policy approaches to women and gender equality

7/28/2019 Policy Approaches to Women and Gender Equality

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Two conceptual frameworks: Women in

Development and Gender and Development

Different policy approaches: welfare, equity,anti-poverty, efficiency, empowerment and

gender mainstreaming

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Women in Development Gender and Development

Focus on women Focus on gender relationsStress on practical needs Stress on strategic

interests/needsRationale is effectiveness Goal is equalityEnabling EmpoweringChanges the condition ofwomen Changes the position of womenAims to enhance womensparticipation Aims to integrate genderconsideration into mainstream

Women primarily as agents

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The Approach

An approach which viewswomen as the problem

An approach to development

The Focus

Women Social relations between menand women

The Problem

The exclusion of women (half ofthe productive resources fromthe development process)

Unequal relations of power (richand poor, women and men) thatprevents equitable developmentand womens full participation

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The Goal

More efficient , effectivedevelopment

Equitable, sustainabledevelopment with women andmen as decision-makers

The Solution

Integrate women into theexisting development process

Empower disadvantaged womenand transform unequal relations

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The Strategies

Womens projects

Womens components

Integrated projects

Increase womens productivity

Increase womens ability to lookafter the household

Identify/address practicalneeds determined by womenand men to improve theircondition

At the same time addresswomens strategic interests

Address strategic interests ofthe poor through people-

centred development

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Different policy approaches:

welfare, equity,

anti-poverty,

efficiency,

empowerment gender mainstreaming

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earliest approach, predominant 1950-1970.

aim is to bring women into the development asbetter mothers.

women are seen as the passive beneficiaries of

development emphasizing their reproductive role seeks to meet practical gender needs in that role

through a top-down handouts of food aid, measuresagainst malnutrition and family planning

not challenging, especially of gender division oflabour, and still widely popular.

Source: March, C., Smyth, I., and Mukhopahhyay, M. (1999). A Guide to Gender Analysis Frameworks. Oxfam: Oxford

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original WID approach, emerged during in the 76-85 UNWomens Decade, within the predominant growth withequity development approach

aim is to gain equity for women who are seen as active

participants in development recognizes womens triple role (productive, reproductive

and community), and seeks to meet strategic genderinterests by direct state intervention giving political andeconomic autonomy and reducing inequality with men.

challenges womens subordinate position

criticized as western feminism, is considered threatening tomen and is unpopular with governments and donors.

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2nd WID approach, a toned-down version of equity, from1970s onwards in the context of Basic Needs approachesto development

women seen as disproportionately represented amongpoor

aim is to ensure that poor women increase theirproductivity

womens poverty is seen as a problem ofunderdevelopment, not of subordination

recognizes the productive role of women, and seeks to

meet their practical to earn an income, particularly in smallscale income generation projects

still most popular with NGOs

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3rd WID approach, adopted since the 1980s debt crisis.

aims to ensure that development is more efficient andeffective through womens economic contribution, withparticipation often equated with equity and decision

making seeks to meet practical gender needs while relying in all

three roles and an elastic concept of womens time

women seen in terms of their capacity to compensate fordeclining social services by extending their working day

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articulated by third-world women with aim to empowerwomen through greater self-reliance

explicitly acknowledges centrality of power and womensneed for more power to improve position

womens subordination is expressed in terms of maleoppression and colonial and neo-colonial oppression

recognizes the triple role; seeks to meet strategic genderinterests indirectly thru grassroots mobilization ofpractical gender needs

potentially challenging, but its avoidance of westernfeminism makes it unpopular except with third worldwomens NGOs.

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associated with the 1995 World Conference on Women inBeijing and the Beijing Platform of Action that signaled theUNs first official use of the term

call for gender mainstreaming was a culmination of twointer-related changes in discourse prior to Beijing:

Women in Development to gender and development

integrating women to mainstreaming gender

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Women in Development to gender anddevelopment some improvements in womens material conditions,

but little progress in their status the nature of womens relational subordination was

ignored and unequal gender power relations remainedunaltered

integrating women vs. mainstreaming gender relates to the second problem associated with WID, the

continued marginalization of women and womensissues from mainstream development

mainly due to how WID was implemented: theestablishment of womens national machineries andWID units and the emphasis on womens projects

mainstreaming was seen as a way of promotinggender equity in all of the organizations pursuits

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policy approaches to women and gender equality

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