BINDURA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE EDUCATION

DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY

NAME Mataire Munyaradzi

REG NUMBER B0924494

COURSE TITLE Gender and development

COURSE CODE DG 413

PROGRAMME Bachelor of Science Honours in Development Studies

LECTURER Mr. E Siziba

ASSIGNMENT TITLE

‘Perhaps one of the most important advances over the past thirty years is in gender-based

research and understanding of development challenges’. Discuss with reference to one

sectoral area of development, explore the way in which the shift from WID to WAD to

GAD advances or set back those understandings.

Over the years development programs have been criticized for ignoring gender roles and the
impact it has on women in the global south. However we see a shift to integrate women into
development programs in hopes of eradicating poverty and low social economical status
(Memorial University, 2013). In the last three decades, Women In Development, Woman And
Development and Gender And Development paradigms have been so pervasive that they have
shaped the course of development, especially were women are concerned. These approaches
have changed the way in which society has interacted with women and gender in the economic
sector. Gender is defined by FAO (2012) as the relations between men and women, both
perceptual and material. Gender is not determined biologically, as a result of sexual
characteristics of either women or men, but is constructed socially. It is a central organizing
principle of societies, and often governs the processes of production and reproduction,
consumption and distribution. Development is a specified state of growth or advancement.

Women In Development (WID) evolved in the in the early 1970s from a liberal feminist
framework. Its main purpose was to integrate women previously viewed as passive beneficiaries
of any advancement into the development process. Carr (1997) points out that during this are
development was only viewed in its economic sense. The approach therefore called for greater
attention to women in development policy and practice. Between men and women it emphasizes
the need to challenge existing gender roles and relations. The WID perspective marked an
important corrective action highlighting the fact that women need to be actively involved in
development as active agents if effective and efficient development is to be achieved.

Under WID, women’s subordination was seen in terms of their exclusion from the market
sphere and consequent limited control over resources. African countries viewed women as
second class in both economic and political circles, thus policies that sidelined women were
crafted. Since WID assumed that women were the same the world over, it gave women the
opportunity of getting actively involved in development. Hence therefore WID enhanced
people’s understanding of women’s development needs, particularly the need to improve
statistical measures of women’s work and also provide them with more employment
opportunities. Furthermore, WID addressed women’s practical needs by creating income
generating opportunities like access to credit facilities from financial institutions and setting up
sound and recognized self sustaining projects like cross border trading, weaving and crafting to
mention a few.

WID however viewed lack of women’s participation in development as a problem though it

however seeks to advance a number of strategies aimed at addressing the problem under focus.
Through women in development projects such as technology transfer, credit facilities and other
interventions that have a welfare orientation especially of on projects of hygiene literacy and or
child care are implemented. Also WID focuses on advocacy strategies that are for more and
equal participation of women in employment and other spheres of society economics in
particular. The other strategy is to increase women’s ability to manage the household by
practicing sound and proper family planning methods. Hence WID was more concerned with
what women could offer to the success of development as opposed to what development could.

Overholt (1984) says the approach has enhanced people’s understanding of development needs,
particularly the need to improve statistical measures of women’s work and to provide with more
opportunities for employment, therefore providing a platform to uplift their economic status in
the society.

When most countries attained their freedom in the 1950s and 1960s, women who took part in the
struggle for independence felt that they should also participate in nation building activities
together with men and this saw the birth of women and development (WAD) (Sorensen; 1998). It
is however important to note that the concept arose in the latter part of the 1970s and it criticized
WID. Its origins are in the argument that that there should be a development approach to women
that recognizes the dangers of integrating women into a patriarchal world. The central point of
WAD is that women should be empowered economically, they should be emancipated from
poverty as this will allow them to contribute and benefit from developments efforts (Oishi;
2002).

Furthermore it stresses the power of women in society in terms of their knowledge, work, goals
and their responsibilities and that the society should acknowledge the role that has always been
played by women in the society. It considers the modern day women who are involved in
activities at workplaces and at home in trying to improve the society. Agriculture is a key
activity that boosts the economy of many African countries and for long women are the ones
who had been taking part in ensuring that high yields or production is reached every year.
Connell et al (1999) is of the assertion that WAD points out that although women are involved in
such activities of development; the contributions of women have been overlooked and
marginalized in national and donor development plans. In the Zimbabwean context, women
provide the labour in most agricultural households but the men decides on how to spend the
income

It therefore follows that the WAD approach is centered on women only seeking the need to
create projects which are women centric, constructed to protect women’s interests from
patriarchal domination (Barientos, Kabeer and Hossain;2004). It is important to note that
marginalization and smallness of scale have limited the transformative potential of women. The
approach also sees women as a class, downplaying differences among women, particularly along
racial and ethnic lines. Moyoyetta (2004) is of the view that WAD sees both women and men as
not benefitting from the global economic structures because of disadvantages due to class and the
way wealth is distributed. The approach states that women’s status will only improve when
international structures become more equitable, it fails to see the existence of a patriarchal
society that exist within the international parameters which undermines women as far as
development is concerned. In a nutshell it ignores the question of social relations between men
and women and their impact in development.
The weaknesses of WID and WAD saw the birth of Gender and Development GAD in the 1980s.
It also emerged from the grassroots organizational experiences and writings of Third World
feminists. It grew mainly because there was lack of progress with WID as a policy in changing
women’s lives and influencing the broader development agenda (Rathgeber; 1994). GAD is
concerned with addressing the root, inequalities of both gender and class that create many of the
practical problems women experience in their daily lives as opposed to the WID approach that
views the absence of women in development plans and policies as the problem. Unlike the WID,
it addresses strategic interests such that it takes women as agents or enables women to become
agents, it can improve the position of women in society and can empower women and transform
gender relations and attitudes. Strategic interests for women arise from their disadvantaged
position in society relative to that of men. Strategic interests are long-term, related to improving
women's position. For example, empowering women to have more opportunities, greater access
to resources, and more equal participation with men in decision-making would be in the long-
term strategic interest of the majority of the world's men and women alike. A case to note is the
establishment of Women in mining in Zimbabwe. Its strength is on the ability to focus not just on
women but also on the social relations between women and men, be it in the workplace or in any
other settings it therefore seeks to address issues of access. One can argue that Zimbabwe had
traits of this paradigm at independence because men and women it the work place received the
same remuneration and they also had equal opportunities for employment.

