Gender and Developments

1. Introduction. Gender and development are considered important

areas in the study of social sector issues in development. The historical
development of societies has placed women at distinctively
disadvantageous position. Historical studies reflect that women have
played a marginal role in the, development of societies. However, modern
development theories attribute significant participation by all sections of
society, including women as a gender category, in the development
process, Women constitute almost half of human population, and their role
in the development process has critical significance in the success of
failure of nations.

After reading this unit, you will be able to:

 Establish relationship between gender and development;

 Define gender and describe various components of gender and
development; and
 Analyze various indicators of gender and development (GDI, GEM).

2. Women Empowerment approaches. Sustainable development

cannot be attained without the leadership and full participation of women
at all levels of society and decision-making. Moreover sustainable
development sought without the meaningful involvement of women cannot
be equitable. A gender perspective is one of the most forward looking and
socially just approaches in the analysis of sustainable development.

3. WOMEN IN DEVELOPMENT (WID).

a. Welfare Approach. Initially, during the First Development

Decade 1961-70, there was no mention of women specifically. WID
was characterized by the Welfare approach. It was assumed that
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social and economic development in general, would bring about the
desired changes for women. Women were seen as passive
beneficiaries of development with focus on their reproductive role.
However, at this early stage, the emphasis was on equal rights for
women rather than on economic development.

b. Equity approach. During the Second Development Decade,

1971-80, the importance of the “full integration of women in the total
development efforts,” was emphasized. The Equity approach aimed
at gaining equity for women in the development process. Women
were seen as active participants in development. The main goal was
to integrate women into the development process more productively.
The key route through this could be achieved which was equality of
opportunity through education and training. A number of committees
within professional associations, new women‟s groups and others
were formed. They came together on important issues like equal pay
for equal work, greater visibility of women within professional
organizations, equal rights amendment, and so on. This led to the
formation of many women‟s pressure groups especially the ones
concerning Women in Development (WID). The advocates of WID
pointed out to the phenomena that many scholars had observed,
particularly in the developing countries i.e. the adverse impact that
development seemed to have on women. The feminization of
poverty and the growing number of womenheaded households as a
result of the development policies was also highlighted.

With pressure from the American women‟s movement, the United

Nations declared 1975 as the International Women‟s Year and 1975-
1985 as the International Women‟s Decade. With this there was a
growing awareness of women‟s issues and an acceptance of their
demands as legitimate issues for policy making, both at the national

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 and international level. The major themes of the Decade were –
Equality, Development and Peace. The UN Decade for Women and
the international conferences gave impetus to the gender component
in development debates.

4. WOMEN AND DEVELOPMENT (WAD). The Women and

Development (WAD) approach pointed out that women are already
integrated into the development process in an exploitative way. This is due
to the fact that planners hold imprecise assumptions about women‟s
specific activities leading to the neglect of women‟s real needs and over-
exploitation of their labour. Proponents of the WAD approach are mainly
activists and theorists from the South and few from the North who saw the
limitations of WID and argued that women would never get their equal
share of development benefits unless patriarchy and global inequality are
addressed.

Women from the developed nations were slowly realizing that the
concerns of “Third World” women were also legitimate. They began to
identify with them and their earlier patronizing attitude towards “Third
World” women diminished. Efforts were made to link issues of the family
with that of politics at the local, national and international levels. The Third
World feminist movement increasingly incorporated struggles against
sexual inequality with political struggles. The gathering at Nairobi provided
women of the “Third World” as well as the “First World” the chance to
combine forces to fight against injustice.

The WAD approach provides a more critical view of women‟s position than
WID. It is assumed that women‟s position will improve once international
structures become more equitable. However how these could change is
not clearly explained. According to this perspective, women were not a
neglected resource but overburdened and undervalued. Their substantial

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contribution to development needs to be recognized, along with a
redistribution of its benefits and burdens between men and women. The
WAD approach also demanded “affirmative action” by the State as
“Laissez Faire” in the market worsened already existing inequalities.

5. GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT (GAD). Gender roles can be

defined as the behaviour and attitudes expected from the male and female
members of a society. Gender roles may vary from country to country,
culture to culture and even in the same country from region to region
depending on the defined perceptions of people in that society. For
example, in rural societies the gender role of a woman is limited to
household chores because of women's exclusion from the educational
framework, but in an urban environment, gender roles are defined a bit
differently, since, with better educational opportunities, women get
involved in econonlic and political activity. There are multiple factors which
deteimine the gender role in a particular society or environment. A
theoretical approach to development is important to understand the
evolutjoll of development, thinking and policy. Development initiatives in
the 1930s laiiely ignored women. The focus of development was on
modernization and the adoption of western technology, institutions and
beliefs. Development was ideiltified with inodernizatioil and iriodernization
was identical with the western world, anything which the westell1 world
identified with, i.e. ,technology, institutions, ziud belief was defined model
11. After the Second World War, the US became the model for third world
countries which desired modernization. In the quest for such
modernization and development, equality for race, class, and sex in the
third world countries was ignored. Both third world leaders and western
development specialists assumed that western development policies
would position fragile third world economics for take off. Few questioned
whether this prosperity would extend equally to all classes, races, and
gender groups. According to Ester Boserup, most of these projects

