Showing papers on "Gender and development published in 2001"

Engendering development through gender equality in rights, resources, and voice

Abstract: On one level, poverty exacerbates gender disparities. Inequalities between girls and boys in access to schooling or adequate health care are more acute among the poor than among those with higher incomes. These disparities disadvantage women and girls and limit their capacity to participate in and benefit from development. On another level, gender inequalities hinder development. Evidence brought together in this report shows this unambiguously. A central message is clear: ignoring gender disparities comes at great cost-to people's well-being and to countries' abilities to grow sustainably, to govern effectively, and thus to reduce poverty. This conclusion presents an important challenge to the development community. What types of policies and strategies promote gender equality and foster more effective development? This report examines extensive evidence on the effects of institutional reforms, economic policies, and active policy measures to promote greater equality between women and men. The evidence sends a second important message: policymakers have a number of policy instruments to promote gender equality and development effectiveness. But identifying what works requires consultations with stakeholders-both men and women-on key issues and actions. This points to a third important message in this report: to enhance development effectiveness, gender issues must be an integral part of policy analysis, design, and implementation.

Gender and the Political Economy of Development: From Nationalism to Globalization

Abstract: List of Tables. Acknowledgements. Introduction: Mapping Gender and the Political Economy of Development. 1 Gender, Nationalism, and a Nation--Buildinga : Discourses of Development. 2 Gender and Development: Theoretical Perspectives in Context. 3 Globalization: New Agendas for Gender and Development?. 4 Global Restructuring and Restructuring Gender Relations: The Politics of Structural Adjustment. 5 Gender and Multi--level Governance: Feasible and Transformative Politics. 6 Critical Engagements: From Nationalism to Globalization. Bibliography. Index.

The political economy of gender in the twentieth-century Caribbean

Abstract: List of Tables and Figures List of Abbreviations Acknowledgements Preface Introduction: Mapping the Terrain Theorizing the State and Gender Systems in the Twentieth Century Caribbean Women and Gender Relations in the Twentieth Century Caribbean Constructing Gender Containing Women: Promoting Gender Equity in Caribbean States Gender System in an Independent Caribbean State: The Barbadian Case Women, The Economy and The State Rethinking Gender and Development for the Twenty-First Century Select Bibliography Index

Petty Traders, Gender, and Development in a South Indian Fishery*

Abstract: In this paper I examine the impact of mechanization and commercialization on small-scale fish traders in Kerala, India, with special emphasis on gender and the impact of economic transformation on women fish traders. I explore the relationship of women's work in distribution to production and how this has changed with capitalist development. I argue that because women's roles in the fish economy have been overlooked, they have experienced economic marginalization at the same time that their labor has become increasingly important for household survival. Such marginalization stems from a qualitative change that has taken place in their relationship to production and marketing as a result of capitalist development and the ecological crisis it has engendered.

Borders of being : citizenship, fertility, and sexuality in Asia and the Pacific

Abstract: Many have written about the way in which a "family romance" connects embodied daily life with the imagined community of the nation, and naturalizes the nation so that it appears not as a novel, fragile contingent creation, but as something ancient, robust and real. This book goes beyond such metaphoric associations of families and nations by looking at the central significance of planning families to promoting state development. It also considers the way that state power is accommodated and resisted, complicit with and contested by other powers grounded in relations of kinship, ethnicity, religion, and class.Through an exploration of richly varied national histories, the authors highlight the common recurring intimacies between marking the borders of states and remolding the bodies of women as reproductive citizens. The tensions between past and present, between local, national and international concerns, and between men and women's interests in reproduction are all graphically revealed.Surveying the relationship between the emerging models of citizenship and state population projects in several Asian states--India, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and the Pacific states of Papua New Guinea, Fiji, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu--"Borders of Being" will attract readers in the several disciplines of anthropology, demography, and history as well as the cross disciplinary fields of gender and development studies.Margaret Jolly is Professor and Convenor of the Gender Relations Project, Australian National University. Kalpana Ram is Research Fellow, Australian Research Council, Macquarie University.

