Textbook Chapter 4: Gender Planning & Development Third World Policy Approaches to Women in Development

Overview of Policy Approaches to slide 2 Women in Development Concern for low-income women’s need coincided with the recognition of the importance of women’s role in development Since 1950, innumerous policies, programs & projects have ignored women’s role in development Recently a shift in policy approaches towards women took place from welfare approach to equity to anti-poverty to efficiency approach and finally the most recent approach is the empowerment approach This shift happened from modernization policies of accelerated growth through focus on basic and practical needs to re-distribution and compensatory measures associated with structural policies Despite this, women in development are still undergoing a process of struggle for gender planning in order to meet women’s strategic and practical needs This requires women’s active participation in the planning and implementation processes Hence, it is important for planners to understand the implications of their interventions in terms of limitations and potential in assisting Third World women To examine policies effectiveness, we need to assess how these policies recognize women’s roles and the extent which their practical and strategic needs are met Shift in approaches can take place during formulation of plans or the implementation of these plans

slide3 Review of Major Approaches 1.Welfare Approach 2.Equity Approach 3.Anti-Poverty Approach 4.Efficiency Approach 5.Empowerment Approach

Slide4 #1- Welfare Approach Welfare Approach: , this is the earliest approach concerning women in developing countries It’s purpose is to bring women into development as better mothers Women seen as passive recipients of free goods & services It seeks to meet practical gender needs by top-down hand-outs of food-aid, nutrition and family planning It is non-challenging to women’s subordinate position; hence, it is very popular It is modeled after the colonial approach prior to the Third World countries independence Their goal is the maintenance of trade, mineral and agricultural expansion Social needs was ignored under the assumption that individuals must satisfy their needs in the market-place; therefore, government left the social welfare concerns to the volunteer organizations Since women were seen as the main beneficiaries as wives and mothers, most volunteers were women who managed the welfare because it was cheap and effective Women were marginalized with the sick, disabled and the vulnerable In training, it focuses on women being housewives and how to help them become better mothers For this, we see refugee camps focus on pregnant and lactating women; since women’s reproductive role, including limiting fertility through forced contraceptive use and other population programs are considered women’s sole responsibility Top-down hand-outs creates dependency This approach does not question women’s role within gendered division of labor Third World women see themselves responsible for childbearing as social duty rather than personal matter and their bodies are pawns in the hands of the state, religion, male heads of household and private corporations By 1970, this approach was rejected because it affected women negatively

Slide5 #2- Equity Approach This approach addresses women in development from Its goal is to gain women’s equity in development processes Women seen as active participants in development It recognizes women’s triple role It seeks to meet women’s strategic needs through state intervention It seeks to give women political & economic autonomy It challenges women’s subordination Although women are main contributors to their community productivity, their contribution is not considered in the national data, planning, or implementation Highly technical agricultural projects affected women negatively and displaced them from traditional productivity and diminished their supplemental income from the informal sector Consequently, women’s status declined in developing countries Equity approach is top-down legislative planning to ensure equity and consultative participatory is assumed while in actuality is questionable Consequently, Third World bottom-up women’s organizations began to call for integrating women into the development process to ensure their participation and improve their options in society To examine validity of this approach, we need to look at its accomplishments in terms of women’s rights: to divorce, child custody, rights to own property, access to credit, voting, and other civil rights

Slide6 #3-Anti-Poverty Approach Its purpose is to ensure that poor women increase their productivity It recognizes women’s productive role It seeks to meet practical gender needs through employment in small income- generating projects Economic inequality is linked to poverty rather than insubordination (toned down equity approach) It recognizes Equity Approach failure with its accelerated growth; hence, it shifted to low-income women’s basic needs (food, shelter, clothing) It focused on women’s productive role on the basis that poverty alleviation requires increased women’s productivity and that women’s poverty is due to lack of access to private land ownership and capital Despite this intent, women still lack access to raw materials, small production facilities and markets due to cultural constraints that restrict women from mobility outside the domestic arena Lack of collateral means lack of credit, which in turn leads to inability to expand in enterprises Until women’s domestic labor and childcare responsibilities are partiality alleviated, ignoring women’s reproductive role increases women’s burden drastically

slide7 #4- Efficiency Approach Its purpose is to ensure efficient & effective development through women’s economic contribution (1980s) It relies on women’s flexible time within their triple role; assumption that women can work as long as possible This approach recognizes that 50% of human resources are ready for development & were wasted and under-utilized and that including them is crucial for developments total success This approach did not achieve much due to lack of education & training This approach did not consider women’s un-paid time, but introduced the self-help concept and the need for greater efficiency Meanwhile, women proven more reliable in re-paying credits and were better builders During budget cuts, planners relied more on women’s flexibility of labor to increase food production and to reduce purchasing and consumption, which in turn increased women’s domestic work, reproductive and managing human resources Unpaid labor of childcare, gathering fuel, processing food and nursing the sick and elderly continued regardless of the pressure to increase women’s economic productivity. These excessive demands exasperated the pressure on women by pushing them to the breaking point. With increased demand for elasticity women’s time and balancing their time between paid and un- paid work, mostly took place on the cost of women’s reproductive work. That forced women to leave childcare to their young daughters, which led to the disintegration of the household. Pressure to switch from un-tradable to tradable labor-intensive manufacturing crops for export left women with less time for subsistence production, which resulted in child malnutrition

Slide8 #5-Empowerment Approach Empowerment Approach is primarily expressed by Third World women Its purpose is to empower women through greater self-reliance It recognizes women’s triple role It seeks to meet strategic gender needs through bottom-up mobilization around practical gender needs It is popular only among Third World NGOs women Its strategies: to change the position of Third World women It stems from grass-roots organizational experiences of Third World women Empowerment Approach acknowledges women’s inequalities and that subordination begins within the family It maintains that women have to challenge oppressive structures at all costs and levels It questions some fundamental assumptions concerning the interrelationship between power and development It seeks more capacity and self-reliance and inner-strength, this means rights to determination, choices in life and to influence the direction of change through gaining control of resources The Empowerment Approach looks at how women historically and currently have had no choice in defining the kind of society they want During Nairobi’s International Women’s Conference, the purpose was to formulate a vision of an alternative future society It requires transformation of the subordination structure, such as changes in laws, civil codes, property rights, and labor codes, if women are to obtain justice in society Recognition of limitation of top-down government legislation will not be implemented without sustained and systematic efforts of women’s organizations in order to include consultative and participatory action during planning procedures Only then legal changes, political mobilization, consciousness raising and education can ensure gender planning takes place effectively