MALIEHA A.

KUSAIN
MPA-1B
PA

GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT

      Philippine Commission on Women defined Gender and Development as the development

perspective and process that is participatory and empowering, equitable, sustainable, free from
violence, respectful of human rights, supportive of self-determination and actualization of human
potentials. It seeks to achieve gender equality as a fundamental value that should be reflected in
development choices and contends that women are active agents of development, not just passive
recipients of development;

        Gender and Development was developed in the 1980’s as an alternative to the Women in
Development (WID) approach. Unlike WID, the GAD approach is not concerned specifically
with women, but with the way in which a society assigns roles, responsibilities, and expectations
to both men and women.

        GAD applies gender analysis to uncover the ways in which men and women work together,
presenting results in neutral terms of economics and competence.

       GAD focus primarily on two major frameworks, Gender Roles and Social Relations
Analysis. Gender role focus on social construction of identities within the household, it also
reveals the expectations from ‘maleness and femaleness’ in their relative access to resources.
Social relations analysis exposes the social dimensions of hierarchical power relations imbedded
in social institutions; also it’s determining influence on ‘the relative position of men and women
in society. In an attempt to create gender equality, (denoting women having same opportunities
as men, including ability to participate in the public sphere) GAD policies aim to redefine
traditional gender role expectations.

       Philippine Plan for Gender and Development, 1995-2025, is a National Plan that addresses,
provides and pursues full equality and development for men and women. Approved and adopted
by former President Fidel V. Ramos as Executive No. 273, on September 8, 1995, it is the
successor of the Philippine Development Plan for Women, 1989-1992 adopted by Executive No. 
348 of February 17, 1989.

       Three years after, DENR Administrative Order No. 98 – 15 dated May 27, 1998 came up as
the Revised Guidelines on the Implementation of Gender and Development (GAD) Activities in
the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in order to strengthen the DENR
GAD Focal Point System and accomplishing the GAD vision “Partnership of Empowered Men
and Women for Sustainable Development”.

      Republic Act No. 9710, otherwise known as the Magna Carta of Women was approved on
August 14, 2009 which mandates non-discriminatory and pro-gender equality and equity
measures to enable women’s participation in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of
policies and plan for national, regional and local development.
        A Memorandum Circular No. 2011 – 01 dated October 21, 2011 was released addressing to
all Government Departments including their attached agencies, offices, bureaus, State
Universalities and Colleges (SUCs), Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations (GOCCs)
and all other government instrumentalities as their guidelines and procedures for the
establishment, strengthening and institutionalization of the GAD Focal Point System (GFPS).

      Gender stereotypes are generalizations about the roles of each gender. Gender roles are
generally neither positive nor negative, they are simply inaccurate generalizations of the male
and female attributes. Since each person has individual desires, thoughts, and feelings, regardless
of their gender, these stereotypes are incredibly simplistic and do not at all describe the attributes
of every person of each gender.

         Here are some examples to simplify on how society works before Gender and Development
was formed: