GENDER ISSUES AND

DEVELOPEMENT
GENDER ISSUES IN DEVELOPMENT
 STUDY SUMMARY
Learning outcome
By the end of this module you should be able to:
• Define different concepts used in Gender and their
application to development
• Discuss Gender issues in Development
• Explain the role of gender in Development
 Why Gender matters in Development
 GENDER CONCEPTS
SEX
• Identifies the biological differences between
men and women
• Is natural and, for the most part
Unchangeable?
• Created/born male or female
• Determined by biological and physical
condition e.g. hormones and genitalia.
 GENDER
• Gender is defined as socially constructed
norms and ideologies which determine the
behaviour and actions of men and women

• Identifies the social relationship between men

and women

• Relates to how we are perceived and expected

to think and act as women and men
 GENDER

• Gender relations are contextually specific and

often change in response to altering economic
,social, and political circumstances

• Societies create and assign gender attributes,

roles and relationships to girls and boys,
women and men
 SEX VS GENDER
SEX GENDER
• Biological characteristics • Socially constructed set of
(including genetics, roles and responsibilities
anatomy and physiology) associated with being girl
that generally define and or boy, women and m
humans as female or male. men, and in some cultures a
third or other gender.

• Born with it • Not born with it

• Natural • Learned
 SEX VS GENDER
• Universal, A-historical • Gender roles vary
• No variation from greatly in different
culture to culture or societies, cultures and
time to time. historical periods as
well as they depend
also on socio-economic
factors, age, education,
ethnicity and religion
 SEX VS GENDER
sex Gender
• Cannot be changed, • Although deeply rooted,
except with the medical gender roles can be
treatment. changed over time,
since social values and
norms are not static.
 Gender Equality
• It refers to an equal presentation, rights,
responsibility and participation of women
and men in all spheres of private and public
life
• E.g. legal system, constitutions, Political
sphere, Economic Sphere, Social Sphere etc.
 Importance of Gender Equality
Gender equality: equal opportunities for all. It involves:
 equal access to development resources, benefits or
services
 equal opportunities to participate in development
processes
 equal sharing and control of benefits resulting from
development processes
 equal access to information that will enable them to
know their rights and obligations as men/women in
access, ownership and control of resources and benefits
 Importance of Gender Equality
• In the context of the world of work, equality
between women and men includes the following
elements:
– Equality of opportunity and treatment in
employment
– Equal remuneration for work of equal value
– Equal access to safe and healthy working
environments and to social security
– Equality in obtaining meaningful career development
– Equal participation in decision-making at all levels
 Gender Equity
• Justice and fairness in the treatment of
women and men
• Denotes the equivalence in life outcomes for
women and men, recognizing their different
needs and interests, and requiring a
redistribution of power and resources.
 Gender Equity
Gender equity reffers to fair opportunity for
both men and women in :
 access to resources
 participation
 control of development resources
 provision of opportunities to disadvantaged
groups to enable them “catch up” in order to
have a more just society
 Gender inequality
Patterns of inequalities
 Political power and representation:
Women are often underrepresented in formal
decision-making structures, including
governments, community councils, and policy-
making institutions.
 Cont.….
 Economic participation and opportunities:
In most countries, women and men are
distributed differently across sectors.
Women are receiving lower wages for similar
work, are more likely to be in low-paid jobs and
unsecured work (part-time, temporary, home-
based) and are likely to have less access than men
to productive assets such as education, skills,
property and credit.
 Gender Division of Labour
• Refers to classification and allocation of tasks
for women and men in the society. It usually
inflicts /poses gender stereotyping
• allows to see where there are gender gaps and
begin to think about remedial actions.
 Gender Analysis

