UGRC 231: Gender and Development - · PDF file•Go to the Wikipedia site and find information about ... technological advancement ... Unequal access to education and training. 3

College of Education

School of Continuing and Distance Education2014/2015 – 2016/2017

UGRC 231: Gender and Development

Lecturer: Dr. Akosua Darkwah

Contact Information: [email protected]

Objectives of Course

The course will enable students to

understand key concepts in gender and development

recognize the ways in which gender structures opportunities, rights and citizenship

appreciate and understand how development policies and processes work to have differential impacts on men and women

understand state and civil society responses to gender inequalities

Session 1: Key Ideas in Gender and Development

By the end of this section, students should be able to:

• List and define key concepts in Gender and Development.

• Critically analyze the relationship between Gender and Development.

• Name and explain some of the international protocols that have shaped the Gender and Development discourse.

Key Concept 1: Sex versus Gender

• Sex refers to the biological differences between women and men. For example, men produce sperm, women produce breastmilk. The biological differences between men and women are the same all over the world. No matter where in the world you go, only the men will produce sperm.

• Unlike sex, which is a biological concept, gender is a social construct specifying the socially and culturally prescribed ideas about the behaviour, actions, and roles a particular sex performs and follows.

Key Concept 1 Continued

• The Sociologist Judith Butler argues that gender is performed by which she means that individuals take on a role, they ACT their gender.

• Nobody is born gendered from the start

• How one acts out one’s gender depends on where one is raised.

• Gender looks different in different parts of the world. In the Soviet Union, medicine was considered a subject for girls so most doctors are female. In Ghana, medicine is seen as a field of study for women.

Activity

• Go to the Wikipedia site and find information about the Yaake dance that the Wodaabe men of Niger do. What is the difference between how these Wodaabemen look and how Ghanaian men look? Discuss whether this is an example of sex or gender and why.

• Read the Judith Lorber article attached. Summariseher argument in one paragraph.

Key Concept 2: Gender Equality

• Gender Equality is the idea that women and men should be given equal opportunities/the space to become who they want to be. In education for example, gender equality is the idea that both women and men should be given the opportunity to go to school. How far they go in school should be determined by the individual, not society.

• Equal opportunities policies and legislation tackle the problem through measures to increase women’s participation in public life. However, this focus on formal equality, does not necessarily demand or ensure equality of outcomes.

Key Concept 3: Gender Equity

• Gender equity focuses on the equality of outcomes for both men and women so as with the example on education, gender equity refers to ensuring that both women and men do well in school.

• Gender equity recognises that men and women have different needs, interests and preferences and therefore may require different treatment. The goal of gender equity, sometimes called substantive equality, moves beyond equality of opportunity by requiring transformative change.

• An equity approach implies that all development policies and interventions need to be scrutinised for their impact on gender relations.

Activity

• Take a look at the jpeg file titled Gender equality and equity. In your own words, describe how the picture depicts the difference between gender equality and equity.

Key Concept 4: Gender Mainstreaming

• The United Nations defines gender mainstreaming as “a strategy for making the concerns and experiences of women as well as of men an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic and societal spheres so that women and men benefit equally and inequality is not perpetuated.”

Reproductive and productive labour

• Reproductive labour is work at home (often unpaid and not valued) e.g. nurturing children, cleaning, cooking, washing dishes, sweeping, etc)

• Productive labour refers to work for economic reward

Gender division of labour

• This refers to the situation where male roles and responsibilities, often productive labour undertaken

outside the home is valued while women’s roles and responsibilities are undervalued

Practical and strategic gender needs

• Practical gender needs are “immediate perceived" needs, such as food, shelter, clothing, education, and health care.

• Strategic gender interests arise, as a result, of women's subordination thus, calls for changes in the social structures and institutions that define women's position in society. For instance, equal access to land, capital and participation in decision making in the public sphere can be considered strategic interest of women.

