GENDER AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Dr. Carolina Matos

Lecturer in Sociology

Department of Sociology

City University London

Key points

• Millennium Development Goals: overview and some achievements• What does gender equality matter for development? • Gender and development: theoretical perspectives • Gender and poverty: challenges and implications• World Development Report 2012• Atlas of Gender and Development: a worldwide view• The case of Latin America and Brazil • The case of South Asia• Achievements in gender equality on Latin America and elsewhere• Seminar questions and conclusion

Video: Gender Equality: Now

• Gender Equality: Now (WorldFish) • (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4viXOGvvu0Y)

Millennium Development Goals and Beyond 2015

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger 2. Achieve universal primary education 3. Promote gender equality and empower women 4. Reduce child mortality 5. Improve maternal health 6. Combat HIV/Aids, malaria and other diseases 7. Ensure environmental sustainability 8. Global partnerships for development (http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/)

Gender and development: advancements and challenges

• The good news is that many things have changed for the better throughout the world:

• As the World Bank’s 2012 World Development report underlines, women have made gains in rights, in education, health and in access to jobs and livelihoods. In all, 136 countries now have explicit guarantees for the equality of all citizens and non-discrimination between men and women in their constitutions.

• Problems and challenges: • * Likelihood of women dying during childbirth in Sub-Saharan Africa and

parts of South Asia comparable to Northern Europe in the 19 th century;• * Death of women is higher in low and middle-income countries compared

with higher income nations• * Women continue to cluster in sectors and occupations characterized as

“female”

Why does gender equality matter for development?

• Gender equality is smart economics and is a question of efficiency, of making use of the resources and talent of a whole range of people

• Early debates: • * Written in the 18th century, Mary Wollstonecraft in The Vindication of the

Rights of Women argued that women ought to have an education, claiming that women are essential to the nation because they educate its children

• * Published in 1869, John Stuart Mill’s The Subjection of Women, who was in favour of votes for women and argued against the archetype of the ideal woman as mother, wife and homemaker, a powerful idea in the 19 th century

• Sen (1999) sees development as a process of expanding freedoms• Underlines a correlation between women’s agency and voice, education and

employment, plus the reduction of infant mortality and political participation

What do we mean by gender equality?*

• “Gender refers to the social, behavioural and cultural attributes, expectations and norms associated with being a woman or man. Gender equality refers to how these aspects determine how women and men relate to each other...”

• Equality of opportunities versus equality of outcomes: • “Those who defend framing gender equality as equality of opportunity argue

that it allows one to distinguish between inequalities that arise from circumstances beyond the control of individuals and those that stem form differences in preferences and choices…..Those who argue for equality of outcome argue that differences in preferences and attitudes are largely “learned”… – they are the result of culture and environment that lead men and women to internalize social norms and expectations. Persistent differences in power and status between men and women can become internalized in…behaviours and preferences that perpetuate the inequalities.”

• * The World Bank – World Development Report 2012

Gender and development: theoretical perspectives*

• The “welfare” approach dominated the first phase of development practices

• The predominance of this model was challenged, shifting the focus of development from growth to basic human needs

• Challenges and new perspectives: • * The Women and Development (WID) approach of the 1970’s became a

starting point for engagements with development as discourse and practice • I.e. Boserup’s study, Women’s Role in Economic Development• * The second challenge came from Marxism, and alternative models of state

socialist development• * In the 1980’s, critics questioned the development paradigm as a narrative

of progress. Sen built on the Basic Needs theory on poverty and the concept of human entitlements and capabilities (1987)

• * Shirin M. Rai, 2011

• * Shirin M. Rai, 2011

Gender and development: theoretical perspectives*

• Boserup and other scholars offered prescriptions regarding improving women’s standards of education and skills so that they might compete more effectively with men in the labour market

• Sen and others pointed out that Boserup assumed that ‘modernization’ was both beneficial and inevitable in the specific form it had taken in most developing countries, ignoring the process of capital accumulation set in motion during the colonial period.

