The thought of development has shifted from modernization and structrual adjustment programs to poverty reduction. Under the poverty reduction goal, international development effort has focused on social welfare program. Then how gender equality relates to international development? The idea of gender equality has developed along with the evolution of development notion. In the 1970s, women entered into the thought of development - what women can contribute to the development process. Washington based female development professionals felt that development process, then modernization, deteriorated women's stand. Liberal feminists protested for equal rights, employment, equity and citizenship. Research on women in developing countries found that women are the main producers of agricultural products and can control the resources and process in an efficient way. Influenced by these movements and disappointed with the results of development process, development architects saw women as a "missing link" (from Wid to GAD) in successful development and reducing poverty. In the minds of WID(Women in Development), "women are producers and thus participants in the process of economic growth."(Buvinic, 1983:20) Women can contribute the economic development when they are equipped with resources.
However, this WID approach was criticized by many scholars and later has transformed to Gender and Development(GAD). Critics argued that WID is women specific project but failed to increase women's benefit from the programmes. Women produced and contributed only in the areas of typical sex role boundary such as nutrition, traditional handcraft, health, education, home economy. Goetz argued that these works intensified women's workloads shifting them to extend their unpaid work as "headers, healers, and teachers of children to include the provision of basic services to the community."(Goetz,1994 a:30) They also argued that the research on the women's production in the economy was very limited to sub-Saharan Africa, where women have responsibility to provision of family food and labor. In this sense, the concept of being efficient producers in agriculture cannot be generalized into the other parts of the world. In most nations, men are responsible for provision and have ownership of the resources and production. Overall, WID failed in practical approach and logical approach. The practical projects were limited only to emphasize the traditional sex role and its logic failed to see that gender subordination is created in the social, political, and institutional structures. It means women only projects cannot increase the well-being of women and such kind of projects(gender equality) should take account of the gender ideologies in the nation and the relationship with development.
In this background, Gender and Development(GAD) has taken over from WID and led the goal of gender equality in the development process in the 1980s. GAD approaches gender equality issue in the context of institutions such as household, market, community, and nation. The development practitioners found out that allocating resources to women could not change women's positions because these institutions prevented women from control over resources and income. Microfinance project serves a good example. Many projects help women start little business and generate income through the microcredit lending. However, there are many cases which women give up the opportunity of ownership but hand over the loan to their husbands or male relatives(From WID to GAD). GAD approaches the gender equality, mainstreaming women and gender at the development program and policy. It adopted participatory development strategies in the community level to achieve gender equality in the targeted areas of education, employment, representation, and health.
How well will GAD serve the development goal? In many developing nations, many GAD projects encourage women's participation in decision making process and planning. Many programs are designed to enhance or build women's independency in the households, markets, and government arenas. Surely, this has increased some women's visibility in many institutions. However, it is important to raise questions on whether GAD is really gender based or still in the sex role division. Many women only projects raise some concerns under GAD approach. Understanding women and men in the gender context, or power relation, or traditional social construction can increase the chance of success. Especially projects such as family planning and domestic violence emphasize the importance of integrating men into the program.
In conclusion, gender equality in development needs a lot of attention to achieve great success. Most of all, "togetherness" and "integration" of men and women is very important. Furthermore, to make the institutions more accessible and fair for women by power sharing, then women will be the real producer and participants in the economic growth and intenational development.
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