Activity

• Watch the clip attached.

https://www.facebook.com/us.emb.addisababa/videos/1111947795514259

• Describe what you see using the words reproductive labour, productive labour and gender division of labour

Key Concept 5: What is Development?

human wellbeing and welfare PROGRESS

access to basic necessities of life (housing, food, health, clothing etc)

freedoms and liberties modernisation

equality

peace and justice higher income

rights improved standards of living elimination of poverty, disease and hunger

technological advancement

greater and more equal opportunities (for employment, education, etc.)

Definitions of Development 1

Kwesi Kwaa Prah, a Ghanaian sociologist defines it as:

“The improvement and upliftment of the quality of life of people, that they are able…to attain their potential, build and acquire self-confidence, and manage to live lives of reasonable accomplishment and dignity.”

(Kwasi Kwaa Prah 2001, p. 91


Amartya Sen, a Nobel prize winning economist defines it as:

“Development can be seen…as a process of

expanding real freedoms that people enjoy. Focusing on human freedoms contrast with the narrower views of development, such as identifying development with the growth of gross national product, or with the rise in personal incomes, or with industrialisation or with technological advance, or with social modernisation.”

(Amartya Sen, 1999 p.3


• The United Nations is very concerned about issues of development. They publish the Human Development Report every year.

• In 2000, the UN spearheaded the development of the Millennium Development Goals which were in force from 2000-2015

• In 2015, the UN spearheaded the development of the Sustainable Development Goals which will be in effect from 2015-2030

Activity

• In your own words, how would you describe development?

• How do you determine which country is developed and which is less developed?

Why is gender a development issue?

• Development aims to change people’s lives, individually and collective. Yet, all aspects of life is gendered -- family life, work and livelihoods, sexuality, social relations, access to opportunities, etc.

• Established social structures or institutions have gendered dimensions which will influence the processes and impact of development.– THE FAMILY– the basic unit of society– TRADITIONAL AUTHORITY– chieftaincy, lineage– INSTITUTIONS OF MODERN GOVERNANCE– district assemblies,

parliament– Economic structures – labour organisations, employment patterns

(formal and informal)

Why is gender a development issue?

Every development policy, program or project is gendered….

◦ in nature (its assumptions, goals and

implementation)

◦ in impact

International Protocols on gender and development

• In 1972, the UN General Assembly proclaimed the year 1975 as the International Women's Year.

• The First World Conference on Women took place in June, 1975 in Mexico City.

– UN Decade for Women

– Establishment of National Machineries

– Adoption of Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW

International Protocols continued

• In 1975, the UN General Assembly endorsed the proposals of the Mexico conference and proclaimed the period 1976–85 as the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development, and Peace.

• The UN Decade for Women, therefore, called on governments to promote the integration of women in national development.

• In Ghana, the National Council on Women and Development was set up in response to these calls.


• An important milestone during the UN Decade for Women was the adoption of the Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in Dec 1979.


Key issues of CEDAW• states parties are to adopt all appropriate measures to abolish

existing laws, regulations, customs, and practices that are discriminatory against women; and

• establish legal protection of the rights of women on an equal basis with men.

• equal rights for women in voting and holding public office and in education, employment, and health care.

• elimination of discrimination against women in all matters relating to marriage and family relations.


2nd International World Conference on Women, (Copenhagen, 1980).

3rd World Conference on Women, Nairobi, 1985.

- Nairobi Forward-Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women to the Year 2000


The Forward Looking Strategies called for:

• Sexual Equality

• Women’s Autonomy and Power

• Recognition of Women’s Unpaid Work

• Advances in Women’s Paid Work


• The 4th World Conference on Women, Beijing, China, 1995. “Action for Equality, Development and Peace”.

–Highlighted 12 Critical Areas of Women: The Beijing Platform of Action


The 12 Critical areas of the Beijing Platform for Action1. The persistent and increasing burden of poverty on women.

2. Unequal access to education and training.

3. Unequal access to health care and related services.

4. Violence against women.

5. The effects of armed or other kinds of conflict on women.

6. Inequality in economic structures and policies, in all productive activities and in access to resources

International Protocols

Inequality between men and women in the sharing of power and decision-making at all levels.