• Beyond the basic needs theory and the focus on growth and income as indicators of development:

• Sen’s agency achievements - ‘of participation, empowerment and community life’. (BN and human capabilities influenced the Human Development Index of the UNDP).

Women’s empowerment (Sen, 1999)

• Agency and well-being - Sen (1999) highlights the shift in development thinking concerning the well-being of women towards the notion of women as active agents of change.

• Relationship between women’s voice, agency and empowerment:• “….. The relative deprivations in the well being of women were……are

clearly important for social justice….But it is also the case that the limited role of women’s active agency seriously afflicts the lives of all people….While there is every reason not to slacken the concern about women’s well-being and ill-being, and to continue to pay attention to the sufferings….of women, there is also an urgent and basic necessity…..to take an agent-oriented approach to women’s agenda.”

• Criticisms to the family as an altruistic space

• Child survival and the agency of women: “Countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Iran, those in West Asia often tend to have higher female mortality of infants and children…”

Social development and quality of life

Gender and Development

• By the 1980s, there had been a shift from the inclusion of women on development towards the transformation of gender relations as the major concern.

• Focuses on the gender domain of labour within the home and in waged work, access to and control over resources and benefits, material and social position of women and men in different contexts

• “The Gender and Development (GAD) approach is now the way in which most scholars and policy planners, as well as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, discuss the relationship between development processes and women’s inequality, often using “gender literacy” as a key phrase.” Was also worried about transforming unequal social/gender relations and to empower women.

• Criticisms: has not been able to influence development planning• WID and GAD have been accused of ethnocentrism by some. The post-

colonialist feminist critique emerged in the 1990’s, building on both

The ‘feminization’ of poverty*

• Both women and colonies have been seen as having served the very foundations of industrial development of the key Western nations (Acosta-Belem and Bose, 1993).

• What is understood by ‘poverty’?:• The last two decades have seen a broadening of the criteria used in poverty

definitions.• Poverty versus quality of life: • Key concepts within the more holistic approach to poverty include “entitlements”

and “capabilities” (Sen, 1981) and notions of “vulnerability” and “poverty as process” (Chambers, 1983).

• These perspectives stress how low incomes may not be problematic if people reside in adequate shelter, have access to services, or possess a healthy base of “assets”.

• These are not only economic, but encompass “human capital”, such as education and skills, and social capital, such as kin and friendship networks.

• * Chant, 2006 in Jacquette and Summerfield, 93.

• Empowerment of women is central issue to development

The "Third World women"

Women’s oppression in an age of globalization

• As Mohanty (1990) argues that, “the homogeneity of women as a group is produced not on the bases of biological essentials but on sociological universals. Women are characterised as a singular group on the basis of a shared oppression. What brings women together is a sociological notion of the ‘sameness’ of their oppression.”

• Focuses on 5 specific ways in which “women” is used in Western feminist discourse. Has looked at the work of Fran Hosken (on female genital mutilation) to writers from the Women in International Development School, who write about the effect of development policies

• Oppression of women in Africa x oppression of women in Europe:• “In the texts women are defined as victims of male violence; as victims of

the colonial process (Cutrufelli); victims of the Arab familial system….; victims of the economic development process…and victims of the Islamic code”.

Women, culture, development: a new paradigm? (Chua et al, 2000)

• Aims to provide a multi-ethnic and multiracial feminist approach to development studies, emphasising that an explicit engagement with culture can shift economistic and overly structural analyses, highlighting experiences, identities, practices and representations of Third World women.

• “Since the 1970s, feminist analyses have begun to disentangle this triple linkage and point to different ways of embedding cultural, that is, non-economic approaches in all discussions of women and Third World development…..This is best achieved….when ‘culture’ is viewed as the relationship between production and reproduction in women’s lives, and when women’s agency is made explicit.

• Women have either appeared as invisible or as “victims”: “…the invisibility of women in most writings about global and international development has meant that the labour, cultures and histories of women are rarely taken into account, or when they have been, women are most often seen as lacking agency, as merely victims in a system of cruel and unjust inequalities..

Atlas of Gender and Development: a worldwide view*

• There are differences in patterns of gender discrimination worldwide• There are huge differences in gender equality, reflecting factors such as

culture and religion, the rural-urban divide, the level of development and the political system

• Discriminatory features include: the high incidence of son preference in Asia; the prevalence of early marriage in some Asian and African countries; land ownership, rarely accessible by women, especially in Asia and Africa; restrictions on freedom of movement and of dress, mostly in the Middle East and North Africa and domestic violence in Latin America, Europe and central Asia.

• Progress has been made in some areas, including women’s job opportunities (i.e. in East Asia and Pacific in the last decades)

• * OECD (2010) “Worldview” in Atlas of Gender Development: How Social Norms Affect Gender Equality in Non-OECD Countries

East Asia and Pacific*• Gender discrimination in social institutions is low across 17 countries of the

East Asia and the Pacific region• Exceptions are China, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, of which figure in

the bottom half of the SIGI ranking and display high inequalities in terms of son preference

• Problems: • Discrimination in labour markets, education and political participation is an

issue for women in many parts of the region• Many women still work in the agricultural or informal sector • Improvements have included girls’ educational attainment and better job

opportunities for women, with newly created jobs in the export manufacturing sector

• * “Missing women” – 100 million “missing women” in South and East Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. (* Atlas of Gender and Development)

Europe and Central Asia*

• Women in Europe and Central Asia enjoy high levels of equality• The former Soviet system having been a driving force for introducing

gender equality into legal frameworks• Gender discrimination is considered low in the 17 countries, with Croatia,

Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine figuring among the top ten• There is little discrimination in the area of inheritance, with women and men

sharing equal rights and responsibilities within the family

• Problems?:• Violence against women, especially domestic violence, is a key issue• In Moldova, one third of female murder victims are killed by their husbands• The UK has a high rate of women working part-time, and has one of the

lowest levels of female political representation in Europe, together with Italy, France and Germany

Atlas of Gender and Development – The case of Latin America and Brazil*: a case study

• Gender discrimination is low across Latin America and the Caribbean, having one of the smallest range of gender disparity between the 22 countries

• All ranked countries are in the top half of the SIGI• Region has made significant progress in the last years promoting gender

equality over the past 20 years, especially in education and access to land• Women however still suffer from bias, mainly due to a deeply rooted

sexism, social stereotypes and a traditional view of the family. • Inequalities persist between men and women’s wage levels and career

prospects• Improvements have included legal and institutional frameworks securing

women’s rights, such as laws protecting women’s physical integrity passed in Paraguay in the 1990s

• * Atlas of Gender and Development

Structural inequalities and advancements

• The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC – UN 2004) underlined that full equity was reached in the 1990’s with access to primary education. These successes have not necessarily improved women’s position in the labour market or narrowed the wage gap.

• * Surveys have shown that women’s economic participation increased significantly in the 1990s, reaching nearly 50%, although it is still low among poor women.

• * Women still have higher unemployment rates than men,• * Women’s average labour income is lower than men’s and the gap is

especially pronounced in the case of the most highly qualified. • * Women are also outperforming men in terms of educational

achievements (i.e. political participation).

Achievements on gender equality in Latin America and Brazil

• Facts and figures from the World Bank (2011) on the gender gap:• The increase of the professional engagement of women in Latin

American society has translated into higher participation in politics, with the share of parliamentary seats held by women in the region at nearly 24%, the highest among all the regions in the world.

• Since the 1980s, nearly 70 million women have joined the labour market. It has doubled since the 1960s in the region, tripling in Brazil

• Maternal mortality rates have been declining continuously since the 1980s, dropping by 40% in the Caribbean and 70% in the Andean region. Latin American fertility rates are now as low as those of industrialized nations.

