Gender and social development

Gender and social
development
Dr. Carolina Matos
Lecturer in Sociology
City University London
E-mail: Carolina.Matos.1@city.ac.uk

Key points
• Post-2015 Millennium Development Goals: overview and
achievements
• Why does gender equality matter for development?
• Gender and development: theoretical perspectives
• Women in Development (WID) versus Gender and Development
(GAD)
• Gender and poverty: the “feminization” of poverty
• Atlas of Gender and Development: a worldwide view
• The case of South Asia
• The case of Latin America and Brazil
• Achievements in gender equality on Latin America and elsewhere
• Video: Gender equality – World Economic Forum
• Seminar questions and conclusion

Millennium Development Goals and Beyond 2015
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/Aids, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Global partnerships for development
(http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/)

Post-2015 Development Goals
• The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) highlights
how there are pressing demands to end poverty and inequality and
tackle climate change worldwide
• The new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to further the
MDGs. The agenda is to be adopted by member states at the
Sustainable Development summit in September 2015
• These include:
• 1) End poverty in all its forms everywhere
• 2) End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and
promote sustainable agriculture
• 3) Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages
• 4) Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote
lifelong learning opportunities for all
• 5) Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

United Nations Development Programme –
Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda
• (http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/mdgovervie
w/post-2015-development-agenda.html )

Gender and development: advancements
and challenges
• As the World Bank’s 2012 World Development report underlines,
women have made gains in rights, in education, health and in access to
jobs and livelihoods. In all, 136 countries now have explicit guarantees
for the equality of all citizens and non-discrimination between men and
women in their constitutions.
• Problems and challenges:
• * Likelihood of women dying during childbirth in Sub-Saharan Africa
and parts of South Asia comparable to Northern Europe in the 19th
century;
• * Death of women is higher in low and middle-income countries
compared with higher income nations
• * Women continue to cluster in sectors and occupations characterized
as “female”

Gender and development: theoretical
perspectives*
• The “welfare” approach dominated the first phase of development
practices. The predominance of this model was challenged, shifting
the focus of development from growth to basic human needs
• Challenges and new perspectives:
• * The Women and Development (WID) approach of the 1970’s
became a starting point for engagements with development as
discourse and practice
• I.e. Boserup’s study, Women’s Role in Economic Development
• * The second challenge came from Marxism, and alternative models of
state socialist development
• * In the 1980’s, critics questioned the development paradigm as a
narrative of progress. Sen built on the Basic Needs theory on poverty
and the concept of human entitlements and capabilities (1987)
• * Shirin M. Rai, 2011

The WID and GAD approaches: key theoretical
frameworks*
• Ester Boserup’s (1970) Women’s Role in Economic Development
investigated the impact of development projects on Third World
women
• Many of these projects ignored women or undermined their
economic opportunities. Training in new technologies was offered to
men, reducing women’s access.
• Merging modernization and liberal-feminist theories, the WID
approach was determined to integrate women into development
• Criticisms of development programmes within the
modernization theory framework:
• Sen and others pointed out that Boserup assumed that
‘modernization’ was both beneficial and inevitable in the specific
form it had taken in developing countries, ignoring the process of
capital accumulation set in motion during the colonial period.
• * (Sen, 1999 and Connelly et al, 2000).

WID and GAD approaches*
• The WID approach was influential in the sense that it pointed to the
need to improve statistical measures of women’s work, but it relied
heavily on modernization theory
• The Gender and Development (GAD) approach emerged in the
1980’s and is also referred to as the “empowerment approach”
• It argues that women’s status in society is deeply affected by their
material conditions of life and by their position in the national,
regional and global economies.
• Women are also affected by the nature of patriarchal power in their
societies at the national, community and household levels.
• “…focuses on the interconnection of gender, class and race and the
social construction of their defining characteristics. Women
experience oppression differently, according to their race, class,
colonial history, culture and position in the international economic
order (Moser, 1993).”