8. Insufficient mechanisms at all levels to promote the advancement of women.

9. Lack of respect for and inadequate promotion and protection of the human rights of women

10. Stereotyping of women and inequality in women's access to and participation in communication systems, especially in the media

11. Gender inequalities in natural resource management

12. Persistent discrimination against girls and violation of their rights


Beijing + 5 Conference “Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the 21st Century” – June 2000, New York.

5th World Conference on Women (Beijing +10, 2005) ◦ Special session to review progress made since the

Fourth World Conference (gains and challenges)

• UN Millennium Summit (2000), New York.8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – 3 of which

focuses on women


• African Women’s Decade- AWD 2010-2020

• The African Union (AU) in 2010, officially declared year 2010-20, as the African Woman’s Decade (AWD).

• The theme is “Grassroots Approach to Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment.”

• The aim of the AWD is to promote gender equality by speeding up the implementation of global and regional decisions and obligations on gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Activity

• Identify the 3 Millennium Development Goals that focus on women.

• How similar or different are they from the Beijing Platform for Action and/or the Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies?

Summary

• We have examined some key concepts in the subject –gender, gender equity, gender equality, gender mainstreaming, productive and reproductive labour, gender division of labour, practical and strategic gender needs.

• We defined development from various perspectives• We explored why ‘Gender’ has become a development

issue, as well as the social structures, which influence women’s development.

• Finally, this section discussed some of the major World conferences and conventions that has impacted the Gender and Development discourse.

Session 2: The WID, WAD, GAD Approaches to Development

By the end of this section, you should be able to

• Discuss in detail the three main development approaches that emerged as a means to address gender equality and women’s concerns.

• List some of the strategies adopted by each approach to address women’s concerns

• Identify the key strengths and weakness of each

The Women in Development (WID) approach

• In the early 1970s, Ester Boserup, a Danish feminist economist, wrote a book titled, Women’s Role in Economic Development’inthe 1970s.

• This book highlighted the fact that women are not only users of basic services, bearers and socialisers of children and keepers of the home, but they also represent a productive potential which was not being tapped.

• Proponents of the WID approach were among the first to point to women’s lack of access to the means of participating in economic life, and the invisibility (that is, lack of recognition and data) of women’s work.

• Boserup and other women who pioneered research into women’s role in economic development contributed to the Women In Development (WID) approach.

The WID approach

• It was adopted by the UN in 1975 at the first World Conference on Women held in Mexico.

• Governments were asked to create national machineries, such as Ministries of Women to promote and oversee national efforts to advance women and WID Units.

The WID approach

• The aim of WID was to integrate women into economic development by focusing on women’s productive work in two ways:

- providing women money and other resources for income-generating activities

- developing appropriate technologies to lighten women’s loads

• The WID approach is grounded in modernizing theory or the belief that economic development can be achieved through industrialization.

Criticisms of WID

• WID is criticized for viewing women in isolation and ignoring their relative position to men.

• Emphasis on women’s productive capacity criticized for failing to recognize women’s reproductive responsibilities, and the subsequent miscalculations about the responsibilities, elasticity of women’s time and labor.

• Women are treated as a homogeneous group, regardless of class, ethnicity, intra--household gender differences.

• Activities are developed for women (based on situation analysis) without engaging men in understanding their needs or allowing them to take part in them.

Criticisms of WID continued

• The approach focused on integration of without questioning the existing development paradigms and the power relations that put women at a disadvantage.

• Moreover, because the WID approach was firmly grounded in modernization theory, it assumed that adopting Western strategies would lead to solutions to the problem therefore, it did not recognize the contribution of indigenous knowledge

• Furthermore, the WID approach tends to see development as an activity of government thus, it viewed the state as a solution, rather than a potential obstacle to the advancement of women.

The Women and Development (WAD) Approach

In the second half of the 1970s, the Women

and Development (WAD) approach was advocatedby women from the South who felt that the ’bigger’ issues of colonialism and unequal global relationships had not been taken into account in theWID perspective.

The WAD approach

• WAD argues that women have always been a part of the development processes but that their work has been exploited to profit others in the global North.

• The WAD paradigm focused on the distinctive roles, responsibility, work and knowledge of women and called for these to be acknowledged and valued.

• WAD advocated increasing women’s share in resources, land, employment and income.