In Search of Feminist Foreign Policy Gender, Development, and Danish State Identity

Abstract: This article investigates the extent to which the Danish state's identification with gender issues is transferred into Danish development policy. Is Denmark pursuing a gender and development policy that is radically different from most other Western donor states and, if not, why might we see a less progressive policy in Denmark than we might expect from a domestically `feminist' state? In this article, it is suggested that the very nature of development aid and the policies in place to promote it are gendered. Gender and development aid could provide an arena for international constitution of domestically `feminist' policies. However, it is argued that `development' itself poses important challenges for implementing the goals of Denmark's gender and development policies. Conversely, implementing the critical strategy of agenda-setting within gender and development would reconstitute both `development' and the identity of the Danish state as donor.

Psychology of Gender

Abstract: Noted for its fair and equal coverage of men and women, Psychology of Gender reviews the research and issues surrounding gender from multiple perspectives, including psychology, sociology, anthropology, and public health Going far beyond discussions of biological sex and gender identity, the text explores the roles that society has assigned to females and males and the other variables that co-occur with sex, such as status and gender-related traits The implications of social roles, status, and gender-related traits for relationships and health are also examined The text begins with a discussion of the nature of gender and development of gender roles, before reviewing communication and interaction styles and how they impact our friendships and romantic relationships It concludes with an exploration of how gender influences both physical and mental health New to the 6th Edition: Emphasis on the intersectionality of gender, considering it as a part of wider social categories such as race, ethnicity, social class, and gender identity Recognition of the increasingly prevalent view that gender is nonbinary Extended coverage of LGBTQ individuals, their relationships, and their health Expanded discussions of key issues including gender-role strain, gender fluidity, women and STEM, parenthood, balancing family and work demands, online communication, and sexual harassment Accompanied by a comprehensive companion website featuring resources for students and instructors, alongside extensive student learning features throughout the book, Psychology of Gender is an essential read for all students of gender from psychology, women’s studies, gender studies, sociology, and anthropology

Authorizing Gender and Development: "Third World Women," Native Informants, and Speaking Nearby

Abstract: Postmodern and postcolonial feminist theories applied to development have opposed universalizing and essentializing notions of a homogeneous “third world woman” posited as in need of saving by first world experts. Deconstructing development requires a recognition of diverse experiences, which suggests the need to listen to the previously “silenced voices” of third world women. My paper will consider whether this can be done without relying on an equally problematic demand for authenticity from “native informants,” and explores the implications of such an analysis for a postcolonial feminist approach to (post)development

Gender, time use, and change : impacts of agricultural export employment in Ecuador

Abstract: This paper uses quasi-experimental data from Ecuador to understand the impacts of women’s employment on household paid and unpaid labor allocation. The “treatment” area is in the area of the cut flower industry, which has a high demand for female labor. The “control” area is in a culturally similar, but economically more traditional valley. This approach addresses the problem of endogeneity that arises when measuring the impacts of contemporaneous household labor supply decisions. The analysis shows that with the advent of market labor opportunities for women, women’s total time in labor remains constant while men’s time in unpaid labor increases. I would like to thank Harold Alderman, Lynn Brown, Shahidur Khandker, Peter Lanjouw, Martin Ravallion, and Agnes Quisumbing for early guidance on the measurement issues, Peter Lanjouw and Norma Mena for careful reviews of the draft survey instrument, Benedicte de la Briere for insightful comments on the first draft, Patricia Zambrano for excellent research assistance, and Pilar Larreamendy, Ana Maria Maldonado, Gioconda Paez, Marta Ordonez, Jorge Eguiguren, Alberto Valle, and Vicente Merino for their professionalism and enthusiasm in the two data collection efforts. Funding for this research came from the Gender and Development Thematic Group, the Gender and Poverty Thematic Group, and the World Bank Research Committee.

Risk, Gender, and Development in the 21st Century

Abstract: Globalization creates wealth but also financial crises. Although these systemic risks are generated by all participants in the world economy, their costs are disproportionately borne by the poor, especially women, who live in developing nations, with irrevocable damage to their capabilities. Since current reform proposals do not address inequities in the distribution of the costs of financial crises, we suggest changes in the design, implementation, content, and funding of policies that could provide security to women during crises. We argue that our suggestions will not succeed without women's participation in the debate on the reform of international financial architecture.

