Quest

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Gender
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Cour
se:
SOC153

Year
:2013
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INTRODUCTION TO GENDER
BY
TAHSINA AKHTER
ASSISTANT PROFFESOR
UNIVERSITY OF DHAKA
INTRODUCTION TO GENDER STUDY

Introduction
What is Gender
Differences between the terms ‘Gender’ and
‘Sex’
Debates on nature and nurture
Boundaries and negotiations between men
and women
INTRODUCTION
1840, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, wife of Henry
Brewster Stanton along with Lucretia Mott
were barred at the World Anti-Slavery
Convention, because they were women.
1848, at Seneca Falls, New York, the 1st
women’s rights gathering was held. They
discussed the issues of discrimination of
black and women on property rights, enter into
business, testify against their husbands or
legal voting.
CONTINUE
1865, 13 Amendment to the Constitution
th

outlawed slavery in the United States and

citizenship to all African-Americans (14
th

Amendment) were accepted.

However, only black men were granted voting right.
Women of all races were denied suffrage.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other feminists
created the National Women Suffrage Association
and in 1920 women were granted right to vote
(19 Amendment to the Constitution).
th
SUFFRAGE MOVEMENTS IN USA

Suffrage parade,
New York City, May
6, 1912
"Woman suffrage headquarters ...
Cleveland" (1912)
WOMEN WHO FOUGHT FOR SUFFRAGE IN
USA

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

and daughter, Harriot Lucretia Mott
HISTORICAL STARTING OF WOMEN STUDIES

Traditional Status of women

Matriarchal.
In religion and written history: male dominance was
there, women were ‘weaker’ and ‘inferior’ to men.
Women were at disadvantage.
Education was limited to domestic skills, no access
to position or power.
Marriage was a necessity for protection and for
reproduction, mainly for male heirs.
BEGINNING OF CHANGE

Age of Renaissance and Enlightment:

Industrial revolution , brought about
enormous economic and social change,
providing a favorable climate for the rise of
feminism.
Mary Wollstonecraft, A vindication of the
rights of women (1792), the 1st major
feminist work, demanding equality in an
unflinchingly revolutionary tone.
CONTINUE

Women could work but husbands legally

controlled their pay, even though the
payment was lower.
1800s, new phase of change.
India abolished ‘sati’ ( self-immolation of
widows) and legalized inter-caste marriage.
France recognized women’s right to divorce.
China allowed women to hold office.
AFTER 1848
British feminists convened in 1855 the goal of
property right.
Publication of the ‘The Subjection of Women’
(1869)- John Stuart Mill (influenced by
discussions with his wife, Harriet Taylor Mill).
Colleges were found for women (such as
Girton in 1869, at Cambridge University).
1870, married women’s property right acts
were passed in England.
CONT.

Later, provisions were made for divorce,

maintenance payments, child support.
The suffragette movement , from 1800 to
1930, brought together women from a
diversity of social and educational
backgrounds in the context of winning the
vote.
 TH
20TH CENTURY
Suffrage was the primary goal of British and
American feminists at that time encountering
substantial resistance.
1893, New Zealand was the 1st country to give
women the right to vote.
Right to vote of women elsewhere in the world
was only granted after World War I.
China (1949) and Russia (1917) discouraged
patriarchal family system and supported sexual
equality, including birth control.
CONT.
Sweden, in 1930, established wide-ranging
programs of equal rights for women, which
included extensive child-care arrangements.
In Britain and the United States, progress was
comparatively slower.
After1960s, lower infant mortality rates,
soaring adult life expectancy, and availability
of contraceptive pill gave women greater
freedom from child care responsibilities.
CONT.
Divorce rates were rising.
More women propelled to the job market.
Women’s movements questioned social
institutions and moral values.
Key texts were: The Second Sex( 1949) by
Simone de Beauvoir; The Feminine Mystique
( 1963) by Betty Friedan; The Female Eunuch (
1970) by Germaine Greer; and of Women Born
( 1976) by Adrienne Rich.
GENDER AND SEX
The words sex and gender are commonly used
interchangeably, but many linguists would argue
that their usage is quite distinct. Sex refers to the
biological and physiological characteristics, while
gender refers to behaviors, roles, expectations,
and activities in society.
Sex refers to male or female, while gender refers
to masculine or feminine.
The differences in the sexes do not vary
throughout the world, but differences in gender do.

HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF
CHARACTERISTICS RELATED TO SEX:
Females can breastfeed
their babies, males can't
Males have deeper voices
than females
Females can get pregnant,
males can't
Males have testicles and
females have ovaries
CONT.
HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF
CHARACTERISTICS RELATED TO
GENDER:
Women tend to do more of the
housework than their spouses do
A higher percentage of US doctors
are women, compared to Egypt
Nursing is often seen as a
woman's job, although many men
enter the profession
In some countries women have to
cover their heads when they go
outside the house
120 years ago women were not
allowed to vote in elections
Another way of putting it is:
Sex refers to a natural or biological feature.
Gender refers to cultural or learned significance of sex.
According to Medilexicon's medical dictionary:
Sex is "The biologic character or quality that
distinguishes male and female from one another as
expressed by analysis of the person's gonadal,
morphologic (internal and external), chromosomal, and
hormonal characteristics."
Gender is "The category to which an individual is
assigned by self or others, on the basis of sex."
The word gender comes from Middle English
gendre, which came from Old French, which
in turn came from the Latin word genus,
meaning 'kind', 'type', or 'sort'.

The word sex probably comes from Middle

English, meaning 'section' or 'divide'. In Latin
the word sex means the number 'six'.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE
TERMS SEX AND GENDER?
Both terms are very closely related and it is quite
difficult to distinguish the exact meaning of the
terms. However, by no means is sex and gender
the same though people use these two words
thinking that they are synonyms. Gender is a set
of characteristics that are seen to distinguish
between male and female, whereas sex is either
of two divisions, male and female. Sex is usually
determined by the anatomy of a person. If you
delve deeply into the concepts sex and gender,
you will find out that a female who is named thus
due to the anatomy of the body could have male
characteristics such as preferring rough sports,
body strength, etc. While sex is biological gender
is posed by the society. 
CONT.
The American Heritage® Dictionary describes gender as
a sexual identity, especially in relation to society or
culture/ The condition of being female or male.
The American Heritage® Dictionary further explains that
gender as a word was used primarily to refer to the
grammatical categories of “masculine,” “feminine,” and
“neuter.” However, in recent years the word has become
well established in its use to refer to sex-based
categories, as in phrases such as gender gap and the
politics of gender. This usage is supported by the
practice of many sociologists and anthropologists who
use gender to refer to social or cultural categories.
For example, one would say,
In peasant societies, gender (not sex) roles are likely to
be more clearly defined.
According World Health Organization (WHO),
gender refers to the socially constructed
roles, behaviours, activities, and attributes
that a given society considers appropriate
for men and women. To explain simply,
masculine and feminine are gender
categories.
CONT.
According to the American Heritage Dictionary sex is
described as the property or quality by which
organisms are classified as female or male on the basis
of their reproductive organs and functions. Many
anthropologists reserve sex for reference to biological
categories only.
For example,
The effectiveness of the medication appears to depend
on the sex (not gender) of the patient.
According to World Health Organization (WHO), sex
refers to biological and physiological characteristics
that define men and women. To explain it simply, male
and female are sex categories.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SEX
AND GENDER: SUMMARY

