Showing papers on "Gender and development published in 2021"

The politics of hopeful citizenship: Women, counterinsurgency and the state in eastern India:

Abstract: Anthropologists have posited that citizenship takes on multiple meanings and forms based on citizens’ everyday engagements with state and non-state actors. This article examines forms of citizenshi...

The changed and the unchanged: Peer learning for gender and development in Delhi

Abstract: Peer education has become a popular strategy for promoting gender equality in recent years in response to calls for more participatory forms of development and thanks to the growing popularity of ‘...

Participatory Theater Empowers Women

Abstract: Domestic violence is common, socially and economically very costly, yet widely accepted in many countries. Can participatory theater—a novel cultural intervention—reduce its occurrence? Through a survey that the authors conducted in 92 villages in West Bengal, India, this paper provides a first large-scale evaluation of participatory theater. By utilizing markers of women’s empowerment, the survey shows that longterm exposure to plays on patriarchy enhances women’s empowerment and reduces spousal abuse by as much as 25 percent. The evidence suggests that such interactive plays, by encouraging its audience to rethink and rescript collective representations of domestic violence and masculinity, trigger durable social change in village communities.

Nested Scales of Sustainable Livelihoods: Gendered Perspectives on Small-Scale Dairy Development in Kenya

Abstract: The sustainability of rural development programs has often been conceptualized through the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework, or SLF. This article utilizes the SLF to examine the outcomes of small-scale dairy development in western Kenya and thus connect local perspectives on livelihoods with broader ideas of sustainable livelihoods. Drawing on individual interviews conducted with farmers in three dairy development sites in western Kenya, it examines compatibilities and contradictions between productivity and sustainability, and how gender becomes a vantage point from which the links between micro- and macro-sites, or nested scales of sustainable livelihoods, become visible. Three main kinds of benefits related to dairy development are identified by respondents: increase in income, access to market, and ability to keep improved cattle. In conjunction with these benefits, respondents identified problems related to women’s independent access to income, wider community consumption of milk, and lack of infrastructure, respectively. This study thus shows that while income and productivity is prized by all respondents, gender enables this broader goal to be viewed in more nuanced terms—not only within the household, but also through links between the household and the wider community and state. Gender thus becomes salient across the nested scales of sustainable livelihoods and provides insights into how a more encompassing notion of sustainable livelihoods can be implemented.

Investigating the Conceptual Plurality of Empowerment through Community Concept Drawing: Case Studies from Senegal, Kenya, and Nepal

Abstract: Women’s empowerment is a driving concept in gender and development scholarship. This scholarship often engages quantitative indices of evaluation that are unable to account for culturally specific meaning and nuance that shape local understandings of empowerment. Recent efforts within the field of international development are attempting to create methodological mechanisms for capturing this nuance. This study employs one such method, Community Concept Drawing (CCD), in rural villages within Kenya, Senegal, and Nepal. Findings indicate significant differences between the field sites in the local conceptualization of empowerment. Cross-examination of site-specific data yields an understanding of how cultural norms and values shape local perceptions of empowerment in ways that are critical for research that engages gendered understandings. Furthermore, such analysis is critical to a more accurate understanding of the locally specific context of gender inequity.

Exploring the Gender Perspective in English Language Teaching (ELT): Voices from ELT Practitioners in Philippine Higher Education Institutions

Abstract: In recent years, gender mainstreaming in education has been discussed and studied. In the Philippines, however, research has tended to focus on extreme ends of the implementation process such as the awareness of educators about the gender perspective or the success in incorporating gender in their pedagogical practices, rather than an in-depth analysis on the overall experience of educators in the government’s attempt to mainstream gender-and-development education in schools. Also, there is a gap in the literature concerning Filipino English language teaching (ELT) practitioners' views on integrating the gender perspective into English language education. Through semi-structured interviews, the present study explores how a group of 71 Filipino college teachers of English perceive the benefits, ways, and challenges of incorporating the gender dimension in ELT. The thematic analysis of interview responses revealed the following benefits: enhancement of learners’ critical thinking skills, promotion of an inclusive and supportive learning environment, and increased awareness on the critical role of language (i.e., English) in recognizing diversity. Further, it was found that the teacher-participants incorporate gender knowledge in ELT in two ways: instructional materials and teaching-learning activities, and teacher-student interaction. In terms of challenges, three major themes emerged: learner factor, teacher factor, and institutional constraints (which were further categorized as curriculum, resource, and belief).