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undermined women's economic opportunities and autonomy. In reaction to
this thinking, a new approach towards development of women was
developed during the 1970s. It stressed the distinctiveness of women's
knowledge, work, goals, and responsibilities. Thus, due credit for women
began to be recognized. The UNDP has emphasized gender equality and
women empowerment in the following four areas of development:

i) democratic government
ii) poverty reduction
iii) crisis prevention and recovery
iv) environment and energy
v) I-IIVIAIDS.
Six out of ten of women in the world are poor and the upliftment of women
from poverty and hunger should be the main focus of each nation, Women
play important role in the management of household activities and even
manage the livestock, agricultural land and business in many countries.
Thus, women play a critical role in household development as well as the
development of a nation. Women's social and political participation refers
to women's ability to participate equally with men at all levels and in all
aspects of public and political life and decision making.

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5. GENDER POLICY. Gender-aware policies, by extension, are those
which are based on the recognition that development actors are women as
well as men; that men and women are constrained in different and often
unequal ways, as potential participants and as beneficiaries in the
development process; and that they may consequently have differing, and
sometimes conflicting needs, interests and priorities. We have already
discussed in Unit 3 how gender-blind policies are rooted and reflected.
This was analyzed by policy makers and planners by conscious effort to
bring transformation in the society, through gender-aware policies. We can
explore gender-aware schemes and programmmes of Government of India
in this Unit.

6. CEDAW. Since you are quite familiar with the Convention, it would
not be necessary for me to explain about the nature or characteristics of
the Convention. Instead I will just highlight some of the strengths and also
the weaknesses the Convention brings with it.

No doubt, the CEDAW Convention is the most comprehensive

international instrument to protect the human rights of women.

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As defined in article 1 of the Convention, discrimination means: “any
distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the
effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or
exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of
equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in
the political, economic, social, cultural, civil, or any other field.” (Article 1)

As defined above, the CEDAW Convention is intended to eliminate all

forms of discrimination against women. And ‘women’ in this definition
would include all women young/old, married/single, able/disabled,
indigenous, immigrants, migrants, refugees, etc. When the Committee
engages in the ‘constructive dialogue’ with the government delegation
from the State party under consideration, questions from experts more
increasingly include minority women. CEDAW also covers both de jure
equality, equality of opportunity, and de facto equality, i.e. equality of
result, which would cover both direct and indirect discrimination, covering
all spheres of life, whether public or private, discrimination by any actors,
whether state, enterprises or private individuals including intimate partners.
The Convention also prescribes that discriminatory customs or traditions of
gender role stereotyping should be eliminated.

Despite its comprehensiveness and potential usefulness, however, the

CEDAW Convention has some serious obstacles. The first issue is the
reservations, often times to the core articles such as articles 2 or 16, which
are considered incompatible with the purpose and objectives of the
Convention. The Committee always urges withdrawal of any reservations
to the State party under consideration, but the problems of reservations
are directly linked to discriminatory culture within the country. My
experience on the Committee tells that the government delegation listens
more attentively, when experts from a similar culture speak of the issue of
reservations, giving examples of other countries with similar culture but

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without any reservations to the Conventions. Even in Islamic countries,
there is a wide range of differences some Islamic countries ratified
CEDAW without any reservation at all. To remove the reservations, more
social pressures need to be built from inside of the country.

Another obstacle is non-reporting or long over-due reports. In 2003, the

CEDAW Committee had a meeting with the States parties whose reports
to CEDAW were 5 years or more overdue, to find out causes of delayed
reporting. The meeting was successful not only with good attendance by
many States parties but also the Committee actually received many long-
awaited reports after the meeting. In addition to this, the Committee
decided at its 31st session in July 2004 that it would consider the
implementation of the Convention even in the absence of report, although
as the last resort. This notice, hopefully, would work for the States parties
with long over-due reports or no reporting at all to meet their obligation
under the Convention.

7. BEIJING+5. Beijing+5 is the short name given to the UN official

review process of concrete achievements on behalf of women since its
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1995 World Conference on Women in Beijing. The process included: a) a
special session of the UN General Assembly, June 5-10, where progress
reports were given by UN officials responsible for women’s issues and by
governmental delegates; b) development and adoption of an outcome
document on priorities to ensure continued advances for women and girls
in the 12 key areas identified by the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action; and
c) a series of NGO activities designed to exchange current information and
impact the outcome document.

The 12 key areas of the Platform, which were the main focuses of group
meetings during the UN review process, are: poverty, education and
training, health, violence, armed conflict, the economy, power and decision
making, institutional mechanisms, human rights, the media, the
environment and the girl child.