• Sex depends on the anatomy. Gender depends

on the society or culture.
• Male and female are sex categories. Masculine
and feminine are gender categories.
• Sex characteristics do not vary substantially
between different human societies. Gender
characteristics do vary greatly between different
human societies.
So a gender difference is due to nurture, and a sex
difference is due to nature.
DR. ROBERT STOLLER
Dr. Robert Stoller, an American psychoanalyst,
was the 1st person to make distinction between
the terms ‘ Gender’ and ‘Sex’ in 1968.
He said, ‘Gender is a term that has psychological
and cultural connotations , if the proper terms
for sex are “male” and “female”, the
corresponding terms for gender are “masculine”
and “feminine”; these latter might be quite
independent of (biological) sex’. ( Cited in
Sociology; Haralambos and Holborn 1991: 521)
BOUNDARIES
The development of the idea of separate spheres in the social
science literature has stressed the assignment of women to the
domestic realm, men to the public one, the physical separation
between both spheres, and the social prestige attached to the
public domain. Research on sex and gender has been
influenced profoundly by the description of this basic structural
division between the sexes, the apparent universality of the
concept, and its explanatory power in the analysis of women's
experience (Bernard, 1981; Cott, 1977; Douglas, 1977; Rosaldo,
1974). Concurrently, the concept of separate spheres has been
criticized for its tendency to reify the division of social
experience into public/male and private/female worlds, and to
overlook the interactions between them (Kanter, 1976; Pleck,
1976; Rosaldo, 1980).
NEGOTIATIONS
In numerous studies of sex and gender researchers
have documented the ways in which men as a group
have power over women as a group.
Theorists have raised fundamental questions about
the sources of domination and have proposed
strategies for changing extant power relations
(Jaggar and Rothenberg, 1984).
Analyses of social life in the past and present reveal
the extent of male control through physical coercion
(e.g., Brownmiller, 1975;Russell, 1982),reproductive
policies (e.g., Gordon, 1977;P etchesky,1 980),the
institution of heterosexuality(e .g., MacKinnon,1 979;
Rich, 1980),economic exploitation( e.g., Eisenstein,
1979; MacKinnon, 1979), and ideology (e.g., Rapp,
1982; Rowbotham, 1973).
 CONT.
Regardless of the theoretical orientation, the assumption
is made that women are the passive victims of a system
of power or domination. We need to explore the various
ways women participate in setting up, maintaining, and
altering the system of gender relations. This statement
does not presume that women somehow ask for the
sexism they experience . Rather, we are suggesting that
there is more than one process going on, perhaps
simultaneously. Domination explains the ways women are
oppressed and either accommodate or resist, while
negotiation describes the ways women and men bargain
for privileges and resources. Given the considerable
scholarship about domination, we focus our discussion
on the process of negotiation, recognizing that the two
processes are interdependent and exist concurrently.
The concept of negotiation suggests human agency.
Both women and men are active participants,
sometimes asking or inviting, sometimes demanding
that resources be shared or real-located. Implicit in
this formulation is the recognition that both women
and men have some resources they initially control.
In addition, this conceptualization suggests that both
parties to a negotiation must somehow agree in
order for it to take effect. Not only must there be
mutuality in consent, but the process of negotiation
is reciprocal (cf. Blau, 1964; Bredemeier, 1978;
Homans, 1961).
CONCLUSION WITH EXAMPLE
The entry of women into the office as clerical workers
provides one such example of gender negotiation. Margery
Davies (1982) has shown that women were allowed into
the office only after the invention of the typewriter and its
popular acceptance as a tool for low-paid, unskilled labor.
In other words, women were "invited" into the office as
clerical workers, crossing a boundary that years earlier
they could not have trespassed. Office work for women
appeared to be a real asset to them since other
opportunities for wage earning were limited. Women may
choose to participate because they perceive possibilities
for economic gains or status enhancement. While we can
speak of individual women being invited into the office by
individual male bosses, it is important to remember that
the processes of invitation and negotiation operate on the
level of social groups.
Gender Socialization
Tahsina Akhter
 Gender Socialization

• Socialization is the process of internalizing

society's values in order to adapt to one's
culture .It influences how people behave as
males and females in society. The social
learning process that imbibes people into
understanding the various aspects of culture
includes the process of gender socialization.
Gender socialization encompasses the
process of learning society's gender roles and
their advantages and limitations.
 Gender Role
• Society expects different attitudes and
behaviors from boys and girls. Gender
socialization is the tendency for boys and
girls to be socialized differently. Boys are
raised to conform to the male gender role,
and girls are raised to conform to the
female gender or role. A gender role is a set
of behaviors, attitudes, and personality
characteristics expected and encouraged of
a person based on his or her sex.
 Cont.
• In most societies there is a clear
categorization of what it means to be male
or female. This categorization process
and the agents of socialization that
transmit knowledge about gender roles
influence how individuals define
themselves and other in terms of gender
and sex roles.
 Cont.
• In many societies gender roles are rigidly
defined. For instance men have traditionally
been expected to be strong, aggressive even
dominating. Women have been expected to be
nurturing, sensitive, emotional and relatively
passive. Children are taught these values both
consciously and subconsciously from a very
early age. This is further reinforced with the
use of toys as boys are given large sized, noise
making or violent type whereas girls are often
given gentler toys. These expressions influence
information of self as well as identities.
 Agents of Gender Socialization
• The main agents of gender socialization
are parents or family, peer, siblings, school
or education, mass media and religion. For
very young children parents and family
play the central role in shaping gender
socialization. They determine how the
family interacts with a boy as well as the
types of toys and clothes that the baby is
given.
 Cont.
• Gender identity is established by age of two
years. Its central component is the notion ‘I
am male’ or ‘I am female’. Sigmund Freud
theorized that identification and imitation of
same-sex parents leads to effective gender
identity formation. In the latency period
males and females tend to aggregate
themselves from each other. This may be
considered part of the socialization process
and further solidifies gender identification
and role specific behavior.
 Cont.
• Schools and families continue to influence
gender socialization throughout
adolescence. During adolescence peer
influence becomes the strongest agent of
gender socialization as teens form together
in small social groups to facilitate their
transition into adulthood and into the larger
society. The socializing effects of the mass
media also become powerful in formative
years.
 Cont.
• Culture has been seen as of key significance
in the construction of gender identity.
Education has been seen as an important
part of this process drawing girls and boys
into different activities and achievements.
The analysis of gender and culture has drawn
on literary theory with the deconstructionism
of Derrida and also on the discourse analysis
of Michal Foucault. The emphasis has shifted
from the individual's learning experience to
the creation of the texts or representations
that construct our notions of gender.
 Influence of Biology

• Experts disagree on whether differences

between males and females result from
innate, biological differences or from
differences in the ways that boys and girls
are socialized. In other words, experts
disagree on whether differences between
men and women are due to nature, nurture,
or some combination of both.
 Example :Influence of Biology
• There are some significant differences
between female and male brains. The
language center in the male brain is usually in
the dominant (usually left) hemisphere,
whereas females use both hemispheres of
the brain to process language. This may
explain why females seem to have stronger
communication skills and relish interpersonal
communication more than males and why, on
average, girls learn to speak and read earlier
than boys
 Influence of Family

• Every culture has different guidelines about

what is appropriate for males and females,
and family members may socialize babies in
gendered ways without consciously following
that path. For example, in American society,
the color pink is associated with girls and the
color blue with boys. Even as tiny babies,
boys and girls are dressed differently,
according to what is considered “appropriate”
for their respective sexes. Even parents who
strive to achieve a less “gendered” parenting
style unconsciously reinforce gender roles.
 Example: Influence of Family
• The toys and games parents select for
children are often unconsciously intended to
socialize them into the appropriate gender
roles. Girls receive dolls in an attempt to
socialize them into future roles as mothers.
Since women are expected to be more
nurturing than men, giving a girl a doll
teaches her to care for it and fosters the
value of caring for others. When boys receive
dolls, they are likely to be action figures
designed to bring out the alleged aggressive
tendencies in boys
 Influence in Education

• As children enter the educational system,

traditional expectations for boys and girls
continue. In the past, much research focused
on how teachers were shortchanging girls in
the classroom. Teachers would focus on
boys, calling on them more and challenging
them. Because boys were believed to be
more analytical, teachers assumed they
would excel in math and science. Teachers
encouraged them to go into careers that
require a lot of math and science, such as
computer science or engineering.
 Example: Influence in Education