• The WAD perspective therefore was more concerned about the relationship between women and development rather than integration of women into development.

Criticisms of WAD

• The WAD approach downplays the class, racial and ethnic differences among women.

• WAD focused on international relations of power and neglected relations between genders and classes.

• The WAD position equally downplays the role of patriarchy and does not adequately explain gender power relations and their impact on development.

• Furthermore, the advocacy for separate projects for women, as well as, women’s only organizations did not produce the desired transformational impact

Criticisms of WAD continued

• The WAD model has therefore, tended to focus its intervention strategies on the promotion of income-generating activities without taking into consideration the competing time demands such strategies place on women who also have a reproductive role to perform

The Gender and Development (GAD) Approach

• In the 1980s, the Gender and Development approach was developed.

• Alternative to modernizing theory. Women recognized as diverse group with interests which vary by sex, class, age and ethnicity.

• Recognizes men and women as partners in development. Consideration of both of them in economic and political relations.

• The Gender and Development (GAD) approach concentrated on the unequal relations between men and women and seeks to transform this.

• Thus GAD focuses not only on women (as WID and WAD did) but the social relations between men and women.

GAD continued

• This perspective emphasizes the equal access of women and men to the control of resources, as well as, benefits, which accrue from development.

• This perspective analyzes the contributions of women in terms of work done both within (reproductive) including unpaid domestic work and outside the household (productive work). In other words, it recognises the gender division of labour.

GAD continued

• GAD also puts the responsibility on the state to provide social services to support women’s social reproduction role (e.g. caring and nurturing children and taking care of the old and sick). The GAD paradigm argues that this would help in promoting the emancipation of women.

• The GAD approach recognizes women as agents of change rather than mere recipients of development and it emphasizes the need for women to mobilize in order to achieve greater political impact.

GAD continued

• Furthermore, the GAD model asserts that women experience oppression differently based on their race, class, culture, colonial history, and position in the global economic system (Moser 1993 [as cited in Parpart et al., 2000]).

• Another important area, which has attracted the attention of GAD advocates is Gender Law and Development (GLAD). The GLAD takes a right-based approach to development with the aim of strengthening women’s legal rights and reform laws that discriminate against women such inheritance and land laws.

• The GAD perspective is interested in pursuing the strategic gender needs of women.

Activities

• The 31st December Women’s Movement which begun in 1982 set up cottage industries processing gari, palm oil and so on.

Which of the three feminist perspectives on development were they working with?

• What are the similar criticisms levelled against the WID and WAD perspectives?

• Read the excerpt on Sarah Longwe. Which development approach best explains her case?

• Read the Rathgeber (1990) piece attached. In one paragraph write what additional information you glean from reading it.

Session 3: Households and power relations in Africa

• In this session, we explore intra-household gender relations and their influence on the status and situation of women. The session will therefore, discuss social relations at the household level in relation to the access and control of resources and participation in the decision making process. At the end of the session, students should be able to reflect on how these factors impact on the lives of women.

Slide 50

Goals and Objectives

• List and explain the different types of households

• Explain how power relations within the households affect women’s social and economic welfare.

• Discuss how women’s triple role affects their participation in other spheres of life such as active politics, public service and decision-making processes.

• Explain why women’s reproductive work is less valued in society.

Slide 51

Topic I: Defining a household

• A household is “a person or group of related or unrelated persons who live together in the same housing unit, sharing the same housekeeping and cooking arrangements and are considered as one unit, who acknowledge an adult male or female as the head of the household. In general, a household may consist of a man, his wife or wives and children and some relatives or non-relatives who may be living with them” (GLSS6, 2014:4).

Slide 52

Definition continued

• Note that most families live in a household, but not all households consist of families

• In other words, members of a household are not necessarily related by blood or marriage.

Slide 53

Types of families

• There are many different types of families. In this session, we look closely at a number of them and the ways in which they differ. These differences have implications for power dynamics within households.

Slide 54

Monogamous Families

• This is when an individual is married to one person at a time.

• Serial-Monogamous households - when an individual remarries repeatedly after a divorce or death of the previous spouse.