Gender equality and women as agents
• Gender equality is smart economics
• Beyond the basic needs theory and the focus on growth and income
as indicators of development:
• Agency and well-being - Sen (1999) highlighted the shift in
development thinking concerning the well-being of women towards
the notion of women as active agents of change.
• Criticisms to the family as an altruistic space
• Sen (1999) sees a correlation between women’s agency and voice,
education and employment, plus the reduction of infant mortality.
• Sen’s agency achievements - ‘of participation, empowerment and
community life’. (BN and human capabilities influenced the Human
Development Index of the UNDP).

Women’s empowerment and criticisms of
the concept of agency
• Relationship between women’s voice, agency and
empowerment:
• “….. The relative deprivations in the well being of
women were……are clearly important for social
justice….But it is also the case that the limited role of
women’s active agency seriously afflicts the lives of all
people….While there is every reason not to slacken the
concern about women’s well-being and ill-being, and to
continue to pay attention to the sufferings….of women,
there is also an urgent and basic necessity…..to take an
agent-oriented approach to women’s agenda.”
• Criticisms to the concept of agency

Gender and Development:
developments and criticisms
• By the 1980s, there had been a shift from the inclusion of women
on development towards the transformation of gender relations
as the major concern.
• “The Gender and Development (GAD) approach is now the
way in which most scholars and policy planners, as well as the
World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, discuss the
relationship between development processes and women’s
inequality, often using “gender literacy” as a key phrase.”
• Was also worried about transforming unequal social/gender
relations and to empower women.
• Criticisms: has not been able to influence development planning
• WID and GAD have been accused of ethnocentrism by some.
The post-colonialist feminist critique emerged in the 1990’s,
building on both

The ‘feminization’ of poverty*
• What is understood by ‘poverty’?:
• The last two decades have seen a broadening of the criteria used in
poverty definitions.
• Poverty versus quality of life:
• Key concepts within the more holistic approach to poverty include
“entitlements” and “capabilities” (Sen, 1981) and notions of
“vulnerability” and “poverty as process” (Chambers, 1983).
• These perspectives stress how low incomes may not be problematic if
people reside in adequate shelter, have access to services, or possess a
healthy base of “assets”.
• These are not only economic, but encompass “human capital”, such as
education and skills, and social capital, such as kin and friendship
networks (* Chant, 2006 in Jacquette and Summerfield, 93).
• Empowerment of women is central issue to development

Post-colonial critiques
• The representations of Third world women in the West, and the
modernization approach to development and to women seen as
“victims”
• As Mohanty (1990) argues that, “the homogeneity of women as a
group is produced not on the bases of biological essentials but on
sociological universals. Women are characterised as a singular
group on the basis of a shared oppression. What brings women
together is a sociological notion of the ‘sameness’ of their
oppression.”
• Focuses on 5 specific ways in which “women” is used in Western
feminist discourse.
• Has looked at the work of Fran Hosken (on female genital
mutilation) to writers from the Women in International Development
School, who write about the effect of development policies

Post-development framework and
globalization*
• Development in the plural, multiple perspectives and approaches
that suit different actors in the process
• Against homogenizing and generalising, focusing on diversity
and the specificities of local experiences
• Oppression of women in Africa x oppression of women in
Europe:
• “In the texts women are defined as victims of male violence; as
victims of the colonial process (Cutrufelli); victims of the Arab
familial system….; victims of the economic development
process…and victims of the Islamic code”.
• * Mohanty, 1990; Nederveen Pieterse, 2010).

