Third World Women in the Development Process: Feminist Thoughts and Debates (original) (raw)
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Women and Development- Issues and Challenges
2018
The discourse on development has traditionally constructed women as beneficiaries and not as key players in creating an equitable society. The deep rooted patriarchal structures coupled with the hegemonic tendencies of the neo liberal state have further pushed them to the margins. However, women constitute half of the humanity and any discursive space would offer only a partial account of progress if it fails to take note of their vast potential. It is imperative, therefore, that any development agenda must evolve a nuanced approach that factors in the differentials – whether it be caste, class, race, sexuality and religion or a combination of all three. The writings in this book cover a wide spectrum of issues from a gendered perspective, critically scrutinizing existing policies and attempting to signal towards the alternative models. Among the themes discussed are: • Deconstructing development from a gendered perspective :Ideological debates • The discourse on rights and resisting inequalities • Reviewing and recasting initiatives: Policies and programmes • Women and media • Viewing women as beneficiaries or determinants? With its interdisciplinary character related to the development discourse in the context of women, this collection of papers will be of great interest to sociologists, historians, political scientists, educationists, home scientists, and those interested in gender studies and policy making.
Critically analyse the contribution of feminism to contemporary development thinking
During the last three decades, sociologists have studied the increasing presence of women in both developmental studies, and practice. At the same time, most international organizations, especially the United Nations development fund for women, have emphasized the empowerment of women, alongside gender mainstreaming in developmental initiatives (World Conferences on Women). The international organizations have focused on the integration of women as a means to increase gender equality in development projects, but have experienced several challenges (Tinker, 2002). The escalations of feminism through debates, protests, intellectual pursuits, and contributions to revolutions, have paved the way for the integration of women in development thinking (Epstein, 2001).
Feminisms in Development: Contradictions, Contestations and Challenges
2008
The contributors to this book are from the North and South and include trainers on development issues, a filmmaker, policy-makers, advisers to large international NGOs (INGOs) and United Nations programmes, as well as academics. In acknowledgement of the frequently uneasy relationship between feminism and development, this book is an attempt to reposition feminism within development studies. Its central argument is that many development institutions function through bureaucratic structures and unequal power differentials that undermine feminist intentions. Maxine Molyneux's powerful concluding chapter challenges the myth, as she sees it, 'that gender has been so successfully mainstreamed into development policy that there is now little need for women's projects and programmes, or indeed for women's policy units' (p. 227). Certainly, there has been significant progress with female literacy, longevity, health and access to political life. [1] Yet Molyneux is concerned about the 'globalization of feminism, ' that is, a process in which 'the transformative agenda has been captured by power, co-opted and instrumentalized, and its political vision has been neutralized, where not excised' (p. 234). Many of the 18 essays explore aspects of this process of neutralization and seek to resist it. Many authors are concerned to reopen questions seen as settled. The book's subtitle, 'contradictions, contestations and challenges' is a testament to the contributors' scrutiny of assumptions concerning gender and development. The editors affirm the pluralist nature of feminism, and argue also that '"development" covers a multitude of theoretical and political stances and a wide diversity of practices' (p. 1). They reflect on the fact that despite the engagement within gender and development (GAD) research and the abundant literature on gender mainstreaming, the project of social transformation that is at the height of feminists' activism and engagement
DergiPark (Istanbul University), 2016
Beginning in the 1970s, neoliberal policies have been implemented to resolve the economic crisis due to the stage of capital reaches in all over the world. These policies associated with liberating market and reducing government expenditures. The policies designed by international institutions aimed to create development through economic growth. The socioeconomic effect of this transformation process on the societies in developing countries has been a popular research subject in the development literature. However recent research has revealed that the development process does not have the same effect on women`s and men`s economic and social position in developing countries. Regarding to this fact, today women-gender and development approach is the most functional theoretical tool by researching women's experiences in development process. In this context, the main aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of women-gender and development approach by scrutinizing its emergence and progress within development literature.