Slide 55

Polygamous Families

• This is a marriage involving two or more wives or husbands. This marriage arrangement is acceptable in some societies but not others.

• In countries where it is illegal to marry more than one, it is known as bigamy.

Slide 56

Polygamous families continued

• There are two types of polygamous families:

– Polygyny - when a man has more than one wife

– Polyandry - when a woman has more than one husband. This practice is less common than polygyny, but it is still possible to be found.

– In some parts of Nepal among the Nyinbas, fraternal polyandry is commonly practiced. This is when a woman is married to two or more brothers.

Slide 57

Nuclear Families

• This consists of an adult male and female in a sexual relationship, with children including adopted ones that they raise together. This is a more common practice in Western societies.

Slide 58

Extended Families

• This consists of an adult man and woman, in a sexual relationship with children including adopted children but also may include other kin such as grandparents, grandchildren, siblings, cousins, nephews or nieces.

Slide 59

Lone Parent Families

• These are made up of a single parent with their biological or adopted children. This type of family can come about for a number of reasons;

– a partner may have died

– a couple may have divorced, and one of them will have gained custody of the children

– an unmarried individual may have had a child or adopted one

Slide 60

Reconstituted Families

• when a couple with children from previous relationships marry, resulting in step-parents and step-children. Children may also be produced from that relationship.

• This family is also known as a step-family.

Slide 61

Assumptions about the household

• In the different families we have identified, when they live together as a household, women and men have different positions within the household and different control over resources.

• However, often this, and its implications for men and women, is not acknowledged.

• Moser (1993) has identified three commonly mistaken ideas about households which we will discuss in some detail.

Slide 62

Assumption 1 continued

• First is the idea that the household consists of a nuclear family of husband, wife and two or more children.

• In this image, the husband is the head of the household and all the other members of the household are dependents.

• This assumption renders female-headed households invisible in national policy planning.

• .

Slide 63


• Yet, women head one-third of the world’s households. And in Ghana, according to the most recent, Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS, 2014:4), 30.5% of households are headed by women with the highest number of women-headed households found in the rural coastal areas (38.1%)

• Female headed households can be either de facto –based on the temporary absence of a husband say due to migration or de jure – the permanent absence of a husband due to divorce or death.

Slide 64

Assumption 2

• Second is the idea that the household functions as a socio-economic unit within which, there is equal control over resources and power of decision-making between all adult members in matters influencing the household’s livelihood.

• This perspective ignores the unequal access to resources within households. In many parts of Africa, for example, while men have direct access to land, women have indirect access to land, i.e., can only gain land through their male kin.

• On the continent, the education and health care of girls is also far more likely to be subject to the availability of income than is the case for boys.

Slide 65


• Household expenditure is also not evenly distributed among men and women. Beneria (1989: 143) observed that men “spend a significant portion of their income for personal use (e.g. smoking, drinking, gambling), while women tended to devote virtually all of their income to the family - for food, medical treatment, school fees and clothing for the children”.

Slide 66


• In some Asian societies, women have “limited mobility”, as they are not able to leave the home if not accompanied by a man (Bradshaw et al., 2013:8).

• Another means by which the subordination and discrimination against women and girls is made visible is through cultural practices such as honor killings in Pakistan and India as well as female infanticide and sex-selective abortion in China and India. While in most parts of the world, there are more women than men, in China, men outnumber women by an estimated 30-40 million because of sex-selective abortions and female infanticide.

Slide 67

Assumption 3

• that within the household there is a clear division of labour based on gender. The man of the family, as the ‘breadwinner’, is primarily involved in productive work outside the home, while the woman as the housewife and ‘homemaker’ takes overall responsibility for the reproductive and domestic work involved in the organization of the household.

• While it is true that stereotyping has created a situation where women are largely responsible for reproductive work within the household, it is inaccurate to say that they do not participate in productive work.

• Women, unlike men, are thus overburdened. Time use studies consistently show this.

Slide 68

Summary

• In this third session, we defined a household and distinguished between households and families.

• We discussed different types of families.

• We have also identified different types of households and the power dynamics at play in terms of access and control of resources, decision-making and division of labour within such households. The section also highlighted some of the implications of women’s triple roles on their livelihood and overall wellbeing.