• Studies show that boys are more

physically active than girls. This difference
is greater when children are in elementary
school. Boys may be less able to sit still
during a lesson. They are often sent out of
class as disruptive, which puts them
behind in the schoolwork and can
reinforce their problems in the classroom.
 Role of Peer group
• Unlike the family and the school, the peer
group lets children escape the direct
supervision of adults. Among peers,
children learn to form relationships on
their own. Peer groups also offer the
chance to discuss interests that adults
may not share with their children (such as
clothing and popular music) or permit
(such as drugs and smoking).
 Example: Peer Pressure
• The term "peer pressure" is often used to
describe instances where an individual
feels indirectly pressured into changing
their behavior to match that of their peers.
Taking up smoking and underage drinking
are two of the best known examples. In
spite of the often negative connotations of
the term, peer pressure can be used
positively.
 Role of Mass Media
• Because mass media has enormous effects
on our attitude and behavior, notably in
regards to aggression, it is an important
contributor to the socialization process. This
is particularly true with regards to gender. In
television and movies, women tend to have
less significant roles than men. They are
often portrayed as wives or mothers, rather
than as main characters. When women are
given a lead role, they are often one of two
extremes: either a wholesome, saint-like
figure or a malevolent, hyper-sexual figure.
 Example: Role of Mass media
• Research indicates that among the 101 top-
grossing, G-rated movies released between
1990 and 2005, three out of every four
characters were male. Out of those movies,
only seven films were even close to having a
balanced cast of characters, with a ratio of less
than 1.5 male characters per 1 female
character. Women almost exclusively appear in
ads that promote cooking, cleaning, or
childcare-related products. In general, women
are underrepresented in roles, or ads, that
reference leadership, intelligence, or a balanced
psyche.
 Gender Attribution
• The whole discussion points out that
gender is socially constructed in the sense
that differences in the behavior of males
and females are learned rather than being
the inevitable result of biology.
• Suzanne J. Kessler and Wendy McKenna ,
as ethnomethodologist, presumes ‘gender
attribution’- the decision to regard another
person as male or female – is socially
produced in much the same way as gender
roles.
Theoretical Debates on
Women’s empowerment

TAHSINA AKHTER
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY
UNIVERSITY OF DHAKA
 Key Concepts
 Equality
 Difference
 Choice
 Care
 Time
 Motherhood and Womanhood- experiences
 Feminist stand point
 Androgyny
 Power over to Power to
 Pleasure with
 Masculinity- Feminity
 Capitalism
 Patriarchy
 Pornography
 Commodification of womanhood
 Introducing Diversity of feminism
 I'm not a feminist but I believe that women should
earn equal pay for equal work; or I'm not a feminist
but I'm delighted that first-rate women basketball
players are finally getting some recognition in the
WNBA.
 Feminism
 The term ‘feminism’ has many different uses and its
meanings are often contested. For example, some
writers use the term ‘feminism’ to refer to a historically
specific political movement in the US and Europe;
other writers use it to refer to the belief that there are
injustices against women. In the mid-1800s the term
‘feminism’ was used to refer to “the qualities of
females”, and it was not until after the First
International Women's Conference in Paris in 1892 that
the term, following the French term féministe, was
used regularly in English for a belief in and advocacy of
equal rights for women based on the idea of the
equality of the sexes.
 Cont.

 the term “feminism” in English is rooted in the

mobilization for woman suffrage in Europe and the
US during the late 19th and early 20th century, of
course efforts to obtain justice for women did not
begin or end with this period of activism. So some
have found it useful to think of the women's
movement in the US as occurring in “waves”. On the
wave model, the struggle to achieve basic political
rights during the period from the mid-19th century
until the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in
1920 counts as “First Wave” feminism.
 Cont.

 Feminism waned between the two world wars, to be

“revived” in the late 1960's and early 1970's as “Second
Wave” feminism. In this second wave, feminists
pushed beyond the early quest for political rights to
fight for greater equality across the board, e.g., in
education, the workplace, and at home. More recent
transformations of feminism have resulted in a “Third
Wave”. Third Wave feminists often critique Second
Wave feminism for its lack of attention to the
differences among women due to race, ethnicity, class,
nationality, religion (see Section 2.3 below; also Breines
2002; Spring 2002), and emphasize “identity” as a site
of gender struggle.
 Cont.

 In many of its forms, feminism seems to involve at

least two groups of claims, one normative and the
other descriptive. The normative claims concern how
women ought (or ought not) to be viewed and treated
and draw on a background conception of justice or
broad moral position; the descriptive claims concern
how women are, as a matter of fact, viewed and
treated, alleging that they are not being treated in
accordance with the standards of justice or morality
invoked in the normative claims. Together the
normative and descriptive claims provide reasons for
working to change the way things are; hence, feminism
is not just an intellectual but also a political movement.
 Cont.

 So, for example, a Liberal approach of the kind already

mentioned might define feminism (rather simplistically
here) in terms of two claims:
 (Normative) Men and women are entitled to equal
rights and respect.
 (Descriptive) Women are currently disadvantaged with
respect to rights and respect, compared with men […in
such and such respects and due to such and such
conditions…].
 On this account, that women and men ought to have
equal rights and respect is the normative claim; and
that women are denied equal rights and respect
functions here as the descriptive claim.
 Cont.

 Disagreements within feminism can occur with respect

to either the descriptive or normative claims, e.g.,
feminists differ on what would count as justice or
injustice for women (what counts as “equality,”
“oppression,” “disadvantage”, what rights should
everyone be accorded?) , and what sorts of injustice
women in fact suffer (what aspects of women's current
situation are harmful or unjust?). Disagreements may
also lie in the explanations of the injustice: two feminists
may agree that women are unjustly being denied proper
rights and respect and yet substantively differ in their
accounts of how or why the injustice occurs and what is
required to end it (Jaggar 1994).
 Cont.

 In an effort to suggest a schematic account of feminism,

Susan James characterizes feminism as follows:
 Feminism is grounded on the belief that women are
oppressed or disadvantaged by comparison with men, and
that their oppression is in some way illegitimate or
unjustified. Under the umbrella of this general
characterization there are, however, many interpretations
of women and their oppression, so that it is a mistake to
think of feminism as a single philosophical doctrine, or as
implying an agreed political program. (James 1998, 576)
 James seems here to be using the notions of “oppression”
and “disadvantage” as placeholders for more substantive
accounts of injustice (both normative and descriptive) over
which feminists disagree.
 Major Theoretical Debates

 Feminism is not a monolithic ideology ( Tong 1998:

1)
 They have different approaches, perspectives, and
frameworks– a variety of feminists have used to
shape both their explanations for women’s
oppression and their proposed solutions for its
elimination.
 Continue

 Defining Feminism
There are variations on the definitions of feminism
depending on the perspectives each scholar perceived.
Yet we can define a basic definition by J. J. Macionis
(1992:248):
‘…feminism is the advocacy of social equality for the
sexes, in opposition to patriarchy and sexism.’
Major theoretical stands

 Liberal Feminism
 Radical Feminism
 Marxist Feminism
 Socialist Feminism
 Liberal feminism

 Reason and rationality at its center.

 Cont.

 Classical liberals: The ideal state protects civil

liberties, e.g. property rights, voting rights etc. and
provides equal opportunity for accumulation in free
markets.
 Welfare liberals: Call for government intervention in
the economy, e.g. legal services, school loans,
housing etc., to protect injustice and that market
does not solidify huge inequalities.
 Contemporary liberals: favors welfare liberals.
 Liberal Feminist Theory: th
18 century

School
of Industrial Separation of production
Political Schoolfrom home and family
Revolution

thought of Industrial Separation of production

Political Revolution from home and family

Emergence
thought
18th
of formal century:
Home based , married, economicall
bourgeois, privileged y equal
Emergence 18th
women
Home based , married,education,
unproductiv of formal century:
ebourgeois,
women privileged economicall
persohoody equal
women unproductiv education,
e women persohood
Lack of
Education can help
Critique capability of
developing emancipation of those
s own powers unconscious Lack
cased women
feathered
of
Education can help
Critique
of reason capability
developing
of
emancipation of those
s own powers unconscious feathered
cased women
of reason
 th
19 Century

Equal Political Rights and Economic

Opportunities
John Stuart Mill (1869) The Subjection of
Women
Harriet Taylor(1851) Enfranchisement of Women

Beliefs in Reform
 Betty Friedan was the founder and first president of the
National Organization for Women (NOW)
 The Feminist Mystique (1974)
 Super Women
 Mother-wife role
 Flex time
 The Second Stage (1981)
Beta-style of thinking--Culturally feminine
Alpha-style of thinking--Culturally masculine
 The Fountain of Age (1993)
 Androgynous—each person combining the same ‘’correct’’
blend of positive masculine and feminine characteristics
in order to be equal with every other person
 Critiques of Liberal Feminism