From February 28 to March 11, 2005, the UN Commission on the Status of

Women (CSW) conducted the ten-year review and appraisal of the Beijing
Platform for Action (Beijing + 10) and commemorated the thirtieth
anniversary of the First UN World Conference on Women held in Mexico in
1975. During 2004, regional meetings were taking place to prepare for this
review. The Objective of the review was to identify achievements, gaps
and challenges in implementing the Beijing Platform for Action - signed by
189 governments - and the outcome documents, as well as the Beijing +5
Political Declaration adopted at the five-year review in June 2000. The
49th session of the Commission on the status of Women was a regular
session but it had been agreed in the 48th session of the CSW, on March
2004, that it would be a high level event.

The 49th session of the Commission held in 2005 was more than an
expanded session of the regular CSW. Its focus has been different. The
work programme for 2005 focused on national-level implementation

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through interactive dialogue and exchange of good practices. There were
about 8 high-level events (panels, roundtables) on a broad range of
issues, a high-level opening, the high-level plenary for national statements,
and a celebration of international women’s day within the CSW itself and
not as an interagency event.

The review launched with Beijing +10 found itself in the midst of a debate
concerning its desirability. Several NGOs expressed concern over the risks
of losing the gains achieved under the platforms adopted at the
Conferences in the 1990s, and at the same time were raising questions as
to both the efficacy of such world conferences in securing the economic,
political and social rights of women, and the strategic roles that feminist
activists can play at such events. The same dynamics were at play in the
five year review processes. Beijing +5 revealed the risks faced by the
current women’s agenda.

Input to the process by regional UN commissions and other regional

intergovernmental organizations included organizing meetings to elicit
regional perspectives on implementation actions and initiatives, and to
report the findings. In spite of expressing concern, women’s organizations
were discussing how to participate in the sub-regional meetings. According
to WEDO “there is a danger that these reviews may lead to negotiations
which could leave women once again having to fight for their material and
reproductive rights. It is not too late to influence these negotiations at the
regional level, and to strategize and act to avoid negotiations at the global
level in 2005”.

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8. International Conference on Population and Development. In
1994 the landmark International Conference on Population and
Development (ICPD), held in Cairo, transformed global thinking on
population and development issues and defined a bold agenda, placing
people’s dignity and rights at the heart of sustainable development.

There, 179 governments adopted the ICPD Programme of Action. It

affirmed that inclusive sustainable development is not possible without
prioritizing human rights, including reproductive rights; empowering women
and girls; and addressing inequalities as well as the needs, aspirations
and rights of individual women and men.
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ICPD set the standard for people-centred development, guiding national
policies and programmes for the implementation of the Programme of
Action by governments, in collaboration with parliaments and civil society,
including women and youth-led organizations, the private sector,
community groups and individuals at the grassroots level.

Almost 30 years since the landmark conference in Cairo, people-centred

development has enabled numerous gains, which are now at risk of
reversal. Today, progress is threatened by multifaceted crises, backsliding
on the rights and choices of women and girls, the impact of the COVID-19
pandemic and the polarization of the sexual and reproductive health and
rights agenda. While there is progressive activism for social justice, climate
action and equality, we are at a critical inflection point to preserve the
hard-won gains and deliver on the vision of the ICPD agenda and the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – the historic set of goals
adopted by world leaders in 2015 to eliminate poverty, achieve gender
equality and secure the health and well-being of all people.

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9. Women Development Policy in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh,
women constitute a great majority of the population. Women development
is, therefore, pre-condition to national development. It is imperative to
establish equal opportunity and rights to ensure national development. The
erstwhile Awami League government in accord with the promise made in
the national election held on 12 June 1996 formulated for the first time
National Women Development Policy in 1997. The main objective of this
policy was to promote the cause of larger women society that had suffered
abuse and neglect for ages. In 1997, the policy was formulated in wide
consultation and exchange of views with the leaders of the society of
women in this country reflecting long struggle to establish rights of women
of this country. During caretaker government Women Development Policy
2008 was made in revised form but that could not be put to effect.
Bangladesh Awami League in its electoral manifesto of 2008 reiterated its
promise to reinstate the Women Development Policy formulated by the
erstwhile Awami League government in 1997 to ensure women
empowerment, equal rights and opportunities. To implement electoral
promise and to ensure women development and empowerment, the
present government led by the humble Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has
been formulating the National Women Development Policy 2011.

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10. Conclusion. Gender and development is one of the important
issues of today's society. This unit deals with the critical areas of gender
and development like economic participation, economic opportunity,
political empowerment, educational attainment, health and wellbeing of
women. In spite of advancement in various sectors like technology,
education, and health, the position and condition of women in societies
especially developing societies is still very much behind than their male
counterparts .It is important to understand that the development and
wellbeing of women will also lead to the development of the nation.

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