Men’s Involvement in Gender and Development Policy and Practice

Abstract: * Introduction * Caroline Sweetman * Men, Women, and organisational culture: perspectives from donors * Anne Coles * Middle-aged man seeks gender team * Chris Roche * Men in the kitchen, women in the office? Working on gender issues in Ethiopia * Feleke Tadele * Gender training with men: experiences and reflections from South Asia * Kamla Bhasin * Gender training with men: experiences and reflections from East-Africa * Milton Obote Joshua * Male involvement in perpetuating and challenging the practice of female genital mutilation in Egypt * Nadia Wassef * Men's roles, gender relations, and sustainability in water supplies: some lessons from Nepal * Shibesh Chandra Regmi and Ben Fawcett * Tackling male exclusion in post-industrialised settings: lessons from the UK * Sue Smith * Challenging machismo to promote sexual and reproductive health: working with Nicaraguan men * Peter Sternberg * Men and child-welfare services in the UK * Sandy Ruxton * 'Sitting on a rock': men, socio-economic change, and development policy in Lesotho * Caroline Sweetman * About the contributors

The Filipino Male as “Macho-Machunurin”: Bringing Men and Masculinities in Gender and Development Studies

Abstract: As Filipino feminist scholars move beyond the stage of "women as victim, men as problem" discourse in gender studies, there is a need to discuss the place of men in gender and development studies. Academics and advocates note the pitfalls of "women-focused" and "women-only" development interventions, citing women-focused programs that succeed mostly in shifting the burden of responsibility for contraception, parenting and housework on women. There is a need to take into account the experiences of different varieties of men from marginal groups based on class, ethnicity, age, generation and position in the life cycle as gender roles react to socio-economic changes: As it is, men and masculinity have not been adequately theorized. Expressions of Filipino masculinities within the Filipino family, market place, work environment, and marital relations are complex.1he inclusion of men and masculinities in gender studies has so far been confined to the unmasking of the "problematic male." By uncovering the multiple layers and forms of masculinities, feminist scholars and advocates could come up with more strategic development plans and programs and more successfully reorder gender relations.

Healing the psychological wounds of gender-related violence in Latin America: A model for gender-sensitive work in post-conflict contexts

Abstract: This article presents a model of healing which conceptualises and addresses the psychological effects on women of gender-related violence in the post-conflict context. The model is drawn from the experience of an El Salvadorean NGO, Las Dignas, and from key insights from gender and development literature.

Gender and development : theoretical, empirical and practical approaches

Abstract: Volume 1: economic development and gender methodological approaches accounting for women's work families and households project implementation and empowerment strategies. Volume 2: women's access to resources, gender and poverty gender, employment and labour markets structural adjustment and economic restructuring gender and markets institutional and social change.

Men's involvement in gender and development policy and practice : beyond rhetoric

Abstract: * Introduction * Caroline Sweetman * Men, Women, and organisational culture: perspectives from donors * Anne Coles * Middle-aged man seeks gender team * Chris Roche * Men in the kitchen, women in the office? Working on gender issues in Ethiopia * Feleke Tadele * Gender training with men: experiences and reflections from South Asia * Kamla Bhasin * Gender training with men: experiences and reflections from East-Africa * Milton Obote Joshua * Male involvement in perpetuating and challenging the practice of female genital mutilation in Egypt * Nadia Wassef * Men's roles, gender relations, and sustainability in water supplies: some lessons from Nepal * Shibesh Chandra Regmi and Ben Fawcett * Tackling male exclusion in post-industrialised settings: lessons from the UK * Sue Smith * Challenging machismo to promote sexual and reproductive health: working with Nicaraguan men * Peter Sternberg * Men and child-welfare services in the UK * Sandy Ruxton * 'Sitting on a rock': men, socio-economic change, and development policy in Lesotho * Caroline Sweetman * About the contributors

Policy Issues of Inclusion and Exclusion in Relation to Gender and Ageing in the South