 1. Can Women become like men? Do women want to ?

Should they want to ?--- Jean Bethke Elshtain.
 2. Women does not live by Reason and Autonomy
alone.---Alison Jaggar
 3. Liberal feminist as Racist, Classist, and
Heterosexist---Angela davis.
 Radical Feminist Thought

 Revolutionary Changes
 Alison Jaggar and Paula Rothenberg’s claims
(46-47, Tong)
 Kate Millett : Sexual Politics(1970) Men and women
relationship is Political relationship ; power relation
 Shulamith Firestone: Dialectic of Sex
 Marilyn French
 Mary daly
 Cont.
Types

Radical androgyn
Libertarian y
Radical
Feminis
m Radical
Femaleness
Cultural
 Millett and Firestone

 Pornography
 Freud
 Parson
 Androgyny
 French and Daly

 …Men’s oppression of women leads logically to other

systems of human domination…’
 Power over to pleasure with to power to
 I-it, I-thou, Be-ing
 Biological Reproduction-natural or artificial debate.
 Radical Feminism: At a Glance
Radical-Libertarian Feminism Radical-Cultural Feminism

Kate Millett Shulamith Marilyn French Mary Daly

Firestone
Sexual Politics Dialectic of Sex Beyond Power: Beyond God the
1972 1970 On Women, Men father: Toward a
and Morals Philosophy of
1985 Women’s
liberation
1973
Power Relation, Major biological Nature and Rejects the
Sex is Political and social nurture is terms of
revolution claimed for the masculinity and
differences. feminity as they
are the creation
of patriarchy.
Patriarchy Artificial She wishes from Wants to re-
Constructed; reproduction to ‘’Power Over’’ to interpret
 Marxist and Socialist Feminism

Creates
Colectively
Men
and
Society
Wome
n Again Re-
shapes
Marxist Socialist

Richard Schmitt Juliet Mitchell, Iris Young, Alison

Jaggar

Pay respect to Marx and Engles and Twentieth Century thinkers like
19th century thinkers. Althusser and Habermas

Classism, not sexism. Capitalism and Patriarchy.

How again Marxist and Socialist feminism are alike

Women’s oppression is not the result of individual

intentional actions but is the product of the Political,
Social and Economic structures within which
individuals live.
 Marxist Views

 Historical materialism of Marx

 Surplus value in production
 Not the consciousness that determines our existence
but the social existence that determines our
consciousness.
 To understand the women’s oppression need to
understand the link between women’s work status and
women’s self image
 Margaret jean Bethke Benston—waged House
work—for and against
 Comparable worth: Lower payment on the basis of
Gender
 Critique
 Socialist Views

 Class is gender-blind, to class-sight

 Women are oppressed at the hands of husband like
the proletariats at the hands of bourgeoise
 Juliet Michell: Reproduction, sexuality, socialization;
Patriarchy and capitalism—both should be uprooted
 Iris Young: Gender ( marginalization of women)-
biased-capitalist-patriarchy should be discussed and
analyzed with a Socialist theory.
 Alison Jaggar: Alienation.
Gender and Politics

Tahsina Akhter
Assistant Professor
Department of Sociology
University of Dhaka
politics
 Politics may be defined as a distinctive public activity,
a conscious , deliberate participation in a process by
which access to and control over the community
resources is gained ( Randall, V. Women and Politics
1987.)

Political participation [Conway 2000:3 ; cited in Iwanaga,

K. (edt.) 2008 women’s political participation and
representation in Asia: Obstacles and challenges]
“…those activities of citizens that attempt to influence
the structure of Government, the selection of
government authorities, or the policies of government.”
Cont.
Related terms:
 Political system
 Political subsystems
 Empowerment
 Governance
 Mainstreaming
Importance of participation of
Women in politics
 1. one of the most effective instruments to
improve their condition in society.
 2. Women is the half of the human resource,
reserved labor force and citizens of a state. They
have equal share for the national development
process. To reflect their demands, needs, hopes
and opinions in the national development process
their participation, membership and vocal is
necessary in the central politics and system.
Low participation of Women
 Main three reasons:
 Cultural-Difference in Socialization;
 Socio-economic-Less education; work
experiences; no fixed working hour; less access to
wealth and property
 Political-Low self esteem; Mobility and
networking;
 Glass ceiling
 A glass ceiling is a political term used to describe "the unseen,
yet unbreachable barrier that keeps minorities and women from
rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of
their qualifications or achievements. David Cotter and
colleagues defined four distinctive characteristics that must be
met to conclude that a glass ceiling exists. A glass ceiling
inequality represents:
 "A gender or racial difference that is not explained by other job-
relevant characteristics of the employee."
 "A gender or racial difference that is greater at higher levels of
an outcome than at lower levels of an outcome."
 "A gender or racial inequality in the chances of advancement
into higher levels, not merely the proportions of each gender or
race currently at those higher levels."
 "A gender or racial inequality that increases over the course of a
career."
Constitution of Bangladesh
 Article 9: The State shall encourage local
government institutions composed of
representatives of the areas concerned and in
such institutions special representation shall be
given, as far as possible, to peasants, workers,
and women.
 Article 10: Steps shall be taken to ensure
participation of women in all spheres of national
life.
 Article 19 (1): The State shall endeavor to ensure
equality of opportunity to all citizens.
 Cont.
 Article 27: All citizens are equal before law and are entitled
to equal protection of law.
 Article 28 (1): The State shall not discriminate against any
citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, or place
of birth. (2): Women shall have equal rights with men in all
spheres of the State and of public life. (4): Nothing in this
article shall prevent the State from making special
provision in favor of women or children or for the
advancement of any backward section of citizens (GOB,
1993:9, 13, 19).

Reference: http://elyaskhan.blogspot.com/2012/04/women-
participation-in-local-government.html
CEDAW
 CEDAW is the most important human rights treaty
for women. The Convention’s states
 parties are legally obliged, firstly, to eliminate all
forms of discrimination against women
 in all areas of life, and, secondly, to ensure women’s
full development and advancement
 in order that they can exercise and enjoy their
human rights and fundamental freedoms
 in the same way as men. Thirdly, a state party must
allow the CEDAW Committee to
 scrutinize its efforts to implement the treaty, by
reporting to the body at regular
 intervals.
 The legislative guarantees provided in the
constitution of Bangladesh providing equal rights
and nondiscrimination of women are further
supported by the ratification of the United Nations
Convention on the Elimination of All forms of
Discrimination against Women (UNCEDAW).
Article 7 & 8 :

 Articles 7 and 8 of CEDAW explicitly cover the right of

women to non-discrimination in a country’s public and
political spheres, as well as their right to equality with men
with regard to the following:
 the right to vote; the right to be eligible for election to all
publicly elected bodies; the right to participate in the
formulation of government policy and its implementation;
the right to hold public office and to perform all public
functions at all levels of government; the right to participate
in non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and
associations concerned with the public and political life of
the country; and the right to represent the national
government at the international level and to participate in
the work of international organizations.
 In addition, the preamble of the Convention links
the ‘full and complete development of a country,
the welfare of the world and the cause of peace’
with the need for the ‘maximum participation of
women on equal terms with men in all fields’,
implicitly including the public and political realms.
Glass Ceiling of women in Bangldesh
 During the British regime, local government in the
union remained an almost exclusive domain of
males. Only male could vote in election for rural
local bodies until 1956 when for the first time
election was held based on universal adult
franchise (Alam, 1995:40). Voting power of
women was established lawfully. Women never
thought of participating in this system. In 1976,
the government promulgated the Local
Government Ordinance for a three-tier local
government system.
Cont.
 It was the ever first ordinance regarding the local
government system in the history of independent
Bangladesh. In this ordinance, the structure of the
local government system underwent changes and
the provision was made to select two women
members in the Union Parishad. For the first time
women were considered to be included in the
local govt. In 1983, the changes were brought in
structure and composition of Union Parishad by
promulgating the Local Government (Union
Parishad) Ordinance.
Cont.
 This ordinance increased the number of
nominated women members to three and each of
them represented one ward. In 1993, Local
Government (Union Parishad) (Amendment) Act
was passed in the Parliament to secure the
minimum representation of women in local
government. The new order omitted the system
of nomination and the Parishad created provision
for indirect election. Nevertheless, the number of
the women member was fixed three as was
earlier (Ahmed et al., 2003: 18).
Cont.
 The Local Government (Union Parishad) Second
Amendment Act, 1997 is a milestone in the history
of political empowerment of women in Bangladesh.
The government of Bangladesh enacted this law for
direct elections to reserve seats for women in local
level elections. In this act, the government reserved
three seats for women in the Union Parishad where
women members were directly elected from each of
the three wards. Apart from the reserved seats,
women can also contest for any of the general
seats (ADB, 2001:15).
Cont.
 The number of women in elective positions of
chairperson and members in the Union Parishad
was abysmally low and practically infinitesimal.
Women’s representation in all the elections held
before and after 1997 may be observed in the
following table.
Cabinet and Public Services

