
vote, to qualify for election or appointment as public officials. Goals,
timeframes and special efforts must be made to increase the number of
women in public office.
 3. The World Conference to Review and Appraise the
Achievement of the United Nations Decade for Women

 This conference was held in Nairobi in 1985. It adopted the Forward Looking
Strategies for the Advancement of Women to the Year 2000.
 Education was once again reaffirmed as essential for the full realization of
equality between men and women.
 Governments were asked to recognize and undertake measures, such as
employment laws, to implement the right to work for both men and women on
equal conditions regardless of marital status.
 In order to eliminate discrimination against women, it is equally important to
recognize women’s informal and traditional contributions, such as housework,
which should be given an economic value.
 Agrarian reform is important to ensure legal access to land and other means
of production. It is also necessary to ensure women control their labour and
the income earned.
 4. The 4th United Nations World Conference on Women

This conference was held in Beijing in 1995. It adopted the Platform of Action
(PLA) and Beijing Declaration.

 The PLA aims the implementation of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for
the advancement of women.

 The governments, the international community and civil society were called
upon to take immediate and concerted action in the following critical areas of
concern:
• The persistent and increasing burden of poverty on women.
• The inadequate and unequal access to education and health-care and
related services.
• Violence against women.
 4. The 4th United Nations World Conference on Women

• Inequality between women and men in the sharing of power and

decision-making at all levels.
• Inequality of economic structures and policies, in all forms of
productive activities and in access to resources.
• Insufficient mechanisms at all levels to promote the advancement of
women.
• Stereotyping of women and inequality in women’s access to, and
participation in, communication systems and the media.
• Gender inequalities in the management of natural resources and the
safe-guarding of the environment.
 5. Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and
Peace for the 21st Century

 The UN General Assembly resolved to convene a special session in 2000 to review

and assess the progress achieved in the implementation of the Nairobi Forward-
looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women and the Beijing Platform of
Action.
 That meeting was convened in New York and came to be popularly known as
Beijing +5.
Challenges:
In many countries the number of women in waged employment has risen but this is
often in very poorly waged and harsh working conditions.
Increasing economic difference among and within countries. The economic
difficulties have affected the ability of most countries to provide social security and
services. This has led to increased levels of poverty among women.
The negative effects of structural adjustment programs, and the high cost of
external debt servicing have worsened the existing obstacles to development,
making the situation of women worse.
 IS DEVELOPMENT WORKING FOR WOMEN?

1. Much has been promised in the area of education. The Beijing

Platform of Action, for instance, promised to close the gender gap in
primary and secondary education by 2005. With a few exceptions,
that gap has not closed and in some instances has grown worse.
2. Elimination of poverty is another area of great promise. Poverty is
much talked about and researched, yet levels continue to grow in
Africa.
3. In health, the gap between, and within, countries in terms of infant
and maternal mortality and sickness rates continues to grow. In
most African countries these rates are unacceptably high.
4. Women and girls continue be victims of various forms of violence.
Although improving, the legal measures to end violence against
women remain weak in many countries.
 IS DEVELOPMENT WORKING FOR WOMEN?

5. There has been growing acceptance of the importance of the full participation of
women in decision-making at all levels. In some countries, women have attained
high positions in decision-making spheres, but the actual participation of women
at the highest levels of national and international decision-making has not
significantly changed.

 Wars and other forms of violent conflict continue to cause serious obstacles to the
advancement of women. The underrepresentation of women at all levels in decision-
making, in peace-keeping, peace-building and post-conflict reconciliation and
reconstruction only make the problem worse.

 Progress has been achieved in terms of the visibility, status, outreach and
coordination of activities of national machineries. However, lack of political will,
together with inadequate financial and human resources, is the main obstacle.