According to Rathgeber (1994) all the feminist theoretical and policy models outlined have one
main weakness as they all assume that women are a homogenous group or category as they come
in contact with the development process. Hence they assume that all women in developing
countries especially in Africa have similar experiences, needs, problems, interest, goals and
aims. But the needs of middle class women are not the same as the urban or rural poor and so
development policies will affect both groups in the same way equally.

As asserted by Marxist theories, the WID WAD and GAD frameworks liberate, empower and
promote partnership and equitable distribution of resources and benefits. Although women are
not fully involved in issues of development, they are some who have managed to take part in
financial budgeting and management. For instance in the creation of the Women's World
Banking (WWB), a nonprofit financial institution created in 1979 to give poor female
entrepreneurs access to financing, market information, and training. WWB's goal is to help poor
women create wealth. It is also important to note that since the 1995 Beijing Conference on
Women there has been a surge in gender-responsive budgeting (Chiriga; 1998).

All The frameworks have made women to be recognized and also taken into consideration when
making decisions and when enacting laws. In Zimbabwe, the domestic violence act of 2007 was
formulated in line with the provisions of GAD. The United Nations, through its various agencies,
has also exhibited obvious shifts in its focus and its development thinking as it continues to
address women's issues. Pietila and Vickers (1990) documented these shifts and contributing
factors stating that during the 1950s to 1960s, women's issues were seen mainly within the
context of human rights. In the 1970s, the key role of women was better recognized, particularly
in relation to efforts to relieve or solve problems in the fields of population, food and economic
growth. In the United Nations' earlier decades, women had been seen as objects. The
organization made recommendations and enacted conventions for their protection and rights. In
the 1970s, the formula was to integrate women into development. Women were characteristically
seen as resources, and their contributions were sought to enhance the development process and
make it more efficient. For this purpose, the United Nations sought to improve the economic
status of women as well as nutrition, health, and education of women. It was often claimed that a
failure to fully integrate women into development efforts would be a waste of human resources.
Women's dignity and rights were not yet seen as a cause in themselves. The perennial nature of
women's contribution to the economic well-being of their country's population was still
unrecognized. In the 1980s the United Nations' Third Development Decade gave rise to a trend
towards seeing women as equals, as agents and beneficiaries in all sectors and at all levels of the
development process. The year 1985 became a turning point in the history of women's issues in
the UN system (Pietila and Vickers; 1990).

As much as the issue of empowerment is preached to women, the results are not forth coming
because most women especially those who live in the remote areas, they are unaware of their
rights and to those who have the information they are afraid of taking a step ahead because they
will be labeled and segregated from the rest of the society. More so, most women in African
countries are still economically dependent and this limits their efforts to pursue anything else that
is outside the basic needs of their families.

According to Moser (1993) WID, WAD and GAD gradually moved from an emphasis upon
culture and national character, as variables explaining underdevelopment, top a focus on
structural factors resulting from particular from relationships among industrialized and poor
countries over time. Violence against women is an increasingly serious problem in African
countries. As far as these frameworks have played a role in development it is also important to
note that domestic violence is still a major component if not in a limelight just as sexual
jealousies and suspicions caused by women leaving the home to work are a factor. So, too, is the
management of domestic finances. Men expect women to be able to stretch the household's
income to cover all necessities and leave some over for entertainment. Women are also routinely
harassed by strangers on the street especially when passing where commuter omnibus operators
park their vehicles and women are also harassed by their super-visors at their places of work.

In the light of the above discussion it can be noted that WID, WAD and GAD as development
approaches have laid a platform and a foundation for gender equality and equity the betterment
of women in developing countries. However they fall short in their numerous efforts to fully
articulate the experiences of gender and development in developing countries.
REFERENCES

Barrientos S, Kabeer N, Hossain N, (2004), The Gender Dimensions Of The Globalisation Of

Productions, ILO, Geneva

Carr M, (1997), New Pattern, Processed and Change In Human Geography, Nelson Thornes,
London

Connell W, Robert T, William A, (1999), Gender and Power, Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge

Chiriga J S, (1998), Perspectives on the Beijing Policy Process in SADC in Southern Africa in
Transition: A gendered Perspective, Sapes Books, Harare

Moser C O N, (1993), Gender planning and development theory, Practice and Training,
Routledge, London

Moyoyetta L, (2004), Women, Gender and Development, Women for change, Lusaka

Oishi N, (2002), Gender and Migration: An Integrative Approach, CCIM, San Diego

Overholt A, (1984), Gender roles in development Projects, Kumarian Press, Connecticut

Pietila H, Vickers J. (1990), Making women matter: the role of the United Nations. Zed Books,
London.

Sorensen B, (1998), Women and Post-Conflict Reconstruction: Issues and Sources, UNRISD,
Geneva

www.fao.org/docrep/007/y5608e/y5608e01.accesssed 06-05-12

http://www.jstor.org/stable/4191904/Rathgeber E M, (1994), WID, WAD, GAD: Trends in

Research and Practice, Journal of developing areas accessed 30/03/13