 Although two women Prime Ministers have headed

the Government during the last several years and
the leaders of the opposition in Parliament were
women, this does not reflect the gender
composition of participation and decision making
at the highest policy level. At the ministerial level,
women’s representation has never risen above 3
percent. Before 1996, women were never given full
responsibility over any important ministry. Apart
from being Prime Minister, others were state or
deputy ministers responsible for insignificant
ministries such as Culture, Social Welfare, and
Women.
Comparative occupational status of
women
These figures Occupational position Percentage representation
are the Administration and 5.15%
average for manager
many Professional , technical 23.1%
developing and related positions
countries of 4.2%
Asia (UNDP Clerical
1995, p71) Government Job (over all) 11.12%
For instance,
in the Source: Statistical year book of Bangladesh, 24th (eds)
2005, p. 79
Philippines
women
occupy more
positions in
government
than men in
 Gender and Violence
Tahsina Akhter
Assistant Professor
Department of Sociology
University of Dhaka
 Violence
• Violence and other forms of abuse are most
commonly understood as a pattern of
behaviour intended to establish and maintain
control over family, household members,
intimate partners, colleagues, individuals or
groups. While violent offenders are most
often known to their victims (intimate or
estranged partners and spouses, family
members, relatives, peers, colleagues, etc.),
acts of violence and abuse may also be
committed by strangers.
 Cont.
• Violence and abuse may occur only once, can
involve various tactics of subtle manipulation or
may occur frequently while escalating over a
period of months or years. In any form, violence
and abuse profoundly affect individual health and
well-being. The roots of all forms of violence are
founded in the many types of inequality which
continue to exist and grow in society.
• Violence and abuse are used to establish and
maintain power and control over another person,
and often reflect an imbalance of power between
the victim and the abuser.
• Violence is a choice, and it is preventable.
 Definition and typology of violence
Violence Prevention Alliance (VPA)
• VPA addresses the problem of violence as
defined in the World report on violence and
health (WRVH), namely:
• "the intentional use of physical force or
power, threatened or actual, against oneself,
another person, or against a group or
community, that either results in or has a
high likelihood of resulting in injury, death,
psychological harm, maldevelopment, or
deprivation."
 Gender-based violence
• Gender-based violence is violence against
women based on women’s subordinate
status in
• society. It includes any act or threat by men
or male dominated institutions that inflict
physical, sexual, or psychological harm on a
woman or girl because of their gender. In
most cultures, traditional beliefs, norms and
social institutions legitimize and therefore
perpetuate violence against women
 Cont.
• Gender-based violence includes physical, sexual and
psychological violence such as domestic violence;
sexual abuse, including rape and sexual abuse of
children by family members; forced pregnancy;
sexual slavery; traditional practices harmful to
women, such as honor killings, burning or acid
throwing, female genital mutilation, dowry-related
violence; violence in armed conflict, such as murder
and rape; and emotional abuse, such as coercion
and abusive language.
• Trafficking of women and girls for prostitution,
forced marriage, sexual harassment and intimidation
at work are additional examples of violence against
women.
 Cont.
• Gender violence occurs in both the ‘public’
and ‘private’ spheres. Such violence not only
occurs in the family and in the general
community, but is sometimes also
perpetuated by the state through policies or
the actions of agents of the state such as the
police, military or immigration authorities.
Gender-based violence happens in all
societies, across all social classes, with
women particularly at risk from men they
know.
 Cycle of violence
• First identified by psychologist Lenore Walker,
in the late 1970‘s, the “cycle of violence”
refers to a continuing cyclical pattern of
abuse. It begins with the extreme build up of
tension in the home which the victim can
clearly feel. It is followed by a violent and
abusive release and is completed with
extreme contriteness along with apparent
remorse on the part of the batterer. Many
batterers engage in this pattern repeatedly
and it can take days, weeks, or months to
complete each cycle.
Cycle of violence
 Cont.
• During the first phase or “tension building
phase,” the batterer uses hurtful words or
actions to emotionally wound and frighten
his partner. This establishes within him a
false sense of power and control over his
partner. He is creating an environment of
tension and unpredictability.
 Cont.
• At some point, the tension feels
unbearable and the batterer will lash out in
a violent and abusive manner. Hitting,
slapping, punching, grabbing and hurting
his partner as well throwing and breaking
things. This behavior continues until the
batterer is exhausted.
 Cont.
• Following the abusive phase, the batterer
appears remorseful. This is referred to as
the “honeymoon phase.” The victim is
bombarded by profuse apologies, flowers
and gifts, and promises “It will never
happen again.” Unfortunately, this phase is
frequently short-lived (it could could last
as little as a few hours) and the tension
building phase begins again.
 Types
• There are nine distinct forms of violence and abuse:
• Physical violence;
• Sexual violence;
• Emotional violence;
• Psychological violence;
• Spiritual violence;
• Cultural violence;
• Verbal Abuse;
• Financial Abuse; and,
• Neglect

• http://www.gov.nl.ca/VPI/types/
Nine Types of Violence and Abuse
Physical Violence
Physical violence occurs
when someone uses a part
of their body or an object to
control a person’s actions.
Psychological Violence
Psychological violence
occurs when someone uses
threats and causes fear in
an individual to gain control.
Verbal Abuse
Verbal abuse occurs when
someone uses language,
whether spoken or written,
Sexual Violence
Sexual violence occurs
when a person is forced to
unwillingly take part in
sexual activity.
Spiritual Violence
Spiritual (or religious)
violence occurs when
someone uses an
individual’s spiritual beliefs
to manipulate, dominate or
control that person.
Financial Abuse
Financial abuse occurs
when someone controls an
individual’s financial
Emotional Violence
Emotional violence occurs
when someone says or
does something to make a
person feel stupid or
worthless.
Cultural Violence
Cultural violence occurs
when an individual is
harmed as a result of
practices that are part of her
or his culture, religion or
tradition.
Neglect
Neglect occurs when
someone has the
responsibility to provide
 Typology of interpersonal violence
• Self-directed violence refers to violence in which the
perpetrator and the victim are the same individual and is
subdivided into self-abuse and suicide.
• Interpersonal violence refers to violence between
individuals, and is subdivided into family and intimate
partner violence and community violence. The former
category includes child maltreatment; intimate partner
violence; and elder abuse, while the latter is broken
down into acquaintance and strangerviolence and
includes youth violence; assault by strangers; violence
related to property crimes; and violence in workplaces
and other institutions.
• Collective violence refers to violence committed by
larger groups of individuals and can be subdivided into
social, political and economic violence.
 Typology of interpersonal violence

http://www.who.int/violenceprevention/approach/definition/en/
 Types of violence
Level Physical Cultural Structural
Family Beating, child/force Deprivation of girls Spirit of indifference,
labor, calling names, from education, not malnutrition, poverty
intimidation, allowing children to at family level, not to
imprisonment, express their ideas, express opinion.
depriving from food unhealthy cultural
values and tradition,
superstition