Atlas of Gender and Development: a
worldwide view*
• There are differences in patterns of gender discrimination worldwide
• There are huge differences in gender equality, reflecting factors such as
culture and religion, the rural-urban divide, the level of development
and the political system
• Discriminatory features include: the high incidence of son preference
in Asia; the prevalence of early marriage in some Asian and African
countries; land ownership, rarely accessible by women, especially in
Asia and Africa; restrictions on freedom of movement and of dress,
mostly in the Middle East and North Africa and domestic violence in
Latin America, Europe and central Asia.
• Progress has been made in some areas, including women’s job
opportunities (i.e. in East Asia and Pacific in the last decades)
• * OECD (2010) “Worldview” in Atlas of Gender Development: How
Social Norms Affect Gender Equality in Non-OECD Countries

East Asia and Pacific*
• Gender discrimination in social institutions is low across 17 countries of
the East Asia and the Pacific region
• Exceptions are China, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, of which
figure in the bottom half of the SIGI ranking and display high
inequalities in terms of son preference
• Problems:
• Discrimination in labour markets, education and political participation
is an issue for women in many parts of the region
• Many women still work in the agricultural or informal sector
• Improvements have included girls’ educational attainment and better
job opportunities for women, with newly created jobs in the export
manufacturing sector
• * “Missing women” – 100 million “missing women” in South and East
Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. (* Atlas of Gender and
Development)

Europe and Central Asia*
• Women in Europe and Central Asia enjoy high levels of equality
• The former Soviet system having been a driving force for introducing
gender equality into legal frameworks
• Gender discrimination is considered low in the 17 countries, with Croatia,
Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine figuring among the top ten
• There is little discrimination in the area of inheritance, with women and
men sharing equal rights and responsibilities within the family
• Problems?:
• Violence against women, especially domestic violence, is a key issue
• In Moldova, one third of female murder victims are killed by their
husbands
• The UK has a high rate of women working part-time, and has one of the
lowest levels of female political representation in Europe, together with
Italy, France and Germany

Atlas of Gender and Development – The case of
Latin America and Brazil*: a case study
• Gender discrimination is low across Latin America and the Caribbean,
having one of the smallest range of gender disparity between the 22
countries
• All ranked countries are in the top half of the SIGI
• Region has made significant progress in the last years promoting gender
equality over the past 20 years, especially in education and access to
land
• Women however still suffer from bias, mainly due to a deeply rooted
sexism, social stereotypes and a traditional view of the family.
• Inequalities persist between men and women’s income
• Improvements have included legal and institutional frameworks
securing women’s rights, such as laws protecting women’s physical
integrity passed in Paraguay in the 1990s
• * Atlas of Gender and Development

Structural inequalities and
advancements
• The Economic Commission for Latin America and the
Caribbean (ECLAC – UN 2004) underlined that full equity was
reached in the 1990’s with access to primary education. These
successes have not necessarily improved women’s position in the
labour market or narrowed the wage gap.
• * Surveys have shown that women’s economic participation
increased significantly in the 1990s, reaching nearly 50%, although it
is still low among poor women.
• * Women still have higher unemployment rates than men,
• * Women’s average labour income is lower than men’s and the gap
is especially pronounced in the case of the most highly qualified.
• * Women are also outperforming men in terms of educational
achievements (i.e. political participation).

Achievements on gender equality in Latin
America and Brazil
• Facts and figures from the World Bank (2011) on the gender
gap:
• The increase of the professional engagement of women in Latin
American society has translated into higher participation in politics,
with the share of parliamentary seats held by women in the region at
nearly 24%, the highest among all the regions in the world.
• Since the 1980s, nearly 70 million women have joined the labour
market. It has doubled since the 1960s in the region, tripling in
Brazil
• Maternal mortality rates have been declining continuously since
the 1980s, dropping by 40% in the Caribbean and 70% in the
Andean region. Latin American fertility rates are now as low as those
of industrialized nations.

