1. Policy Approaches to Women and Gender Equality

2. Approaches to Women and Gender Equality
Two conceptual frameworks: “Women in Development” and “Gender and Development”
Different policy approaches: welfare, equity, anti-poverty, efficiency, empowerment and gender mainstreaming
Explain how you will discuss different approaches to women and gender equality in two ways. The first will make a broad distinction between Women in Development (WID) and Gender and Development (GAD) conceptual frameworks. The second will go into more detail about WID and GAD by illustrating different policy approaches.
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

3. Gender and Development
Women in Development
Gender and Development
Focus on women
Focus on gender relations
Stress on practical needs
Stress on strategic interests/needs
Rationale is effectiveness
Goal is equality
Enabling
Empowering
Changes the condition of women
Changes the position of women
Aims to enhance women’s participation
Aims to integrate gender consideration into mainstream
Women primarily as agents
Explain that the change in nomenclature from WID to GAD should not, however, be seen as complete, consistent or uniformly applicable to state bureaucracies, development agencies or academic institutions. While the introduction and popularization of GAD signified a conceptual change, mainly in academic circles, the degree to which GAD was adopted, in rhetoric or in practice, varies considerably. Some organizations more fully internalized the concept in theory and practice; others did so in name only whilst others simply adopted the term “gender” without changing their WID focus. As a result, the appearance of “gender” and the disappearance of WID are deceptive, making assessment of what actually changed difficult.
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

4. Gender and Development
Women in Development
Gender and Development
The Approach
An approach which views women as the problem
An approach to development
The Focus
Women
Social relations between men and women
The Problem
The exclusion of women (half of the productive resources from the development process)
Unequal relations of power (rich and poor, women and men) that prevents equitable development and women’s full participation
Explain that the term “women in development” was first coined in the early 1970s. “Gender and development” emerged in the late 1970s, partly in response to criticisms of WID (see Razavi and Miller, 1995). These two frameworks can be distinguished accordingly.
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

5. Gender and Development
Women in Development
Gender and Development
The Goal
More efficient , effective development
Equitable, sustainable development with women and men as decision-makers
The Solution
Integrate women into the existing development process
Empower disadvantaged women and transform unequal relations
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

6. Gender and Development
Women in Development
Gender and Development
The Strategies
Women’s projects
Women’s components
Integrated projects
Increase women’s productivity
Increase women’s ability to look after the household
Identify/address practical needs determined by women and men to improve their condition
At the same time address women’s strategic interests
Address strategic interests of the poor through people-centred development
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

7. Approaches to Women and Gender Equality
Different policy approaches:
welfare,
equity,
anti-poverty,
efficiency,
empowerment
gender mainstreaming
Explain how we can discuss different policy approaches to women and gender equality using six broad typologies. While these will be discussed historically, they should not be seen as distinct “phases” as we still find all six being followed today, sometimes in combinations with each other
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

8. Welfare approach earliest approach, predominant 1950-1970.
aim is to bring women into the development as better mothers.
women are seen as the passive beneficiaries of development emphasizing their reproductive role
seeks to meet practical gender needs in that role through a top-down handouts of food aid, measures against malnutrition and family planning
not challenging, especially of gender division of labour, and still widely popular.
These and other examples are indicative of the approach when they subscribe to the overall characteristics of the approach. In other words, all family planning is not necessarily representative of a welfare approach, but when can be considered as such when it treats women as passive beneficiaries, privileges women’s reproductive roles and is not empowering women to have choice and control over their bodies
Source: March, C., Smyth, I., and Mukhopahhyay, M. (1999). A Guide to Gender Analysis Frameworks. Oxfam: Oxford
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

9. Equity approach
original WID approach, emerged during in the UN Women’s Decade, within the predominant “growth with equity” development approach
aim is to gain equity for women who are seen as active participants in development
recognizes women’s triple role (productive, reproductive and community), and seeks to meet strategic gender interests by direct state intervention giving political and economic autonomy and reducing inequality with men.
challenges women’s subordinate position
criticised as western feminism, is considered threatening to men and is unpopular with governments and donors.
e.g., 1975 International Women’s Year called for equality between men and women, women’s fair share of benefits of development and changes in traditional roles of women and men. Focus was on women’s political and economic autonomy.
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

10. Anti- Poverty approach
2nd WID approach, a toned-down version of equity, from 1970s onwards in the context of Basic Needs approaches to development
women seen as disproportionately represented among poor
aim is to ensure that poor women increase their productivity
women’s poverty is seen as a problem of underdevelopment, not of subordination
recognizes the productive role of women, and seeks to meet their practical to earn an income, particularly in small scale income generation projects
still most popular with NGOs
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

11. Efficiency approach
3rd WID approach, adopted since the 1980s debt crisis.
aims to ensure that development is more efficient and effective through women’s economic contribution, with participation often equated with equity and decision making
seeks to meet practical gender needs while relying in all three roles and an elastic concept of women’s time
women seen in terms of their capacity to compensate for declining social services by extending their working day
e.g., promotion of women’s community committee to generate income and provide social services, such as community kitchens and mid-wife services. Assumes women’s time is “elastic”, that she has infinite time to expand productive, reproductive and community activities.
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

12. Empowerment
articulated by third-world women with aim to empower women through greater self-reliance
explicitly acknowledges centrality of power and women’s need for more power to improve position
women’s subordination is expressed in terms of male oppression and colonial and neo-colonial oppression
recognizes the triple role; seeks to meet strategic gender interests indirectly thru grassroots mobilization of practical gender needs
potentially challenging, but its avoidance of western feminism makes it unpopular except with third world women’s NGOs.
e.g., women’s organizations such as SEWA (India), Gabriela (Philippines) and DAWN (global)
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

13. Gender mainstreaming
associated with the 1995 World Conference on Women in Beijing and the Beijing Platform of Action that signaled the UN’s first official use of the term
call for “gender mainstreaming” was a culmination of two inter-related changes in discourse prior to Beijing:
Women in Development to gender and development
“integrating women” to “mainstreaming gender”
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

14. Gender mainstreaming Women in Development to gender and development
some improvements in women’s material conditions, but little progress in their status
the nature of women’s relational subordination was ignored and unequal gender power relations remained unaltered
“integrating women” vs. “mainstreaming gender”
relates to the second problem associated with WID, the continued marginalization of women and women’s issues from “mainstream” development
mainly due to how WID was implemented: the establishment of women’s national machineries and WID units and the emphasis on “women’s projects”
“mainstreaming” was seen as a way of promoting gender equity in all of the “organization’s pursuits”
Amsterdam, The Netherlands