Republic of the Philippines

MODULE Province of Aklan

06
Municipality of Libacao

LIBACAO COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

NSTP Libacao, Aklan

UNDERSTANDING THE
NATIONAL SERVICE
TRAINING PROGRAM
A Modular Worktext for Civic Welfare Training Service 1 (CWTS 1)
Module 6
INTRODUCTION
This module was designed and written with you in mind. It is here to help
you master the different competencies. The scope of this module permits it to be
used in many different learning situations. The language used recognizes the
diverse vocabulary level of learners. The lessons are arranged to follow the
standard sequence of the course. But the order in which you read them can be
changed to correspond with the textbook you are now using.

This module highlights the role of gender in development. The purpose of

the module is to introduce students to the major debates in the field of gender
and development. It examines various developments in the concepts of gender
and development and how they have been adopted into theory and practice of
feminism and development in general. Further, it traces the historical evolution
of the three central critical perspectives to understand gender and development,
outlined by Eva Rathgeber (1990): Women in Development (WID), Women and
Development (WAD) and Gender and Development (GAD). Thus, the module
fundamentally introduces students to the main critical perspectives to study
and implement development issues and projects from a gender lens.

This module is focused on:

Lesson 1 – Gender and Development

After going through this module, you are expected to

 Discuss the basic concepts of sex, gender, gender identity and sexual
orientation;

 Recognize the current gender situation and gender concerns in the

Philippines ;

 Discuss practices upholding gender-sensitive culture.

2
 Lesson
01 Gender and Development

Gender and Development: An Overview

Why gender?

Gender is a development issue (Momsen, 2010) and development is a

gender issue. The varied modes of and efforts at development across the
society pre and post globalization and liberalization have affected women
and men differently. Increasingly, with betterment in technology and
modernization of agriculture, traditional livelihood forms have further
exacerbated the status of women in the processes of development today.
With restricted (and many times denied) access to and control over
productive resources and increasing exclusion from newer modes of
production, women are being left out of the positive impacts of development.
Unequal gender relations are thus facing newer pressures which are playing
crucial role in the results of development. Gender relations as the socially
constructed form of relations between women and men are unequal and
usually favor men in terms of access to power, resources and status.
Scholars, for long, have been examining the ways in which development
processes affect and are affected by the particular gender relations in a
society. And it’s been long established that there is a strong and significant
relationship between women’s status and the level of development in any
society. UN in its Sustainable Development Goals and earlier millennium
development goals also consider improvement of women’s status as a top
priority (See box no.1). UN WOMEN has consistently asserting why gender
equality matters for social progress and development of any society (See
http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2016/0
8/5_Why-itMatters_GenderEquality_2p.pdf). With such recognition, since
many decades, to enhance women’s participation in the developmental
processes of the society and to achieve social justice with gender equality;
various approaches have been and are being used by various stakeholders 3
of development. These include: welfare, efficiency, anti-poverty,
mainstreaming, empowerment, etc.

3
 1.2. Women’s World Conferences:

The focus on women’s education, legal rights, health, economic

independence and political participation in the SDGs is a result of various
efforts by women activists and organizations over decades. Women’s
organizations, groups and conferences organized at international levels like
in Mexico, Beijing, Nairobi and Copenhagen have been fairly successful in
putting gender as a crucial agenda in development globally (See box 2).

Development officials and professionals have been made to recognize

that women and men have different needs, concerns, opportunities,
vulnerabilities and aspirations with respect to their development. The
development process thus must be cognizant of these differences. It has
been well stressed that gender blind development causes a loss of half the
human capital and potential; and does not have costs only for women but
also men, ultimately hindering the development of the society as a whole. It’s
been well recognized that the fast economic growth is not enough. In
countries of the global North as well as the South, though it has certainly
reduced economic disparity among women and men, the gaps in the political
and social domain continue to be wide and persistent

1.3.Current responses and status

Addressing the gender-based inequities and inequalities of opportunities

and resources in development processes requires addressing women’s
particular issues as these inequities result out of women’s restricted or no
access to and control over livelihood resources and various other
socio-political and cultural factors that affect such restrictions.

Any effort to reduce poverty; enhance employment opportunities; provide

health and education access for all and ensure access to land and technology
in the way of achieving development requires addressal of gender inequities
(UNWOMEN, 2014). In response to various studies arguing that development
is not benefitting women in their situations, the 1995 Beijing Platform for
Action mandated gender mainstreaming as a smart and sensible strategy to
achieve women’s empowerment and gender justice at all levels of
development.

4
Topic 2. Gender and Development: Theoretical Evolution and Intersection

This section outlines a number of frameworks within feminism and

development; and intersection between these. Over decades, scholars have
attempted to understand development and women’s status through various
lenses and have suggested solutions for development and women’s
empowerment in different ways. This section sets the historical context to
understand the origin and evolution of development and feminist
frameworks. It significantly explains how feminist frameworks intersected
with existing development frameworks to develop newer frameworks that
offer solutions to the problems of women within the totality of development
paradigm.