Third World Critiques of Western Feminist Theory in the Post-Development Era
2006
A criticism that is often made of feminist theory in the United States is that its basic tenets and conclusions only apply to women in developed industrialized countries. Drawing upon this major statement, the paper examines ongoing dialogues articulated between U.S. and Third World feminist thought or -more broadly stated- between Western and Non Western feminism. The paper devotes particular attention to feminist theorization about the role of women in development processes and the advancement of women’s status as discussed by major frameworks in the field. Main feminist approaches to development, as usually found in the literature, constitute multifaceted road maps into the field, more than totally coherent and mutually exclusive narratives. As helpful as they may be, these frameworks were mostly developed under the influence of subsequent versions of Western feminist theory, exporting to the rest of the world a set of visions and strategies that were context specific for Western women’s movements. The paper scrutinizes the principal limitations that Third World feminist scholars have encountered in U.S. and European feminism to explain and interpret the advancement of women’s rights in the developing world. Eliciting relevant criticism from scholars working within different theoretical traditions and drawing upon critiques from structural/historical analysis to actor oriented perspectives, the analysis brings to the fore the potentiality that these contributions entail for the understanding of women’s status in less developed countries.
Women, Development and the State: On the Theoretical Impasse
Development and Change, 1986
Asoka Bandarage is to be applauded for her massive review of the literature on women and development which appeared in Development and Change (15[3], 1984) in her article on 'Women, in Development: Liberalism, Marxism and Marxism-Feminism'. She discusses important linkages that need to be taken into account in this field and confirms the necessity for making gender central to development studies. After a thoroughgoing critique of what she calls liberal feminism, she outlines Marxist-feminist approaches which she then concludes now to be at a theoretical impasse.
Gender Issues in Development-Concerns for the 21st Century
Social Change, 2009
It is not an exaggeration if one claims that it took decades to transform the perspective towards women, or rather gender in a broader context, in the discourse of development. The book, "Gender Issues in Development: Concerns for the 21st Century", is an attempt to position Indian Woman within this embryonic spectrum. The editors state that the scope of the book doesn't contain issues related to women's health. The first chapter by the editors sets the tone for the subsequent chapters, which are independent papers, and the book in general. They also take an account of social and cultural location of women and the economics of gender in the Indian context, in this chapter.
Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 2020
The sufferings of women in the society and other acts of discrimination against women resulted in the rise of women or feminist movements worldwide especially in the Northern countries of the globe. As a result of the dehumanization of women in most communities of the world, many activists and women movements evolved to proffer solutions to women and gender issues. This paper examined the contributions of international, regional, national and local women’s movements to development. The paper delved into the Waves of Feminism which made various changes and resulted in major freedom and development for women in education, family life, health wise, employment and politics. It looked at the importance of women to economic development. Various women’s movements and networks were discussed. Challenges of these women’s movements were identified and recommendations were made. The paper employed secondary sources for information for the study.
Gender & Development, 2005
Welcome to the Feminist Values in Research issue of Gender & Development. In May 2018, Gender & Development and the Women and Development Study Group of the UK Development Studies Association (DSA) co-hosted a seminar of the same title, to celebrate the journal's 25 th birthday. This issue includes articles initially presented there, alongside a range of others, commissioned in line with our usual practice from an open Call for Contributions. To ensure international development supports women's rights and gender equality, it is essential that feminist values infuse and underpin every aspect of research. Feminist values in research may be understood in a variety of ways. The overarching goal is to create spaces and opportunities to reveal lived realities of power inequalities and difference, and provide evidence that can be deployed in working towards addressing these engrained inequalities. Feminist values are most often deployed to challenge the continued marginalisation of poor women and girls from decision-making, resources and opportunities in a range of contexts. Feminist values and a related focus on 'gender' can also allow us to talk about sexual orientation and gender identities in all their diversity, and gendered power relations between individuals and groups. Our starting point in the curation of the workshop that inspired this issue of the journal is that the research process should reflect feminist values, empowering all who participate in it. Research into the gendered nature of development and analysis of its failure to recognise and/or respond to the differential needs and challenges of women and men is a critical part of feminist activism and transformation, and this is as true today as it was when Gender & Development was launched. Above all, feminist researchers in international development are interested in power: its nature, the ways it can be wielded, and by whom. We are interested in the effect powerful institutions and the elites who head them have on gender inequality, the material effects of which tend disproportionately to affect women and girls living in poverty in the global South. We want to understand how the slow progress to women's equal rights is going, where it is encountering resistance, and how women and girlsin particular the most marginalised-are finding opportunities to negotiate with the powerful, find spaces for resistance, and organise for empowerment. The political project that we all share, to achieve gender equality by asserting full and equal rights, is about using agency-'power to' and 'power with'to challenge patriarchal 'power-over'.