School Beating, power Message of hatred, No school facility for

abuse using students as all
object

National Sexual, killing, Lack of free media Weak civil society,

kidnapping, torture, access, unjust distribution of
isolation, beating discrimination in resources,
recruiting govt. deprivation of
Employment, people from civil,
poverty cycle, economic and
criminal economy, political rights.
low role for women
in govt. & state
position
 Causes
• systematic male dominance in the name of culture giving
important role to men, preference to son, superstitious
beliefs, denied access to opportunity despite their
capability hindering development, low female literacy rate,
thought as an economic threat to educate them, teaching
women their duties to be submissive and obedient despite
their unwillingness but not aware them about their rights
and thinking violence as fate than a crime. Besides all the
social factors, there is some legal constraint which has
encouraged men to perpetrate violence against women
because of which women act as subordinate and accept
violence as their fate. For e.g. lack of property in their name,
lack of access to employment or education attainment
opportunity without the name of father has given men the
superior role and women the inferior role. As a result
women have to suppress any kind of violence.
 ecological model of factors
associated with genderbased
violence
 Causes
Society Community Relationship Individual
perpetrator

Norms granting Poverty, low Marital conflict Witnessing

men control over socioeconomic marital violence
female behavior status, as a child
unemployment

Acceptance of Associating with Male control of Absent or

violence as a way peers who wealth and rejecting father
to resolve conflict condone violence decision-making
in the family

Notion of Isolation of Being abused as a

masculinity linked women and family child
to dominance,
honor and
aggression
 Consequences
• Divorce
• Mental illness
• Physical Illness
• Unsuitable Family Environment
• Abandoned
• Social Status
• Emotional Distance
• Denied Legal Aids
• Child sufferings
 Consequences
Physical
acute or immediate physical injuries,
such as bruises, abrasions, lacerations,
punctures, burns and bites, as well as
fractures and broken bones or teeth
• more serious injuries, which can lead
to disabilities, including injuries to the
head, eyes, ears, chest and abdomen
• gastrointestinal conditions, long-term
health problems and poor health
status, including chronic pain
syndromes
• death, including femicide and
AIDSrelated death
Mental
Depression
• sleeping and eating disorders
• stress and anxiety disorders (e.g.
Sexual and reproductive
• unintended/unwanted pregnancy
• abortion/unsafe abortion
• sexually transmitted infections,
including HIV
• pregnancy complications/
miscarriage
• vaginal bleeding or infections
• chronic pelvic infection
• urinary tract infections
• fistula (a tear between the vagina
and bladder, rectum, or both)
• painful sexual intercourse
• sexual dysfunction
Behavioural
• harmful alcohol and substance use
• multiple sexual partners
• choosing abusive partners later in life
 Attempts to reduce Violence
• Medical, Social, Psychological and legal
counseling through government agencies,
NGO (providing both psycho-social and
legal counseling and leisure activities)
• Social agencies like family, friends,
relatives, neighbors, religion, counselors
have greater role to combat violence in the
society as a whole.
 Gender and
Development
Lent Term 2009

David Sneath & Martin Walsh

Gender and Development
Lent Term Lectures:

1. Gendering development: from WID to GAD and

beyond (MW)

2. Gendering the household: economics and

politics (MW)

3. Gendering enterprise: from income generation

to microfinance (MW)

4. Gender, conflict and post-conflict (DS)

 Gender and Development
Lecture 1: Monday 16 February 2009

Gendering development: from

WID to GAD and beyond
Lecture outline:

1. Introduction: feminism and anthropology

2. The development of WID

3. Shortcomings of WID (and WAD)

4. The development of GAD

5. Shortcomings of GAD (and WID and WAD)

6. Postmodernising GAD?

7. Consolidating GAD?

8. Repoliticising GAD?

9. Concluding questions
1. Introduction: feminism and anthropology

Some milestones:
Edwin Ardener, ‘Belief and the Problem of Women’, 1972:
highlighted the absence of women’s voices in ethnographic
texts and challenged women anthropologists
1970s: a series of volumes addressing this question (e.g.
Rosaldo and Lamphere (eds.), Women, Culture and Society,
1974; S. Ardener (ed.) Perceiving Women, 1975) plus
ethnographic monographs (e.g. Strathern, Women in
Between, 1972)
1980s: gender, conceived as a social construct, became the
primary focus of interest…
(cf. Henrietta Moore, Feminism and Anthropology, 1988)

“The basis for the feminist critique is not the study of women,
but the analysis of gender relations, and of gender as a
structuring principle in all human societies” (Moore 1988: vii)
2. The development of WID The origins of WID, “Women in Development”

Of seminal importance = Ester Boserup’s Women’s

Role in Economic Development (1970), a
comparative analysis of women’s work :

 Gender a basic factor in the division of labour

 Women’s labour at home and on the farm
generally under-reported
 Analysed some of the reasons for regional
differences (e.g. in different farming systems)
 Related these to participation in off-farm
employment and labour migration
 Highlighted the negative impacts of colonialism
and the penetration of capitalism
(see also Boserup in Tinker 1990)

Boserup’s study put gender on the development agenda.

Later criticised for its oversimplification of the nature of women’s work and roles
(Beneria and Sen in Visvanathan 1997)
2. The development of WID
The establishment of WID

WID perspective was developed by American liberal feminists. “WID” was the name
of a women’s caucus formed by the Society for International Development (SID/WID);
part of a deliberate strategy to bring gender issues to the attention of policy-makers

Important role also played by the UN Commission on the Status of Women (> UN
Decade for Women 1976-85) (see Tinker 1990)

Emphasis on strategies that would minimize discrimination against women and

their disadvantaged economic position. This approach was closely linked to and
represented a modification of the modernisation paradigm: concern that the benefits
of modernisation should be for women as well as men

>The solutions to women’s problems were generally envisaged as “technological

fixes” of one kind or another. Focus on the better integration of women into existing
development initiatives. Typical WID projects were income-generating activities with
social and welfare components added (cf. Moser’s (1989; 1993) refined typology of
WID approaches: welfare, gender equality, anti-poverty, efficiency, and
empowerment)
3. Shortcomings of WID (and WAD)

Criticism of WID

By the mid-late 1970s it was becoming

clear that women had often fared worse
under modernisation and the
development efforts of the past decade.
WID focused on integration and
advocacy for greater participation. It
didn’t question why women’s position
was often declining and what the
sources and nature of women’s
subordination and oppression were. It
was often ahistorical and shared in
many of the weaknesses of the
modernisation paradigm. WID also
tended to focus on women as producers
and ignore or minimise their
reproductive role.
3. Shortcomings of WID (and WAD)

WID and WAD

One source of these criticisms was the emerging neo-Marxism of the time. Just as
the modernisation paradigm was attacked by dependency theorists, so WID was
criticised by neo-Marxist feminists espousing an approach sometimes referred to as
WAD, “Women and Development” (Beneria and Sen 1982; Rathgeber 1990)
Neo-Marxist feminists focused on analysing women’s subordination within the
structures of international dependency and class inequality
(e.g. Young et al. 1981; Maria Mies, Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale,
1986)
But their analyses and prescriptions shared in many of the shortcomings of WID.
Given that both sexes are seen to be disadvantaged in neo-Marxist accounts,
insufficient attention was paid to the special features of women’s situation, e.g. the
role of ideology of patriarchy; the importance of the labour invested by women in
household reproduction and maintenance (cf. Kabeer 1994). And there wasn’t
much difference between WID and WAD-influenced development strategies, at
least not as far a women were concerned. Both reflected Western biases and
assumptions (cf. Barbara Rogers, The Domestication of Women, 1980)
4. The development of GAD The origins of GAD, “Gender and Development”

GAD emerged in the 1980s with roots in socialist

feminism and feminist anthropology.

Focus on the social relations of gender, identifying

the social construction of production and
reproduction as the basis of women’s oppression.
Combines an analysis of the impact of patriarchy
with some aspects of a neo-Marxism:
How are women’s and men’s roles and
expectations constructed and assigned?
• Why are women systematically assigned inferior
roles? How can they be empowered?