• Systematic way of looking at the different

impacts of development on women and men
• Separates data by sex
• Done at all stages of development processes
– design, implementation, monitoring and
evaluation
 Gender Gap
• Arise when there is a gender disparity in devt
opportunities
• Rights, in the way gender roles are
organized
– Preferential treatment is given to boys/men
– Systematic discrimination of girls/women
 Gender Mainstreaming
• Is the integration of the gender perspective
into every stage of policy processes
– design, implementation, monitoring and
evaluation – with a view to promoting equality
between women and men
• It assess how policies impact on the life and
position of both women and men – and taking
responsibility to re-address imbalances
 Gender Mainstreaming
• Addressing issues of equality and
empowerment of women and men
• Requires strategies to integrate equality
concerns into programs, outputs and activities
 Gender Discrimination
• Expresses gender gaps, which are a result of
institutionalized differential treatment of
individuals on basis of their sex
• Involves systematic and structural
discrimination
 Gender Stereotype
• Gender stereotypes: are the generalization
and assigning of roles, tasks and
responsibilities specifically for female or male
on the bias of predetermined prejudice. e.g
secretarial is perceived as a female role.
• Reflects people's attitudes, perceptions and
practices on gender division of labor
• perception on how men and women should
behave in the community.
 Female stereotypic roles & characteristics:

 Caring
 Loving
 Get married & have children
 Nurturing the family
 Giving priority to family welfare than hers
 Beautification
 Male stereotypic roles & characteristics:
 Has to marry
 Courageous
 Independent
 Control his emotions
 Initiate intimate relationship & sex
 Financial provider for the family
 Self-confident
 Violent
 Gender and Development
• Gender is considered a critical element in
achieving Decent Work for both Women and
Men, in order to effect social and institutional
change that leads to sustainable development
with equity and growth.
 Evolution of Gender approaches to
development 1940s, 1950s and 1960s,
• Within development policies and programmes,
women were only viewed as mothers and
housewives, their economic activities and
contributions were ignored and not valued
• Development theorists and planners saw men as the
agents and actors of development.
• Men were seen to be the breadwinners of their
families.
• Women were invisible and totally left out of
development
 Women In Development (WID) 1970s
• The term WID was coined in the early 1970s by a
Washington-based network of female development
professionals
• The proponent of this approach argued that: women are
ignored and excluded from the development programmes
• They challenged the theories of development, arguing that
modernization was impacting differently on men and
women.
• Instead of improving women’s status and rights, the
development process appeared to be contributing to a
deterioration of women’s positions
 cont
• Particular attention was paid to women’s productive
labour, rather than social welfare and reproductive
concerns.
• Therefore, social welfare and reproductive concerns was
the central concern of the women’s movement under
WID approach.
• It was believed that development can not be delivered
without integrating women in the development process
• The integration was advocated in the social& economic
issues ( e.g equal rights, employment) as well as
economic aspects
 cont
• WID advocates rejected the narrow view of women’s roles (as
mothers and wives) underlying much of development policy
concerning women.
• In general, instead of characterizing women as needy
beneficiaries, WID arguments represent women as productive
members of society.
• No longer, therefore, should women be seen as passive
recipients of welfare programmes but rather as active
contributors to economic development.
• Women can thus be seen as a missing link in development; up
till now undervalued economic resource in the development
process
Women and Development (WAD) framework (1975-1980):

• The United Nations in 1975-1985 put the themes

of its conferences to be equality, development
and peace. It was during this time when the
WAD approach was introduced.
• Is an approach which recognize that women have
been always the heart of development process.
• It focuses on the relationship between men and
women in the development process rather than
strategies in integrating women in development
process.
 GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT (GAD)
• GAD offers an alternative and potentially more
powerful position shifting away from the WID and
WAD approaches and the marginalization of women.
• GAD starts from the premise that women have
always participated in development but from an
unequal and unacknowledged position.
• Proponents of this approach saw the limitations of
WID&WAD and argued that, “women would never
get their equal share of development benefits unless
patriarchy and global inequality are addressed”.
 Cont.
 GAD is not advocating for WID’s “adding
women” into the development process, but
about rethinking development concepts and
practice as a whole through a gender lens.
GAD proponents believe that:
 the unequal power relations between men
women, and other disadvantaged groups
prevent these disadvantaged groups from
accessing, owning and controlling the resources.
• Also, the GAD proponents believe that
Women’s inequality exists not because they
are bypassed or marginalized by development
planners, but because women are not part of
the power structures
• And that, Gender relations impact on how
development programmes are planned and
implemented. This inevitably leads to
favouring one gender group (men).
 The GAD approach has the following principles

• Gender equality: rights, responsibilities and

opportunities are the same for women & men
without limitations set by stéréotypes
• Equity: justice feeling as regards rights
• Empowerment: appropriation of decision-
making, power autonomy, in view to have
equity
 Gender Empowerment approach
• Empowerment approach looks at positive
change on the practice of development.
• Women / men need to be looked at as active
agents of change, not passive/inactive
recipients of the development process.
• Gender empowerment therefore, advocates
for gender recognition in every step of
development
Why gender is a development Concern
• For development intervention
– Understanding that men and women, boys and girls
experience poverty differently and face different
barriers in accessing services, economic resources
and political opportunities help to target
development interventions
• It is a way of looking at how social norms and
power structures impact on the lives and
opportunities available to different groups of
men and women.
Why gender is a development Concern
• Gender helps to understand the relationship
between men and women in development in
terms of power relations, decision making, control
of resources and income in households-This
informs strategic interventions in devpment.

• It allows for the deeper understanding of the

socially constructed basis of gender differences and
how this impacts on relationships between men
and women.
 Why Gender is a Development Concern

• Gender allows for a more efficient use of

resources in development-
• Policy linkages
– Gender allows priorities of men and women to be
properly addressed and integrated into policy
documents of development initiatives.
 Cont…
• Gender enables development practitioners to
determine the behavior and actions of men
and women in a development interventions
– Understanding these gender relations and the
power dynamics behind them is a prerequisite for
understanding individuals’ access to and
distribution of resources, the ability to make
decisions and the way women and men, boys and
girls are affected by political processes and social
development
 Cont.
• (Mosser, 1993) notes that women need to be
considered and involved in planning and the
implementation of development projects, and that
this will benefit not only themselves but the whole
community by enabling women to become equal and
valued members of society
• Gender is an essential component to development.
Women make up half of the population, and are
therefore contributors and beneficiaries in the
development context.
 cont
• Women have demonstrated their value at the
decision making level and continue to rise within the
government, private sector and NGO sector as
essential stakeholders in the development of these
sectors
• Making girls and women visible in development
agendas encourages governments and donors to take
action. In:
1) Addressing girls’ completion of a quality
education
2) Women’s economic empowerment,
 cont
• 3) Universal access to sexual and reproductive
health and rights
• 4) Ending violence against women and girls,
• 5) Women’s voice and leadership influence
women’s participation in peace and security,
• 6) women’s contributions to environmental
sustainability.
– So there is a need for Gender awareness to assure
all these
 Gender awareness
Gender awareness
• is a necessary precursor of the ability to
identify women's needs in the development
process.
• It is also important to recognize that
development seeks to meet needs and to
increase participation and equality as well as
to increase productivity and welfare.
 The three essential elements in Gender
awareness
1) Recognizing that women have different and
special needs,
2) Recognizing that women are a disadvantaged
group relative to men
3) Recognizing that women's development
means working towards increased equality
and empowerment for women relative to
men (Longwe 1991
• To ensure this there must be gander mainstreaming
 Gender Mainstreaming
• Mainstreaming gender in development projects
has not only widened the scope of
development but it also ensures social inclusion

• Policy objectives have moved steadily from

‘women’s advancement’ to ‘gender equality’
and finally to ‘women’s empowerment.’ (Jahan
1995)
 International Conventions on Gender in
Tanzania
• Tanzania ratified the Convention on the
Elimination of Discrimination against
Women(CEDAW)in 1992. By accepting the
Convention,
• Tanzania is committed to undertake a series of
measures to end discrimination against
women in all forms, including:
 Cont….
• To incorporate the principle of equality of men and
women in their legal system,
• abolish all discriminatory laws and adopt appropriate
ones prohibiting discrimination against women
• To establish public institutions to ensure the effective
protection of women against discrimination
• To ensure elimination of all acts of discrimination
against women by persons, organizations or
enterprises
 Challenges facing Women
• Despite the advancement of women in the
political and professional level, there continues
to be discrimination at the cultural level that
hinders the progress of women in the villages
• Women continue to be marginalized in certain
areas of development
– These are seen in the areas of health, domestic
violence, and issues of women with disabilities,
economic downturns and natural disasters
 Road ahead

• What has been done so far by the government

• What are the challenges
• What should be done to mitigate gender
challenges