Routledge Handbook of Gender in South Asia

Abstract: Introduction Leela Fernandes Part 1: Historical Formations 1. Gendered Nationalism: From Women to Gender and Back Again?Mrinalini Sinha 2. Construction of Gender in the Late nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century in Muslim Bengal: The writings of Nawab Faizunessa Chaudhurani and Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain Firdous Azim and Perween Hasan 3. Gender, Women and Partition: Literary Representations, Refugee Women and Partition Studies Paulomi Chakraborty Part 2: Law, Citizenship and the Nation 4. Gender and Citizenship in India Anupama Roy 5. Gender and Democratic Politics in Bangladesh Elora Shehabuddin 6. Law, Sex Work and Activism in India Prabha Kotiswaran 7. The Supreme Court of India and Maintenance for Muslim Women: Transformatory Jurisprudence Vrinda Narain 8. Female Militancy: Reflections from Sri Lanka Sharika Thiranagama 9. The Political Economy of Moral Regulation in Pakistan: Religion, Gender and Class in a Postcolonial Context Saadia Toor Part 3: Representations of Culture, Place, Identity 10. Gender, media and popular culture in a global India Maitrayee Chaudhuri 11. Death and Family: Queer Archives of the Space Between Naisargi Dave 12. Women's Place-making in Santosh Nagar: Gendered constellations Ann Grodzins Gold 13. Gender and property in neoliberal middle-class Kolkata: Of untold riches and unruly homes Henrike Donner Part 4: Labor and the Economy 14. Global Governance Initiatives and Garment Sector Workers in Sri Lanka: Tracing its Gender and Development Politics Kanchana Ruwanpura 15. An Intersection of Marxism and Feminism among India's Informal Workers: A Second Marriage? Rina Agarwala 16. Gendered Opportunity and Constraint in India's IT Industry: The Problem of Too Much 'Headweight' Smitha Radhakrishnan 17. A Feminist Commodity Chain Analysis of Rural Transformation in Contemporary India Priti Ramamurthy 18. NGOs, State and Neoliberal Development in South Asia: The Paradigmatic Case of Bangladesh in a Global Perspective Lamia Karim Part 5: Inequality, Activism and the State 19. Gender and Education in South Asia Sangeeta Kamat 20. Sex Ratios and Sex Selection in India: History and the Present Mary John 21. Dalit Women Between Social and Analytical Alterity: Rethinking the 'Quintessentially Marginal' Manuela Ciotti 22. Feminism, Sexuality and the Rhetoric of Westernization in Pakistan: Precarious Citizenship Moon Charania 23. Mapping Women's Activism in India: Resistances, Reforms and (Re)-Creation Rukmini Sen

Examining the promise of ‘the local’ for improving gender equality in agriculture and climate change adaptation

Abstract: Building on the conceptualisation of ‘the local’ in gender and development discourse, we explore how national and sub-national policy actors in Uganda perceive gender equality policy in the context...

Women’s Political Participation in Post-conflict Settings: The Case of Timor-Leste

Abstract: Tackling gender gaps in political representation is a key pillar of peace building and development interventions in conflict-affected environments, which has been addressed using special measures (...

Navigating the gender dimensions in English language teaching: perceptions of senior high school teachers in the Philippines

Abstract: In the Philippines, previous studies have revealed that the implementation of gender mainstreaming in education has remained vague. Also, there is a lacuna in the literature about informed accounts...

Learning development through the Girl Rising Curriculum: discursive colonialism and subversive potentials

Abstract: Global development and governance efforts are increasingly geared toward the unique power of girls from the Global South. In the “girling of development” discourse, investing in girls is not only t...

Gender and Education in Uganda

Abstract: Gendered oppression is complex and situated in social constructs which are manifested and learned in education institutions and learning programs the world over. The UN Sustainable Development Goals are an international attempt to create a more equitable world, and they include both education and gender as independent and interdependent goals. Uganda is a country that is attempting to address the significant gender oppression that plagues it. To cure gender oppression realistically and fully, a deep and transformative approach that addresses systemic power imbalances is essential. A disruption of this magnitude requires critical and empowering education that simultaneously ruptures the violence of patriarchy and creates conditions of capability for everyone to heal and move forward together.

