Dr Kate MacleanDepartment of Geography

King’s College London

http://www2.goldmansachs.com/our-thinking/women-and-economics/investing-in-women/index.html

What is gender?Different responsibilities Different barriersDifferent kinds and levels of scrutiny

Conundrum of equality and difference

Development’s gendered resultsOf 1.2 billion people living in poverty

worldwide, 70% are women Women own around only 1% of the world's

titled landWomen do two-thirds of the world's work but

receive only 10% of the world's income 80% of the world's 27 million refugees are

women Women are 2/3 of the 1 billion+ illiterate

adults who have no access to basic education

http://www.internationalwomensday.com/facts.asp

The ‘black box’: Households

Industrialisation and Gender

Public/ private spaces

Gendered BinariesCooperation/Competition

Nature/ Culture

Care/Risk

Reproductive/ Productive

Tradition/ Progress

GDP – Invisible reproductive labour“Women contribute about 70% of the total time

spent at these activities--even in egalitarian nations such as Sweden. They do virtually all the housework in poorer nations such as India. Some feminists argue persuasively that including housework in the GDP would raise the "consciousness" of women...Yet other feminists do not want explicit calculations of production for housewives, because that would conflict with their agenda of getting women out of the household and into the labor force.”

BusinessWeek: October 16, 1995

Women in Development“It is important to engage the untapped

energies and abilities of people, especially poor women, if lasting progress is to be made. Development assistance providers must recognize the pervasive additional obstacles that poor women face and give serious attention to those impediments as road blocks not only to women but also to effective national development. “

http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/cross-cutting_programs/wid/

Women and Development

Women have always been central to development

Why has their contribution to development been excluded?

Women don’t need to be mainstreamed, the mainstream needs to be feminised

Practical needs“Practical needs are the needs women identify in

their socially accepted roles in society. Practical gender needs do not challenge the gender divisions of labour or women’s subordinate position in society, although rising out of them. Practical gender needs are a response to immediate perceived necessity, identified within a specific context.” (Moser 1993: 40)

Strategic needs“Strategic needs are the needs women identify

because of their subordinate position to men in their society. Strategic gender needs vary according to particular contexts. They relate to gender divisions of labour, violence, equal wages and women’s control over their bodies.” (Moser 1993: 39)

Gender and Development “GAD aims not only to ‘integrate

women into development, but [to] look for potential in development initiatives to transform unequal social/gender relations and to empower women’ (Canadian Council for International Co-operation 1991: 5)” (Bhavani et al 2003: 5)

Microfinance

,

Collateral free

Reduces administration costs

Peer pressure ensures very low repayment rates

A political approachSelf Employed Women’s Association, India, 1972

“At SEWA we organise workers to achieve their goals of full employment and self reliance through the strategy of struggle and development. The struggle is against the many constraints and limitations imposed on them by society and the economy, while development activities strengthen women’s bargaining power and offer them new alternatives. Practically, the strategy is carried out through the joint action of union and cooperatives.”

‘Suicides and pressure tactics tarnish image of micro-finance lending’

Microlender Forecloses On Goat October 18, 2010

MasculinityThe forgotten half of gender

Gender often means women: Department for Women, Women’s Equity Bureau, Commission on the status of Women, Convention on the Elimination of all Form s of Discrimination against Women

ConclusionWomen are economically active and always

have been

The economy is not gender-neutral

Gender and Development scholarship, projects and policies seek to level the economic playing field without essentialising gender roles.