In particular, the section establishes how these intersections culminated

to originate three major feminist development frameworks: WID, WAD and
GAD. Going back as far as 1930s, development efforts ignored women’s
existence and their concerns. Soon, Western development professionals
followed the tenets of the theory of modernization wherein development was
thought to be a linear path to progress. According to this theory, countries
and societies could become developed by adopting westernization and
modernization of techniques. It was thought that traditional societies like
those in the third world could surpass their historic impediments by
embracing modern, Western-like values, institutions and technologies.
During the 1940s, 1950s and the 1960s, modernization framework (main
proponents include Walter Rostow, W.A. Lewis, Talcott Parsons, and Daniel
Lerner.) was widely adopted to understand and develop societies. Many
colonized countries got independence in 1940s and the new development
experts of the newly independent nations primarily adopted modernization
paradigm to achieve economic development. During this period, the US
emerged as the hegemonic power and a model for modernization channeled
development. Until this period, women were largely absent from development
plans and practices of all nations.

Women were visiblized for the first time in development debates with the
arrival of Boserup’s 1970 book. Ester Boserup in Women’s Role in
Development, for the first time, examined the role 8 of women in
development and the impact of development projects on Third World women.
Before this, very few questioned the impact of economic prosperity across
classes, races and gender groups. Boserup highlighted that modern

5
 development projects undermined women’s economic roles, opportunities
and autonomy. New technological trainings ignored women and reduced
women’s access to technology and paid work. During the period, it was
asserted that benefits from technology oriented modern development
projects will trickle down to women and other marginalized groups of the
society. The book brought to the fore that it was not happening. Women in
the US also challenged this idea of trickle down and took up this gender
issue in development. They started using the term women in development
and tried to influence US policies. They pushed United States Agency for
International Development (USAID) to make dedicated strategies to include
women in national economies and development plans and processes.
Simultaneously, liberal feminism emerged which called for equal
opportunity and gender equality, primarily in public sphere. Liberal
feminists aimed at equal access to education, jobs, equal pay and good
working conditions for women. Their target was legal changes to achieve
such goals of equal opportunities for women in development. The merging of
the tenets of liberal feminism and modernization development theory is
represented in WID approach to gender and development. The main
characteristic of this period was a call for inclusion and integration of women
in paid work and economies.

Sex and Gender

SEX GENDER

6
 Sex is the biological
characteristics of women It is the socially constructed
and men. roles, relationships, and processes,
ascribed to women and men on the
Or; basis of their sex. It takes into
account a range of social and
Biological reproduction cultural factors in different settings
that distinguishes men and and situations.
women such as male
sperms, female eggs, It varies in time and space, an
menstruation, pregnancy, acquired identity which is learned
childbirth, labour and and therefore can and does change
breaking of voice. These are over time, within and across
predetermined and constant cultures.
characteristics.

Is it Sex or Gender? Response

Women give birth to babies men do not Sex
Little girls are gentle, little boys are
Gender
tough
Women can breast feed babies men
Sex
cannot
Most political leaders are men Gender
Men’s voices break at puberty women’s
Sex
don’t

Money is more important for men than

Gender
women

Women are better cooks than men Gender

Women are more caring than men Gender

7
 A man should be sexually experienced at
Gender
marriage

Men have stronger sexual needs than

Gender
women

Men are better household heads than

Gender
women

Gender equity takes into consideration the differences in women’s and men’s
lives and recognises that different approaches may be needed to produce
outcomes that are equitable (opportunities, benefits, losses, use of space and
voice).
Gender equality is based on the premise that women and men should be
treated based on human rights principles even as there are different life
experiences between them.
Gender sensitivity means that a differentiation is made between the needs and
priorities of men and women; the views and ideas of both men and women are
taken seriously; action is taken to address inequalities or imbalance between
men and women.
Gender Relations. The ways in which society defines rights, responsibilities and
identities of women and men in relation to one another which leads to the
persistence of inequalities. Gender relations cannot be avoided because women
and men are interacting all the time in public and private spaces in the society.
Gender Balance. Having the same (or a sufficient) number of women and men at
all levels within an organization to ensure equal representation and
participation in all areas of the activity and interest.

Sex Disaggregated Data. For a gender analysis, all data should be separated by
sex in order to allow differences between men and women in needs, action and
results to be identified.

Gender Mainstreaming. The consideration of gender equality in all policy,

programmes, administrative and financial activities, and in organisational
procedures. The systematic integration of the different needs, interests, and
priorities of women and men in all the organization’s policies, projects and
activities.

8
References

http://epgp.inflibnet.ac.in/epgpdata/uploads/epgp_content/S000032SW/P00
1714/M021053/ET/150910255316-GADIntroduction-Text.pdf
https://www.ohchr.org/en/issues/pages/whatarehumanrights.aspx
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rights-human/
https://eachother.org.uk/what-is-dignity-and-what-does-it-have-to-do-with-o
ur-rights/
https://rm.coe.int/168062f74c
https://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/law/currentstudents/undergraduatemodu
les/2018-19/module/?moduleCode=LAW3171&ay=2018/9
https://leocontent.acu.edu.au/file/4b6f57b3-f707-4724-b00f-ad1ffce0aa63/4
0/UNCC300_Module2_PRINT.pdf
https://nstp.upd.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/NSTP-Common-Mod
ule-Syllabus_v2016.pdf