Brazil’s Bolsa Familia*

• For years, the poorest 60% of the population had only 4% of the wealth, while the richest 20% held 58% of the pie

• Programme has been in place for 10 years, and consists of giving poor families small cash transfers in return for keeping their children in school and attending preventive health care visits

• Income inequality fell to a Gini coefficient of 0.527• It reaches 14 million households, nearly 50 million people. It has

increased school attendance and grade progression. World Bank’s goals of eradicating poverty by 2030 and boosting prosperity draws from Brazil’s experience

• Role of social policy in development – “The ultimate goal of any welfare program is for its success to render it redundant.”

Ipea study: violence against women and measurement of sexism in Brazilian society

• 3.810 people of both sexes were interviewed in cities within the 5 main regions of the country during May-June 2013

• Respondents were asked to comment on 27 sentences as a means of assessing their levels of tolerance towards violence

• Controversy: It was initially announced that 65% of Brazilians supported attacks on women who wore revealing clothes. The number was later corrected to 25%.

• However, the researchers argued that in spite of the mistake, the results largely confirmed how sexism is still part of Brazilian culture.

• Conclusions: Large sectors of the population still endorse a vision of the nuclear patriarchal family, where women are still seen as an object of desire and ownership

• Only in 2009 did rape cease to be a crime against costumes, to be one against individual liberty and sexuality.

Social protection and the reduction of inequality*

• The 2012 World Development Report underlines four areas:• * Reducing gender gaps in human capital endowments (addressing excess

female mortality and eliminating pockets of gender disadvantage in education)

• * Closing earnings and productivity gaps between women and men• * Shrinking gender differences in voice• * Limiting the reproduction of gender inequality over time• Addressing gender gaps in human capital endowments requires fixing the

institutions that deliver public services . Education services need to focus on improving access for significant population groups that are currently disadvantaged by poverty, ethnicity, caste, race or geography.

• Policies to improve women’s economic opportunities• Closing gaps in access to assets and inputs

How do you achieve gender equality?• Improvements in infrastructure services• Interventions can also focus on reducing the time transactions costs

associated with access to markets• Strengthening women’s land and ownership rights can help female farmers

and entrepreneurs• Releasing women’s time, such as paying attention to child care and parental

leave policies• Other important initiatives include addressing discrimination in labour

markets• “In wage employment, the underrepresentation of women in certain sectors

or occupations can feed discriminatory beliefs among employers that women are not suitable workers or good candidates for employment. The importance of networks in job search and professional promotion can further reinforce women’s exclusion from certain jobs…..”

• * 2012 World Development Report – The World Bank

Case studies: UNDP’s Global Gender and Economic Policy Management

• (http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/ourwork/povertyreduction/focus_areas/focus_gender_and_poverty/gepmi/)

Seminar questions

• I. Choose one of the questions and discuss it briefly with your neighbour. Prepare yourself to answer these in the end of the next session.

• 1. Examine the relationship between gender discrimination and equality. What are the links and why does equality matter?

• 2. What have been some of the successes that we have in the world today? How far have we come? Think of examples

• 3. What are the challenges still to gender equality and citizenship? Think of a particular country to focus on and discuss what it has achieved in the last decades and what are the roadblocks that exist now that prevent further gender advancement in the future?

Selected bibliography• Acosta-Belem and Bose, C. (eds.) (1999) Researching Women in Latin America and

the Caribbean, Boulder CP: Westview• Chant, S. (2006) “Contributions of a Gender Perspective to the Analysis of Poverty”

in Women and Gender Equity in Development Theory and Practice, Durham and London: Duke University

• Mill, J. S (1997) The Subjection of Women, Dover Publications• Mohanty, Chandra Talpade (2005, 2000) “Under Western Eyes: Feminist

Scholarship and Colonial Discourses” in Feminist theory: a reader, Kolmer, Wendy K. and Kouski, Frances Bart, N York: McGraw Hill, 372-379

• Sen, A. (1999) Development as Reader, Oxford Paperbacks• Shirin, M. Rai (2011) “The history of international development: concepts and

contexts” in Visvanathan, N et al The Women, Gender and Development Reader, Routledge, 14-22

• Wollstonecraft, M. (1996) The Vindication of the Rights of Women, Dover Publications

• World Development Report 2012 – The World Bank