Impact of development redistribution
programmes in Brazil and anti-violence laws
• “Studies have shown that Conditional Cash Transfers programmes
(CCT), like Brazil’s Bolsa Familia, can potentially stimulate women
empowerment by putting the transfer directly into women’s hands,
who are more likely than men to invest additional income in family
welfare. In the Brazilian case, 91 per cent of all recipients are
women….. The Maria da Penha law placed criminal justice at the
centre of the debate around violence against women and encouraged
women to report cases of domestic violence. The increase in the
reporting of domestic violence incidents after the law came into
effect is perceived as a natural consequence of the ability to report
these crimes.”
• (Ashleigh Kate Slingsby, UNDP/International Policy Centre for
Inclusive Growth)

Social protection and the reduction of
inequality*
• The 2012 World Development Report underlines four areas:
• * Reducing gender gaps in human capital endowments (addressing excess
female mortality and eliminating pockets of gender disadvantage in
education)
• * Closing earnings and productivity gaps between women and men
• * Shrinking gender differences in voice
• * Limiting the reproduction of gender inequality over time
• Addressing gender gaps in human capital endowments requires fixing the
institutions that deliver public services . Education services need to focus
on improving access for significant population groups that are currently
disadvantaged by poverty, ethnicity, caste, race or geography.
• Policies to improve women’s economic opportunities
• Closing gaps in access to assets and inputs

How do you achieve gender equality?
• Improvements in infrastructure services
• Interventions can also focus on reducing the time transactions costs
associated with access to markets
• Strengthening women’s land and ownership rights can help female
farmers and entrepreneurs
• Releasing women’s time, such as paying attention to child care and
parental leave policies
• Other important initiatives include addressing discrimination in labour
markets
• “In wage employment, the underrepresentation of women in certain
sectors or occupations can feed discriminatory beliefs among employers
that women are not suitable workers or good candidates for employment.
The importance of networks in job search and professional promotion
can further reinforce women’s exclusion from certain jobs…..”
• * 2012 World Development Report – The World Bank

What can developing countries do to
achieve wider gender equality?
• “Developing country governments can identify the extent of gender
gaps in education, health and employment and design policies to
close these gaps with mechanisms to measure progress. …
Developing country governments can take steps to ensure women’s
participation in political and other institutions in society, including
promoting measures to ensure their equal representation in
parliament and other legislative measures at the national and local
levels. They can take steps to ensure women are included in
community level consultations about new programs and policies and
their voices are heard…. Developing country governments can
design program interventions that target women who are
particularly poor…by providing social protection and ensuring that
payments go into the hands of women.”
• (Lucia Hanmer, lead economist, Gender, World Bank)

Gender equality – World Economic
Forum
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG_P5ja-oO0

Seminar questions
• I. Choose one of the questions and discuss it briefly with your
neighbour. Prepare yourself to answer these in the end of the
next session.
• 1. Examine the relationship between gender discrimination and
equality. What are the links and why does equality matter?
• 2. What have been some of the successes that we have in the world
today? How far have we come? Think of examples
• 3. What are the challenges still to gender equality and citizenship?
Think of a particular country to focus on and discuss what it has
achieved in the last decades and what are the roadblocks that exist
now that prevent further gender advancement in the future?

Selected bibliography
• Chant, S. (2006) “Contributions of a Gender Perspective to the Analysis
of Poverty” in Women and Gender Equity in Development Theory and
Practice, Durham and London: Duke University
• Matos, C. (2012) Media and politics in Latin America: globalization,
democracy and identity, London: I.B. Tauris
• Mohanty, Chandra Talpade (2005, 2000) “Under Western Eyes:
Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses” in Feminist theory: a
reader, Kolmer, Wendy K. and Kouski, Frances Bart, N York: McGraw
Hill, 372-379
• Sen, A. (1999) Development as Reader, Oxford Paperbacks
• Shirin, M. Rai (2011) “The history of international development:
concepts and contexts” in Visvanathan, N et al The Women, Gender and
Development Reader, Routledge, 14-22
• World Development Report 2012 – The World Bank
• Quotes from interviews to the project, Globalization, gender politics and
the media (Lexington Books, December 2016)

Gender and social development

More Related Content

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked (20)

Similar to Gender and social development (20)

More from Carolina Matos (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

Gender and social development