GENDER RELATIONS replace ‘WOMEN’ as the

main category of analysis. Men are potential allies.

e.g. Sen and Grown, Development Crises and Alternative Visions: Third World
Women’s Perspectives, 1987: popularised the concept of empowerment
4. The development of GAD

Kate Young, ‘Gender and Development’, 1992 (in Visvanathan et al. 1997):
overview of the differences between WID and GAD. These include:
 GAD focuses on gender relations rather than women per se
 GAD views women as active rather than passive agents of development, though
they may be unaware of the roots of their subordination
 GAD starts from a holistic perspective, the totality of social organisation, and
economic and political life (vs a focus on particular aspects of women’s lives, e.g.
economic production)
 GAD stresses the need for women’s self-organisation to increase their political
power within the economic system (vs WID which emphasises the formation of
productive groups and access to cash income as group members or individuals)
 GAD is less optimistic about the role of the market as a distributor of benefits to
women but places equal emphasis on the role of the state in promoting women’s
emancipation

Is GAD gendered modernisation in socialist clothing?

4. The development of GAD

GAD in practice
“The GAD approach does not easily lend
itself to integration into ongoing
development strategies and programs.
It demands a degree of commitment to
structural change and power shifts that
is unlikely to be found either in national
or international agencies” (Rathgeber
1990: 495)

Rathgeber found that most projects for

women still had their origins in the WID
perspective. Has this changed?
(cf. Rathgeber in Marchand and Parpart
1995; also Goetz 1997 on the gendering
of development organisations)
5. Shortcomings of GAD (and WID and WAD)

Critiques from the South

Some of the sharpest criticism of
GAD and its precursors has come
from women in the South, arguing
that they reflect the
preoccupations and assumptions
of Western feminists. ‘Third
World’ women are ‘homogenised’
and treated as ‘victims’ of their
own cultures, negating their
agency. These critics argue
instead that their subordination is
a consequence of colonial and
These critiques from the South connect with
post-colonial exploitation rather
postmodern analyses of WID and GAD
than the cultural construction of
discourse as a component of mainstream
gender in their own societies (Sen
development discourse (e.g. Escobar 1995).
and Grown 1987)
But the relevance of postmodernist academic
theorising is also questioned by some critics
of GAD…
6. Postmodernising GAD? GAD and postmodern theory:

Jane Parpart and Marianne Marchand,

introduction to Feminism /
Postmodernism / Development (1995):

 mixed reaction of feminists to

postmodern theory: opposition of liberal
and Marxist feminists

 postmodern focus on difference

coincided with growing pressure from
third world and other women for
recognition of their own voices vs.
simplified representations of them and the
essentialisation of “woman”:

“The issue of colonial / neo-colonial

discourse has thus far been the most
immediate “link” between postmodern
feminism and gender and development”
(1995: 15)
6. Postmodernising GAD?

Parpart and Marchand 1995 (cont.):

“While GAD proponents rarely
challenge the goal of modernization /
Westernization, some scholars
believe the GAD perspective provides
the possible (discursive) space to do
so” (1995: 14), hence disagreement
among contributors to the Marchand
and Parpart collection
Although P & M and some
contributors recognise the importance
of deconstructing development
discourse (e.g. by challenging
essentialist views of third world
women), they seem reluctant to use
postmodern theory to deconstruct
GAD itself…
See also Parpart 1995
7. Consolidating GAD?

Ruth Pearson and Cecile Jackson,

introduction to Feminist Visions of
Development: Gender Analysis and Policy
(1998):

book ‘interrogates development’ from the
perspective of gender analysis, where
‘development’ means both development
policy and social and economic change
 applies GAD “in the context of
development policy and practice in the 1990s,
which has become infused with gender.
Gender has become not only a desirable
attribute but a development goal of agencies
and policy-makers” (1998: 5)

= a consolidation of GAD, with its roots in feminist anthropology and socialist

feminism. Pearson and Jackson also point to the role of “feminism as
deconstruction”, with the interrogation of development policy and analysis as only
one possibility (1998: 12)
7. Consolidating GAD? Mainstreaming gender:
 Since the mid-1980s focus on
“mainstreaming” gender equity concerns in
policy and policy-making institutions (Goetz
1997)

 This is the subject of ongoing debate and

intervention, e.g.

Mandy Macdonald’s (2003) briefing on

Gender Equality and Mainstreaming in the
Policy and Practice of the UK Department
for International Development

Naila Kabeer’s (2003) “handbook for policy

makers and other stakeholders” on Gender
Mainstreaming in Poverty Eradication and
the Millennium Development Goals

see also Rai 2003

8. Repoliticising GAD?

Andrea Cornwall, Elizabeth Harrison and Ann Whitehead, introduction to

Repositioning Feminisms in Gender and Development (IDS Bulletin 2004):

“Gender” is now well established in development discourse… “But the

extent of change in women’s lives does not match this discursive
landslide. For many gender and development advocates, it appears that
the more women and poverty are equated in development discourse, the
more many women experience entrenched poverty; the more gender is
mainstreamed, the less we find effective gender equality policies within
key policy spaces and documents. Represented to technocrats and
policy-makers in the form of tools, frameworks and mechanisms,
“gender” appears as neutralised of political intent. Diluted, denatured,
depoliticised, included everywhere as an afterthought, “gender” has
become something everyone knows about that they are supposed to do
something about. One bureaucrat summed it up: ‘when it comes to
“gender”, everyone sighs’’ (2004: 1)
8. Repoliticising GAD?

Andrea Cornwall et al. 2004 (cont.)

 critical examination of GAD

narratives, critiques of how
gender has been understood and
policies implemented, stemming
from general disillusionment and
frustration with the limited
impacts of GAD and continued
bureaucratic resistance

 rather than becoming “an

exercise in deconstructing the
achievements of GAD”, this led to
a “shared concern with
repoliticising the project of
feminist engagement with
development” (2004: 2)
8. Repoliticising GAD? e.g. Maxine Molyneux, ‘The chimera of
success’:
“…despite a widespread recognition in
development agencies that “gender
matters”, this all too often translates
into the token, partial and selective
incorporation of gender awareness into
public/international policy, so evident in
anti-poverty programmes” (2004:
abstract)

Anne Marie Goetz, ‘Reinvigorating

autonomous feminist spaces’:
Proposes external feminist support for
“femocrats” and “feminist infiltration”
inside development agencies, to
combat current market-based
development planning orthodoxies and
ineffective “mainstreaming” based on
these (2004: abstract)
9. Concluding questions
How different are WID, WAD and GAD? Is this a
useful typology? Is WID still with us?

How do WID, WAD and GAD relate to

the modernisation paradigm and to
neo-Marxist modes of analysis?

To what extent
has GAD been
incorporated
into mainstream
policy and
institutions?
Has it been
neutralised?
Is this just
business – and
modernisation –
as usual?
 WID, WAD, GAD:
Theoretical Debates and
Issues
 Theoretical Framework

• WID liberal Feminists (a school of thought )

• WAD Marxist feminists

• GAD Socialist Feminists

• WED - Ecofeminists
Theoretical basis of Women in
Development (WID)
 Some milestones:
Edwin Ardener, ‘Belief and the Problem of Women’,
1972: highlighted the absence of women’s voices
in ethnographic texts and challenged women
anthropologists
1970s: a series of volumes addressing this question
(e.g. Rosaldo and Lamphere (eds.), Women, Cultur
and Society, 1974; S. Ardener (ed.) Perceiving
Women, 1975) plus ethnographic monographs (e.g
Strathern, Women in Between, 1972)
1980s: gender, conceived as a social construct,
became the primary focus of interest…
cf. Henrietta Moore, Feminism and Anthropology,
1988)
 The origins of WID, “Women in
Development”
Ester Boserup’s Women’s Role in Economic
Development (1970), a comparative
analysis of women’s work :
 Gender a basic factor in the division of
labour
 Women’s labour at home and on the farm
generally under-reported
 Analysed some of the reasons for
regional differences (e.g. in different
farming systems)
 Related these to participation in off-farm
employment and labour migration
 Highlighted the negative impacts of
colonialism and the penetration of
capitalism(see also Boserup in Tinker
1990)
• Boserup’s study put gender on the development
agenda.
• Later criticised for its oversimplification of the
nature of women’s work and roles (Beneria and
Sen in Visvanathan 1997)
 The development of WID