Abstract: In the coming decades, governments and policy-makers in the South will increasingly have to address issues relating to the process of societal ageing. The issue of increasing numbers of old people has already reached policy agendas world-wide. This article argues for developing a gendered and contextual perspective on this demographic transition, which will involve substantial change in intergenerational relations. The focus is on countries in the South, emphasising the cultural heterogeneity involved, as well as the relational aspects of ageing. How one experiences growing older than one's own elders depends to a large extent on the socio-cultural context as well as the relations one has with family, neighbours, friends, community and the access to available forms of state support arrangements. While outlining the issue, the World Bank Report on Ageing of 1994 and the OECD report of 1988 have, focused mainly on the ‘crisis’ of ageing as a world-wide (financial) policy problem. In doing so, in my view, it has downplayed cultural differences as well as the relational aspects of ageing. This article aims at outlining a tentative and comparative framework for evolving indicators to analyse and enhance our understanding of the divergent process of societal ageing. Developing insightful indicators, based on comparative research, can lead to the maximising of social capital and the minimising of social exclusion for ageing populations within different state and cultural contexts. It would facilitate analysing the continuum of locally existing ‘social contracts’, involving the three levels of day-to-day living arrangements, community and state security measures.

Backlash: Or how to snatch failure from the jaws of success in gender and development

Abstract: Speeches to the Plenary sessions of the nongovernmental organization (NGO) forum at the Beijing Conference on women in 1995 warned of the dangers of the rise of conservatism, identity politics and religious fundamentalism that are seen as undermining the advances made by women in developing countries and encouraging violence against them. Only once was the word ‘backlash’ mentioned: ‘many of the fundamentalist forces see the family, women and culture as areas that they can control even when they can’t control global economic forces. This has fueled the conservative backlash against women’s autonomy’ (Bunch, 1996: 26). Such an approach makes it appear that women are simply innocent bystanders caught in a worldwide reactionary political movement. However, I will argue that backlash against women is occurring today as a direct result of the economic gains women have achieved over almost three decades of Women in Development (WID) projects. Not surprisingly, backlash is worst where development projects for women have been most successful. Such reactions have not been widely noted, largely because they occur at the family and community level and take place after the outside experts have left the project, having recorded its success. Today the spread of electronic communications is enabling longer-term follow-up of such projects and is revealing the widespread incidence of backlash against women’s economic success. In 1970 Ester Boserup, in her seminal book Women’s role in economic development, first brought to people’s attention the negative effects of development on women. Previously the convenient assumption had been that the benefits of economic development ‘trickled down’ to all members of the family. However, Boserup showed that development affected men and women differently and that families were not always headed by benevolent male dictators who ensured a fair distribution of labour and benefits (Dey, 1981; Folbre, 1991). In 1973 the Percy Amendment was adopted in the USA requiring the United States Agency for International Development (US-AID), at that time one of the major Progress in Development Studies 1, 1 (2001) pp. 51–56

Contemporary Issues in Development Economics

Abstract: Introduction B.N. Ghosh 1. Development in Development Economics B.N. Ghosh 2. Human Development, Military Expenditure and Social Wellbeing Masudul Alam Choudhury 3.The Problem of Brain Drain B.N. Ghosh and Rama Ghosh 4. Gender and Development: Transforming the Process Gale Summerfield 5. Food Security in Developing Countries Randy Stringer 6. External Debt, Government Expenditure, Investment and Growth G.S. Gupta 7. The Pure Theory of International Trade, Globalisation and Sustainable Development: Agenda for the Future M.R. Aggarwal 8. Knowledge, Technology Transfer and Multinational Corporations Shankaran Nambiar 9. International Monetary Fund: Functions, Financial Crises and Future Relevance George Kadmos and Phillip Anthony O'Hara 10. Economic Development and Environmental Problems John Asafu-Adjaye 11. Globalisation as Westernisation: a Postcolonial Theory of Global Exploitation Ozay Mehmet

Situation Analysis of Women in the Ugandan Political Economy

Abstract: A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since the emergence of the concept of a women's movement almost two decades ago. As a direct response to the oppression of African women within the continent, women in development and later gender and development principles were founded on the promotion of dignity, self-respect, socio-economic freedom, independence and women's emancipation. However, after 20 years of the development of the concept, in most of the region, the achievements appear insignificant. This paper focuses on the marginalisation of African women in general and Ugandan woman in particular in the quest for the advancement of the African people. It attempts to bring to the fore the plight of the Ugandan woman and the latent variables that engender and perpetuate the present situation. Emphasis is mainly placed on the role of culture in the gender question in as much as it hinders the progress of women. It is the contention of the author that the situation of the Ugandan woman presents a classic human contradiction. The Ugandan woman is deprived and impoverished as against the backdrop of her immense contribution – actual and potential – to the socio-economic development of the country. Unless critical and pertinent gender issues are addressed, it may not be possible to harness the development process in Uganda. Eastern Africa Social Science Research Review (EASSRR) Vol. XVII No. 1 January 2001, pp. 15-30

