Gender and development approaches

Gender Studies · Gender, development and rights. The idea in plain words, the rules to remember, the mistake to avoid and a worked example, written and checked by Mega Lecture.

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The idea

Three approaches mark the history of thinking on women and development. WID (Women in Development), from the early 1970s, said women had been left out and should be integrated through projects for women. WAD (Women and Development), from the later 1970s, replied that women had always been part of the economy but inside unequal national and global structures.

GAD (Gender and Development), from the 1980s, shifted the focus from women alone to the relations of power between women and men, and aims to change them.

GAD thinking produced the working tools of today: gender mainstreaming, empowerment, gender planning, gender audits and gender budgeting.

Rules to remember

Ester Boserup, Woman's Role in Economic Development (1970): the starting point of WID.
WAD draws on Marxist and dependency theory.
Gender mainstreaming: assessing the effect of every policy and programme on women and men; adopted as the global strategy at Beijing in 1995.
Practical gender needs ease daily life in existing roles (water, health care). Strategic gender needs change women's position (legal rights, a voice in decisions).
Caroline Moser's triple role of women: reproductive, productive and community managing.
Gender audit: a check on whether an organisation's policies, staffing and practice reflect gender equality.
Gender budgeting: analysing a budget for its different effects on women and men. Australia issued the first Women's Budget Statement in 1984.

Common mistake

Students think gender budgeting means a separate budget for women. It means examining the whole budget for its effects on women and on men.

Worked example

Project A lays a water pipe to a village so that women no longer walk 3 km for water. Project B reserves half the seats on the village water committee for women. Which gender need does each project meet?

Project A makes an existing task easier but leaves water collection as women's work.
A need that arises from women's present role is a practical gender need.
Project B gives women a share in decisions, which alters the balance of power.
A need that changes women's position relative to men is a strategic gender need.

Answer: Project A meets a practical gender need; Project B meets a strategic gender need.

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