Liberal Feminism in Comparative Education and the Implications for Women’s Empowerment

Abstract: Issues of women’s education and empowerment of women have been incorporated in the framing of the role of women in international development from the 1970s, primarily as a response to the liberal feminist movement agenda of the time. This analysis examines the degree to which liberal feminism and liberal feminist theory is reflected in comparative education scholarship in the lead up to and beyond the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The analysis first explores the underpinnings of liberal feminism, which constitutes the ideal embedded in development education for girls and women. It follows up with a reflection on the literature in the field of comparative education that reference liberal feminism framework and feminist theory in exploring educational issues and ways in which the theory is located in the research. Illustration of examples that demonstrate the limits of liberal feminism as a theoretical framework and barriers to the use of liberal feminist theory as an ideological guide are captured in the findings. The search is limited to the six dominant scholarly outlets in the field of comparative education; namely Comparative Education Review (CER), Comparative Education (CE), Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education (Compare), Prospects: Quarterly Review of Comparative Education (Prospects), International Review of Education (IRE), and the International Journal of Educational Development (IJED). Only works that explicitly mention liberal feminism/liberal feminist perspectives are included in the analysis. This research contributes to the acknowledgement of the liberal feminist theory in development education and for the field of comparative education. It will also help with understanding the politics of ideology and representation in scholarship and development interventions.

Interventions in Addressing Gender Issues in the Classroom

Abstract: Gender equality is the number five agenda of the Sustainable Development Goal, where its primary goal is providing women and girls with equal access to education. Up to this day, students experience gender issues, inequality, and bias inside the classroom. This research looked into the extent of observation on gender issues inside the classroom to eliminate bias, discrimination, and to achieve a comfortable classroom environment. More specifically, this research aimed to develop an intervention to address gender and development issues in the classroom. A Quantitative method of research was implemented using descriptive statistics to analyze data. Questionnaire was used to answer the specific problems; interview was conducted to validate the results of the study. Random sampling technique identified the respondents of the study from selected colleges and universities in the Cordillera Region. The extent of intervention programs, policies, and activities for teachers are moderately observed.

Technology for social well-being: Strengthening urban resilience in developing countries integrating infrastructure, energy, health and social inclusion

