Women and development' is an inclusive term to signify concept
and a movement whose long term goal is the wellbeing of society -
the community of men, women and children "
The study of development with gender perspective needs to be
understood for the reasons that follow. The gender perspective in
development manifests the efforts towards ensuring equitable
distribution of fruits of development. The idea of gender as a
category has emerged as an outcome of the prevalent disparity
and discrimination between men and women in almost all
societies. Study of development and gender enables us to quantify
the results of development efforts and also reflects the relative
share of each segment of society which helps in devising sector
specific policies and goals
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 economic and political
activity.
The UNDP has emphasized gender equality and women
empowerment in the following four areas of development:
i) democratic government
ii) ii) poverty reduction
iii) iii) crisis prevention and recovery
iv) iv) environment and energy
v) v) I-IIVIAIDS.
Development is not sex neutral. It is biased towards men.
Women's exclusion from the development process at social and
political levels has not only cost them their due share in society,
but it has made the task sf achieving prosperity in developing
countries much more difficult.
The 1995 in the UN's Beijing Declaration:
The positive develapments that took place after the Beijing
Declaration were
increased awareness
policy reforms
improved legislative frameworks
Institutional developments at the national level. These
included actions in the following areas:
establishment of national policies and strategies for gender
equality
adherence to international and regional instruments for the
protection of human rights of women
increased diversity in the mechanisms promoting and
monitoring attention to gender equality
Attention to resource allocations through gender sensitive
budgeting efforts to engage men and boys more actively in
the promotion of gender equality.
The Millennium Task Force on Education and Gender Equality
identified the following three critical dimensions of empowerment
and enhanced participation of women in development
capabilities in the areas of education and health ,
access to opportunities and resources, i.e., to employment
and land
Agency, i.e., women's ability to participate in the decision
making processes in political institutions and policy making.
Few critical areas of gender empowerment and development are:
i) economic participation
Women are often perceived as unfit for certain types of
occupation which results in the segmentation of the
labour market. The reasons for labour market
discrimination against women as a category can be
because of the following reasons
a) internal dynamics of the labour
b) market external factors
The internal structure of the labour market demand certain
characteristics out of an occupation and women may be perceived
as net fitting into the frame. For example, more women are found
in the profession of managers, professionals or secretarial jobs
than in skilled manual jobs or plant and machine operators. The
discrimination against women is perceived as an outcome of a
series of external factors affecting woman's position in the labour
market, These factors are: Social characteristics of gender
sometimes determine women's positions in the labour market.
Women are bearers of specific social characteristics which. play a
major role in determining their labour market positions, The
traditional division of labour between men and women within the
family has a significant impact on their relationship in the labour
market Women tend to have leas investment in human capital or
training which renders them unsuitable for certain category of
jobs Women's overwhelming social responsibilities towards
family and children also has a bearing on their job preferences
which reduces their employment options and also partly explains
their low wages.
The discrimination against women in labour market, either due to
Gender and Development compelling external reasons or
perceived notions of labour market players results in the
following consequences. e It impacts the wages women command
in the market. Gender pay differential is the obvious outcome of
discriminations e Women are forced to accept low paying jobs It
results in productivity differences e Women's position in society
further deteriorates due to her subordinate status in job market.
ii) ii) economic opportunity
Traditionally as well as culturally, the role assigned to women in
many societies deprives them of economic opportunity. In most of
the society, women are vested with the responsibility of bearing,
rearing and caring of children. This prevents them from
participating in employment opportunities in the private sector,
as well as in the public sector
iii) iii) political empowerment
It is said that, there are three places where women have always
been excluded, ,these are military, religion, and politics, and it is
in the political arena that they have the least access. Women’s
political empowerment means equitable representation of women
in the decision making structure
iv) iv) educational attainment
Education is one of the fundamental prerequisites for
empowering women. Education helps in reducing infant and
maternal mortality.
Educational empowerment of women will
enhance self-esteem and self-confidence of women
develop the ability to think critically and
enable women to make informed choices in areas like
education, employment and health
v) v) Health and wellbeing.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) expects that every
mother maintains good health, learns the art of child care, has
normal delivery, and bears healthy children. A healthy mother is
required for the wellbeing of a family. Women are not in a better
position as compared to men in health and wellbeing because of
biological reasons.
The GDI was developed in 1995 by UNDP to consider gender
disparity on overall human development of a nation. The
indicators used for measuring HDI and GDI are common, but fir
GDI, it is further narrowed down to calculate gender specific
disparities in each parameter. The three areas which are used to
measure human capabilities for HDI are life expectancy to
measure longevity educational attainment or literacy level to
represent level of knowledge an appropriately adjusted real GDP
per capita to ensure a decent standard of living For the purpose
of calculating GDI, the above indices are adjusted to find out the
gender based results which explain the level of gender inequality
prevailing in a country. The GDI is designed to evaluate the
achievement of women along each of the following three
components life expectancy at birth , illiteracy level standard of
living reflected in income level of women Life expectancy at birth
is a reasonable indicator of a category (particularly women) in
achieving-growth and prosperity. It depends directly on the
following factors , health care in society in general availability of
facilities to mother and child e society's cultural' preferences.
