Gender and Development

I. WHAT’S
DEVELOPMENT?
Development: What’s the bottomline?

• Development is about attaining a full

and satisfying life for all
• Attaining a full and satisfying life for
all is a shared responsibility
- of everyone- regardless of age, sex, religion,
ethnicity or class
- of the government as duly mandated authority
- of all individuals and entities who benefit from
development or are affected by the lack of it
What underlies the
performance of this
responsibility?
For individuals the performance of
this responsibility requires:

a) the capacity to do; and

b) the capacity to be
 The capacity to do means -
ability or power

• to do productive and satisfying work

• to have control over one’s income

and benefit from it
• to enjoy nature and the natural
environment
• to procreate and rear children

• to care for others

• to travel in search for

opportunities
 The capacity to be means-
a right and opportunity

• to be knowledgeable and skillful

• to be well-nourished

• to be confident of own abilities

• to be comfortable with achievements,

independence and power
For governments, the responsibility
to promote the attainment of a
better life for all means -

a) helping people develop their

abilities and individual strengths

b) protecting people’s rights and

creating opportunities for the
development of people’s abilities
and individual strengths
Globally, women and men are boxed
into situations ---- which constrain
their

• capacity to do and to be

And hinder their potential to attain

a full and satisfying life
III. WHAT’S GENDER
ISSUES?
 Gender issues pertain to beliefs,
ideas, attitudes, behavior, systems
and other factors that block peoples’
capacity to do and to be
Gender issues affect everybody,
men or women, rich or poor,
young or old, etc. in all spheres
of life.
Gender issues are deterrents
to development. Thus, it is
important to address them in
development planning.
IV. WHAT’S GENDER
AND
DEVELOPMENT?
 Then, what is GAD?

1. GAD is about recognizing that

gender biases impede development
because:

• they prevent people from attaining

their full potentials (which will enable
them to become effective contribu-
tors to development)
• they exacerbate social inequity and
inequality

• they distort understanding of

social realities and limit the impacts
of development inputs
 GAD is about removing explicit,
implicit, actual and potential
gender biases

• in the organizations;

Of those who are concerned with

development
GAD is about being faithful to the
principle that

Fairness and equity demands that

everyone in society, whether male of
female, has the right to the same
opportunities to achieve a full and
satisfying life.
But why focus more
on women?
 First, women are half of the
country’s population. As such, they

• are half of the producers of economic

goods and services

but
• they are in the invisible and
marginalized sector or the so-called
non-money economy
- bearing and raising children
- domestic and unpaid economic
labor
- subsistence agriculture
Second, they are already in the
money economy

• informal sector
• wage employment
• trading
but, in being so, they experience a
lot of hardships

• multiple roles
• violence and sexual harassment
• lack of protection

• exploitation
• poor skills

• discrimination
 Third, women have unique stakes,
roles and insights to share in order to
attain development objectives,
such as in:
• sustaining the environment
• managing population growth
• imparting values that have
profound impacts on human
progress and economic
development
 And most importantly, because
resources and opportunities for
attaining a full and satisfying life are
NOT ALWAYS THE SAME for women
and men. These are determined by:

SEX - child bearing

GENDER - beliefs about what women
CAN’T DO OR SHOULD DO