Abstract: This paper is based on the premise that the principal purpose of science and technological development should be the well-being of society in harmony with environmental sustainability. Vaclav Smil [1] argues “commonly used measures of energy use – be it conversion efficiencies, energy costs, per capita utilization levels, growth rates, consumption elasticity, or output rations – are just helpful indicators of the performance and dynamics of processes whose aim should not be merely to secure basic existential needs or to satisfy assorted consumerist urges but also to enrich intellectual lives and to make us more successful as a social and caring species.” Energy and electricity access and use is valuable not in itself, but for what it enables women and men “to do or achieve” [2]. Grubler studied the history of past energy transitions and identifies ‘grand patterns’, one of which being the critical importance of end-use — consumers and demand – “with technology and the social settings co-evolving, depending on each other” [3]. Feminist studies in science and technology treat technology as a ‘socio-technical’ product and describe the relationship between gender and technology as one of mutual shaping [4]. Gender and development studies put forward the concept of ‘gender mainstreaming’ which has been applied to infrastructure programs, such as energy, transport and digital infrastructure, based on gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) approaches. The paper draws from these frameworks. Norbert Wiener considered the resilience of urban centres in preparation for a potential nuclear attack and outlined what he considered to be some key features of urban plans. In the first draft of his urban plan, titled “Civilian Defense Plan”, his central argument is that the atomic bomb has rendered our previous understanding of civil defense obsolete and that “we need to reorganize our cities where they stand” – markets, points for medical supplies, hospitals, transportation, etc [5]. The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the inter-relatedness and inter-connections between physical infrastructure, key utilities and services, and economic, health and social outcomes. There is an urgent need to rethink and transform cities to respond to the reality of Covid-19 and potential future pandemics, and to recover better, by building more resilient, inclusive and sustainable cities. International experiences show that cities with similar densities and levels of economic development have fared very differently in their ability to contain Covid-19. This indicates that the strength and duration of impacts of Covid-19 are not solely determined by a city's population density, but also by local capacity and preparedness to deal with such crises, infrastructure and service delivery systems, citizen's trust and confidence in society's institutions and the level of functional responsibilities and resources available to them through decentralized systems. Some of the key lessons for recovery and ‘building back better’ include the importance of an effective health system response, urban and regional planning, physical distancing, city-wide slum upgrading and housing programs, land-use and regulations to regulate hygiene conditions, significantly scaling up the low-carbon energy and infrastructure transition, access to key utilities and services for poor and vulnerable groups such as women, slum and transient populations, people with disabilities and the elderly, social protection, rethinking business supply chains, more resilient and inclusive ICT and digital connectivity and a pressing need to address gender inequality and social exclusion in relation to vulnerabilities. These new challenges require a new approach that integrates governance, physical environment and infrastructure, social environment, economic environment, planning and resourcing for resilience, and gender equality and social inclusion (GESI). The objective of the study was to develop an integrated approach to strengthening urban resilience based on infrastructure, energy and health linkages, with a focus on GESI impacts. Drawing from lessons learned from various connected fields: climate-related disaster programs to designing infrastructure; power and energy systems to incorporate resilience and reliability; universal health coverage and health system strengthening; and the preliminary lessons drawn from the activities undertaken to control the Covid-19 pandemic, a Resilience Assessment Framework has been proposed. The framework is intended to be used to assess the current resilience maturity level of a city. It can also be applied to measure progress, at different time intervals, towards a prospective target maturity level.

Public Work Programs and Gender-Based Violence

Abstract: Public workfare programs targeted at women have the potential to empower them economically by providing jobs. However, the impact of public workfare programs on gender-based violence is theoretically ambiguous. They may contribute to its reduction through lowering financial stress or improving a woman’s bargaining position due to independent income. Yet, a woman’s higher income may also create incentives to use violence for extractive purposes; putting women in a position of provider at home and in male dominated sectors outside the home may create a backlash because these positions violate gender norms. Working outside the home could reduce exposure to an abusive spouse, but it may increase harassment or assault outside the household. This paper analyzes the impacts of a public workfare program in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, a lower-middle-income Asian country, where the government randomized implementation of a public workfare program targeted at rural women who received an average payment of US$550 over 18 months. The findings show that the program was successful in increasing female income, but it did not change women’s experience of gender-based violence: comparing program participants and control group women, there is no differences in self-reports of intimate partner violence (controlling behavior, emotional violence, or physical violence), violence from other members of the household, or violence from perpetrators outside the household. Some design aspects of this particular program may have resulted in the lack of impacts on gender-based violence. Changes in the design and implementation of public workfare programs are needed for them to work as a mechanism to reduce gender-based violence.

Assessment on the Relationship of the Effectiveness of the Gender and Development (GAD) Programs on the Teachers’ Attitudes and Perceptions Concerning Gender-Related Issues: A Proposed Action Plan