WID perspective was developed by American liberal feminists. “WID” was

the name of a women’s caucus formed by the Society for International
Development (SID/WID); part of a deliberate strategy to bring gender
issues to the attention of policy-makers
Important role also played by the UN Commission on the Status of Women
(> UN Decade for Women 1976-85) (see Tinker 1990)
Emphasis on strategies that would minimize discrimination against
women and their disadvantaged economic position. This approach was
closely linked to and represented a modification of the modernisation
paradigm: concern that the benefits of modernisation should be for
women as well as men

>The solutions to women’s problems were generally envisaged as

“technological fixes” of one kind or another. Focus on the better
integration of women into existing development initiatives. Typical WID
projects were income-generating activities with social and welfare
components added (cf. Moser’s (1989; 1993) refined typology of WID
approaches: welfare, gender equality, anti-poverty, efficiency, and
empowerment)
Different approaches of WID:

• Welfare approach
• Equity approach
• Anti-poverty approach
• Efficiency approach
• Empowerment approach
 Policy and Analytic Approaches

• Welfare: Focus on poor women, mainly in the roles of wife and mother. This
was the only approach during colonial periods, and was favoured by many
missionaries.
• Equity: Focus on equality between women and men and fair distribution of
benefits of development
• Anti-poverty: Women targeted as the poorest of the poor, with emphasis on
income-generating activities and access to productive resources such as
training and micro-finance.
• Efficiency: Emphasis on need for women’s participation for success,
effectiveness of development; assumes increased economic participation
will result in increased equity. They are most likely to be useful when
advocacy for the advancement of women is based on the more effective
use of all factors of production, and/or desire for stronger and more
sustainable project results. This is the approach currently most favoured by
development agencies
• Empowerment: Focus on increasing women’s capacity to analyze their own
situation and determine their own life choices and societal directions. likely
to be most useful where a human development and rights-based approach
to development predominates, or is desired.
 Criticism of WID
By the mid-late 1970s it was becoming clear that
women had often fared worse under
modernisation and the development efforts of
the past decade. WID focused on integration and
advocacy for greater participation. It didn’t
question why women’s position was often
declining and what the sources and nature of
women’s subordination and oppression were. It
was often ahistorical and shared in many of the
weaknesses of the modernisation paradigm.
WID also tended to focus on women as
producers and ignore or minimise their
reproductive role.
Theoretical basis of Women and
Development (WAD):
Women And Development Approach (WAD)

Origin:
• Emerged from a critique of the modernization theory and the WID
approach in the second half of the 1970s
Theoretical base :
• Draws from the dependency theory
Focus:
• Women have always been part of development process-therefore
integrating women in development is a myth
• Focuses on relationship between women and development process
 WAD Approach

Contribution :

• Accepts women as important economic actors in their

societies
• Women’s work in the public and private domain is central
to the maintenance of their societal structures
• Looks at the nature of integration of women in
development which sustains existing international
structures of inequality.
 Wome And Development (WAD) Approach

Features :

• Fails to analyze the relationship between patriarchy, differing

modes of production and women’s subordination and oppression.
• Discourages a strict analytical focus on the problems of women
independent of those of men since both sexes are seen to be
disadvantaged with oppressive global structure based on class and
capital.
• Singular preoccupation with women’s productive role at the expense
of the reproductive side of women’s work and lives.
• Assumes that once international structures become more equitable,
women’s position would improve.
• WAD doesn't question the relations between gender roles.
 Shortcomings of WID (and WAD)

One source of these criticisms was the emerging neo-Marxism of the

time. WID was criticised by neo-Marxist feminists espousing an approach
sometimes referred to as WAD, “Women and Development” (Beneria and
Sen 1982; Rathgeber 1990)
Neo-Marxist feminists focused on analysing women’s subordination
within the structures of international dependency and class inequality
(e.g. Young et al. 1981; Maria Mies, Patriarchy and Accumulation on a
World Scale,1986)
But their analyses and prescriptions shared in many of the shortcomings
of WID. Given that both sexes are seen to be disadvantaged in neo-
Marxist accounts, insufficient attention was paid to the special features
of women’s situation, e.g. the role of ideology of patriarchy; the
importance of the labour invested by women in household reproduction
and maintenance (cf. Kabeer 1994). And there wasn’t much difference
between WID and WAD-influenced development strategies, at least not
as far a women were concerned. Both reflected Western biases and
assumptions (cf. Barbara Rogers, The Domestication of Women, 1980)
 Gender and Development (GAD)
approach
Origin
• As an alternative to the WID focus this approach developed in the
1980s.
Theoretical base:
• Influenced by socialist feminist thinking.
Focus:
• Offers a holistic perspective looking at all aspects of women’s lives.
• It questions the basis of assigning specific gender roles to different
sexes
Contribution
• Does not exclusively emphasize female solidarity- welcomes
contributions of sensitive men.
• Recognizes women’s contribution inside and outside the household,
including non-commodity production.
 Gender and Development Approach

Features:
• GAD rejects the public/private dichotomy .
• It gives special attention to oppression of women in the family by entering
the so called `private sphere’
• It emphasizes the state’s duty to provide social services in promoting
women’s emancipation.
• Women seen as agents of change rather than as passive recipients of
development assistance.
• Stresses the need for women to organize themselves for a more effective
political voice.
• Recognizes that patriarchy operates within and across classes to oppress
women
• Focuses on strengthening women’s legal rights, including the reform of
inheritance and land laws.
• It talks in terms of upsetting the existing power relations in society between
men and women.
The development of GAD

Kate Young, ‘Gender and Development’, 1992 (in Visvanathan et al. 1997):
overview of the differences between WID and GAD. These include:
 GAD focuses on gender relations rather than women per se
 GAD views women as active rather than passive agents of development, though
they may be unaware of the roots of their subordination
 GAD starts from a holistic perspective, the totality of social organisation, and
economic and political life (vs a focus on particular aspects of women’s lives, e.g.
economic production)
 GAD stresses the need for women’s self-organisation to increase their political
power within the economic system (vs WID which emphasises the formation of
productive groups and access to cash income as group members or individuals)
 GAD is less optimistic about the role of the market as a distributor of benefits to
women but places equal emphasis on the role of the state in promoting women’s
emancipation

Is GAD gendered modernisation in socialist clothing?

Critiques from the South

Some of the sharpest criticism of GAD and its

precursors has come from women in the South,
arguing that they reflect the preoccupations and
assumptions of Western feminists. ‘Third World’
women are ‘homogenised’ and treated as
‘victims’ of their own cultures, negating their
agency. These critics argue instead that their
subordination is a consequence of colonial and
post-colonial exploitation rather than the cultural
construction of gender in their own societies
(Sen and Grown 1987)
 Women ,Environment and Development
(WED)
• Origin in 1970s (Northern Feminist )
• Male control over nature and women
• Ecofeminism
• Ecofeminist (Rosi Braidotti, Harcourt, Maria Mies,
Vandana Shiva etc.)
• Theoretical stream within feminist movement
• Environment decline – patriarchal authority in
Development planning
• Destroying relationship between community, women and
nature
 Practical Gender Needs and Strategic
Gender Interests

The following is a summary of some of the principal differences between practical

gender needs and strategic gender interests.
Practical needs:

• Short-term, immediate (e.g. clean water, food, housing, income)

• Unique to particular women (i.e. site specific)
• When asked, women can identify their basic needs.
• Involves women as beneficiaries/participants
• Problems can be met by concrete and specific inputs, usually economic
inputs (e.g. water pumps, seeds, credit, employment)
• Benefits the condition of some women
• Is potentially successful in ameliorating the circumstances of some
women
 Strategic Gender Interests

Strategic interests :

• Long-term
• Common to all women (e.g. vulnerability to physical violence, legal
limitations on rights to hold or inherit property, difficulty of gaining
access to higher education)
• Women are not always in a position to recognize the sources or
basis of their strategic disadvantages or limitations
• Solutions must involve women as active agents
• Must be addressed through consciousness raising, education and
political mobilization at all levels of society
• Improves the position of all women in a society
• Has the potential to transform or fundamentally change one or
more aspects of women's lives. This is called 'transformatory
potential' of the project/policy