Rethinking Gender and Development for the Twenty-First Century

Abstract: Development policy in the twentieth-century Caribbean is gendered and proscribes the concerns of women in ways that satisfy the interests of the state. Government and other officials do not understand the factors that influence women’s economic agency. At this juncture in Caribbean political economy the state appears uninterested in genuinely understanding this. Caribbean women enter the twenty-first century in a precarious position vis-a-vis the state. The state is focused on trying to negotiate the turbulent currents introduced by globalization and the WTO in particular. It is not interested in centering women as primary economic and political citizens in its policies and practices. The lack of relevant knowledge about women’s economic activities is compounded. Not only are government and non-government officials unaware of this but their assumptions of why women make economic decisions contradict the experiences of women entrepreneurs. During the past three decades these blind spots contributed to producing development policy uninformed by the particular experiences and needs of women. Now it is felt that women’s experiences should not influence national policy.

Economic Globalization and Gender

Abstract: Interest in economic globalization and gender began with the Women in Development (WID) approach of the 1970s. WID made women's roles in the so-called developing countries visible, but focused on individuals and fostering change within existing structures. It was critiqued by the Gender and Development approach (GAD), which emphasized the way unequal power relations between the genders are institutionalized throughout society. In the 1990s, the discourse shifted to understanding the gendered impacts of economic globalization, which involved the increasingly capitalistic processes occurring across most countries. Feminist scholars and activists are developing a broader understanding of the systemic linkages among the global expansion of capitalist production, trade, and finance (each of which has impacts that differ by gender) on the one hand, and the increase of women in informal sector work, rising female poverty, and higher levels of female migration on the other hand. Using interdisciplinary analyses, they have developed new concepts and methodologies that challenge orthodox approaches, transforming or supplanting them with alternative paradigms. Newer concepts such as caring labor or the gendered nature of risk, respectively, have een introduced to more fully understand women's socio-economic roles and the insecurities created by globalization. Methodologies include multi-level analyses (ranging from the household to the international level), comparative case studies (showing how the gendered effects of globalization differ by race/ethnicity, class, age, sector, and region), and the construction of broader indicators (measuring women's well-being, security, and participation in economic, political, and social life). Increasingly, women from the developing countries are shaping the questions asked and the activist endeavors undertaken. A focus on gender and globalization has given activists added impetus to maintain pressure on international institutions to systematically incorporate these newer concepts and methods as well as innovative strategies such as gender budgeting into their development planning and programs. It has fostered wider use of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), not only for local action but increasingly for organizing at national, regional, or international levels.

Discrimination by gender in Morocco’s urban labour force : evidence and implications for industrial and labour policy wage

Abstract: Over the years, the feminization of export production has been an issue of considerable debate in the gender and development field (Elson and Pearson, 1981 ; Lim, 1990 ; Baden and Joekes, 1993 ; Pearson, 1998). The secular rise in female labour force participation globally in recent decades (Joekes, 1987 ; UN, 1995), concentrated particularly in the export sector of newly industrializing economies, has also caught the attention of development economists interested in trade and labour issues. Reviewing global evidence on employment trends by gender, some studies have argued that there is a link between the feminization of the labour force and the increasing casualization and flexibilization of employment (Standing, 1989 ; 1996). Others have explored the correlation between rising female intensity of employment in export industries and trade performance, the extent to which trade performance is related to human capital endowments and the possible relationship between investment in female education and trade performance (Wood, 1991 ; Berge and Wood, 1994). Feminist studies, on the other hand, have been particularly concerned with what, if any, benefits are conferred on women workers in this process of incorporation into the global labour market, and whether this newly incorporated labour force is subject to specific, gendered forms of discrimination and exploitation (Elson and Pearson, 1981). They have also been concerned with the impact of women’s employment in export-oriented industry on gender relations ; on whether such employment provides women with greater autonomy and choice, or merely reproduces a new variant of patriarchal gender relations (see, for example, Greenhalgh, 1985 ; Kabeer, 1995).