Abstract: This study was intended to assess the effectiveness of Gender and Development (GAD) programs of the Division of City Schools-Manila and the perceptions and attitudes of the teachers. This study used the descriptive-correlational study to test the relationship of perceptions and attitudes of the respondents on gender- related issues such as gender gap, gender inequality, sexual harassment, gender in curriculum, and gender stereotypes and the GAD programs of the DCS-Manila. The participants in this study were the Social Studies teachers in DCS-Manila. The research survey-questionnaire was the primary instrument used, which was undergone modifications from the experts. One (1) from the Division of City Schools-Manila’s GAD Focal Point System, another, from the Principal of Tondo High School and the Former member of DCS-Manila GAD Coordinators, and lastly, personnel from the Philippine Commission of Women (PCW) before it was distributed to the respondents. After the full implementation of the study, the data gathered was analyzed and interpreted using Pearson-r to determine the significant relationship of GAD Programs of the DCS-Manila and the perceptions and attitudes of the teachers on gender-related issues. The Social Studies teachers assessed the GAD programs of the DCS- Manila and it was revealed to as effective. Regarding on the perceptions on gender-related issues, it was shown that they are aware and knowledgeable about the existing issues in schools. Moreover, the attitudes of the teachers on the gender-related issues are said to be highly positive. However, the results of the testing of relationship of GAD programs and the perceptions and attitudes of the respondents have acquired a low correlation, this means that the GAD programs are effective but limited to the improvement of awareness and point of views of the respondents regarding the gender-related issues. Therefore, the researcher intended to propose a GAD program that is designed to address the different practices of teachers and schools with gender-related issues in the Division of City Schools-Manila. Moreover, the proposed program can be applied also to all schools of different Divisions in the Philippines to increase the level of perceptions and attitudes of the teachers about the Gender and Development. The program also gives ideas on how to improve the best practices to abolish the gender-related issues found in school. Keywords: Gender and Development (GAD), Gender equality, Gender sensitivity, Gender empowerment, Gender issues, Gender mainstreaming, Gender stereotypes DOI: 10.7176/JEP/12-23-02 Publication date: August 31 st 2021

Meeting people where they are at: The role of small-scale gender advocacy organisations in promoting digital inclusion in South Africa

Abstract: This African feminist ethnography examines how gender's incorporation into political and economic imaginaries and gender equality's promotion through current national digital inclusion policies and major initiatives aiming to reduce the digital gender divide in South Africa could contribute to deepening, rather than reversing, this problem. The study evaluated South African digital inclusion policies and major initiatives against gender and development theoretical trends over time. The study recommends that to address the digital gender divide more effectively, research, policy, and digital gender inclusion initiatives should focus much more closely on the contributions of activists and community-based organisations in this area.

Gender and Development: Back to Basics Continued Relevance of Marcal’s Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner

Abstract: Taking the Discipline of Economics as base, this paper demonstrates how and why macro-economic policies centrally anchored in the Discipline of conventional Economics cannot accommodate gender concerns; thereafter, it provides a brief overview of the shifts in “gender and development” literature emphasising in particular the contribution of feminist economists. Feminists’ continued efforts to move towards transformation of society to achieve gender equity finds articulation in the manner in which the Sustainable Development Goals of Agenda 2030 have been formulated. We discuss briefly this movement from MDGs to SDGs highlighting the specific contribution of feminist economists. Next, using the Telangana Social Development Report, 2018, the paper not only demonstrates what a “gender” reading of secondary data can reveal but also the fact that the findings of the report are in sync with the concerns raised by feminists over the various Sustainable Development Goals and Targets of Agenda 2030. The paper ends by supporting the framework that feminists have laid out for a transformative agenda using three of the concepts that underpin the human rights framework, namely accountability, inclusion and non-discrimination.

Status of women: a comparative study of female and male household heads in India

Abstract: The social reality of gender discrimination in India is stratified, multi-phasic and structurally complex. Studies suggest that there are obvious differences in the conditions of households headed by male and female and that female-headed households are more disadvantaged poses the question of gender discrimination at household level. The study explores how gender roles and norms, impact family head’s ability to exercise resources and agency differently, by gender and how women’s agency is often restricted compared to men’s. An innovative method to measure gender status called Gender Status Index is adopted from the quantitative part of the African Gender and Development Index that compares the status of female heads to the male heads in India. The index measures the gender gap in social, economic and political aspects of life among the family heads with help of data obtained from the Indian Human Development Survey round two (2011–2012), which is a nationally representative, multi-topic survey. The nearer the score is towards 1, the better is the gender status along with a shrinking gender gap. Results indicate that the status of female heads is indeed poor, showcasing a value of 0.555 with a wide social and economic and even wider political gap. The paper concludes that the status of women is poor irrespective of their head position in the family. The role played by a female head both as a provider and caregiver does not earn much of a higher status than male heads. Thus, the role of ‘head’ for a female is not a powerful agency to improve women’s access and control of resources.

Introduction to Special Issue: Gender and Rural Development: Sustainable Livelihoods in a Neoliberal Context

Abstract: This editorial introduces the articles that are part of the Special Issue on ‘Gender and Rural Development: Sustainable Livelihoods in a Neoliberal Context.’