Slide 69

Activity 1

• Neria is a film about a Zimbabwean widow who falls prey to her greedy brother-in-law who takes her children and belongings. Can be found on YouTube: https://www.google.ca/#q=Neria+film

• Which of the assumptions about households does this film undermine?

Slide 70

https://www.google.ca/

Activity 2

• Using a household you are familiar with, analyse and discuss the relationship that exists between the adult members (man and wife/s or woman and husbands) of this household in terms of– equal access and control of household resources– equal decision-making powers– division of labour in this household taking into consideration productive

and reproductive labour.

• If there is a gendered division of labour, list the different roles performed by the man and woman, and explain the observed implications of these assigned gender roles on the sexes.

• If there is no gendered division of labour, discuss some of the factors that might have prevented or discouraged the traditional division of labour based on gender lines in this household.

Slide 71

References

• Blumberg, R. L. (1988). Income under Female vs Male Control: Differential Spending Patterns and the Consequences when Women Lose Control of Returns to Labour’, Draft Report Prepared for the World Bank, Washington, DC.

• Bradshaw, S.; Castellino, J.; and Diop, B. (2013). Women’s Role in Economic Development: Overcoming the Constraints. Background Paper for the High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

• Braun, T. (2015). Transforming Power Relations: Equal Status of Women and Men at the Family level in the Pacific. http://www.spc.int/en/news/450-transforming. Retrieved on September 6, 2016.

• GLSS (2014). The Ghana Living Standards Survey, Round Six Main Report, Accra: Ghana Statistical service.

• Jones, Adam (1999–2000). Case Study: Female Infanticide. Gendercide.org.• Mackintosh, M. (1981) ‘The sexual division of labour and the subordination of women’, in

K.Young, C.Wolkowitz and R.McCullagh (eds), Of Marriage and the Market, London: CSE. Pp.

• Moser, Caroline (1993). Gender Planning and Development: Theory, Practice and TrainingRoutledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE.

Slide 72

http://www.spc.int/en/news/450-transforming

Slide 73

Slide 74

Session Overview

• Provide overview of the session as done in the Study Guide. You can expand where necessary

Slide 75

Goals and Objectives

At the end of the session, each student will be to;

• Define…

• Explain the principles, importance, and basic…

• Describe the components of …

• Explain the …

Slide 76

Session Outline

The key topics to be covered in the session are as follows:• Topic One • Topic Two • Topic Three• Topic Four• Topic XXX

You are required to arrange your slides to reflect the outline provided, so that students know when topics start and end. This will also help the video editor breakdown your videos to reflect the sessions. It is advised that you have a minimum of three or four topics (approximately 30 minutes per topic) so that your videos are broken down to explain the key topics and for easy referral by students. You can divide a very broad topic to sub-topics where necessary

Slide 77

Activities and Assignments

This week, complete the following tasks:

• Log onto the UG Sakai LMS course site: http://sakai.ug.edu.gh/XXXXXXXXX

• Read assigned articles

• Watch the Videos for Session xx – xxx

• Review Lecture Slides: Session xx – xxx

• Visit the Chat Room and discuss the Forum question for Session xxx

Slide 78

Reading List

• Refer to students to relevant text/chapter or reading materials you will make available on Sakai

Slide 79

DEFINING RESEARCH

Topic One

Slide 80

What is Research

• XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Slide 81

Sample Question

• The journalist ‘Anas’ is usually engaged in a number of investigative assignments which generate reports on ills in society. By exposing these ills, Anas seeks to make society better. He has won a number of international awards in recognition of his reports.

• From your understanding of research, do you think Anas is conducting research?

Slide 82

THE RESEARCH PROCESS

Topic Two

Slide 83

Research Process


Slide 84

TYPES OF RESEARCH

Topic Three

Slide 85

TYPES OF RESEARCH


Slide 86

DOING RESEARCH

Topic Four

Slide 87

Doing Research


Slide 88

References


Slide 89

Documents

UGRC 231: Gender and Development - · PDF file•Go to the Wikipedia site and find information about ... technological advancement ... Unequal access to education and training. 3