Feminist View Of Development

Feminist View of Development

Women contribution to national development is crucial. The process of development would be incomplete and lopsided, unless women are fully involved in it. Emancipation of women is an essential pre-requisite for economic development and social progress of the nation. If any program as to be implemented successfully, so that certain modifications if any needed for the improvement of the programme can be taken into consideration. Women play a vital role in the process of development. Their participation is not recognized and is often ignored. Women contribute in every field of work be it politics, agriculture and economics. Women had been exploited over the years by society. Women are declared the weaker sex by default. Women position in society has been improving over the years. Women still continue to be the weaker sex. The male domination of society and government are often seen for the purpose of serving male interests and in the continued subordination of women. Development is a process not a level, it is for the entire population not for one person or one gender. Just as gender inequality exacerbates poverty, poverty contributes to increased

gender disparity. Gender equality is not only a women’s issue, but should concern ad fully engage men and boys who can and do contribute to advancing gender. equality, as individuals, within the family, community and in all spheres of society. Boys also face discriminatory barriers and practices themselves which need to be addressed. Poverty and gender inequality are denials of human rights because they infringe n human freedom, destroy human dignity and involve discrimination and injustice. Policy and strategies to eliminate both, must address, above all else, the structural and systemic factors that have caused poverty and gender inequality to rise. Also key, is taking a human rights approach and engaging women and men, boys and their communities to develop their own strategies to address poverty. Without a strong commitment to and investment in addressing the gender dimensions of poverty and women’s economic and political empowerment, the goal of poverty elimination will remain elusive. Womea’s participation in decision-making at all levels of governance structures

is inadequate. When we speak of women’s work we initially think of the work that women do at home, their unpaid domestic labour. The old catchcry ‘women’s work is never done’ refers to the hundreds of household chores for which women are assumed to take total responsibility. However there is also another sort of ‘women’s work’ – the work done by women in the paid workforce, which is characterised by the fact that it tends to be done only by women. Although the work women perform at home is itself invisible because it is always done away from the public eye, women are seen by society as housewives and mothers and not as paid workers. Women’s unpaid domestic work is seen as primary and paramount, and their workforce participation is therefore reduced to apparent insignificance and social ‘invisibility’.

The social invisibility of women’s paid labour is used to justify paying women lower wages than men. Underlying the conception that housewifery and motherhood constitute women’s primary role is the assumption that they are dependent on fathers and husbands. Thus when women enter the workforce they are not seen as needing the same remuneration as men because they are already ‘sharing’ a man’s wage. Women as individuals are also rendered vulnerable to accepting low wages because they themselves see their paid labour as less significant than their primary task of home-making. As Juliet Mitchell says in Woman’s Estate, ‘Their exploitation is invisible behind an ideology that masks the fact that they work at all their work appears inessential. Equality between men and women is not the aim of feminist, it is a misconception that feminist fight for the right of women. It is not just about equality they are fighting for the recognition of their differences from men and fighting for their right against it. There are certain social handicap about biological differences between men and women which needs to be considered and women differences should be recognized. Feminst fight for women dignity and they want women to be at par with men despite their biological differences. Dignity is the main issue for feminist. Importance given to men is socially and culturally inbuilt. The major fight for rights of the women is against this supremacy of men, gender bias is every where in every field.

Education is widely recognized as the gateway to economic security and opportunity- particularly for girls and women. World figures in literacy relate a sorry tale. Of the 130 million 6-11 year-old children not in school - a majority - 60 percent are girls. The figures only go to show how in most regions of the world, specially the developing societies, gender bias impinges on girls' education. The foremost factor limiting female education is poverty. Economics plays a key role when it comes to coping with directs costs such as tuition fees, cost of textbooks, uniforms, transportation and other expenses. Wherever, especially in families with many children, these costs exceed the income of the family, girls are the first to be denied schooling. All this despite the fact that educating girls is one of the best investments a society can make. An educated woman has the skills, the self-confidence and the information she needs to become a better parent, worker and citizen. Girls’ lack of access to education isn’t always related to scarcity of places in schools. It also emerges from expectations, attitudes and biases in communities and families. Economic costs, social traditions, and religious and cultural beliefs limit girls’ educational opportunities. Whatever the underlying reason(s), having large number of girls outside the formal schooling system brings developmental challenges to both current and future generations. Individuals, families, communities and nations are affected. Inability to read, write and calculate complicates a girl’s efforts to engage in both market-focused

production and household activities as effectively and efficiently possible. This affects her family’s welfare and diminishes her potential contribution to the development of the household, local and national economy. Women in Development (WID) / Gender and Development (GAD) What is WID? • The term “women in development” was coined in the early 1970s by the Women’s Committee of the Washington, DC, Chapter of the Society for International Development, a network of female development professionals. The term was very rapidly adopted by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in their socalled Women in Development (WID) approach, the underlying rationale of which was that women are an untapped resource who can provide an economic contribution to development. (Moser, 1993) • The approach starts with the basic assumption that economic strategies have frequently had a negative impact on women. It acknowledges that they must be “brought into” the development process through access to employment and the market place. It therefore accepts women’s practical gender need to earn a livelihood. However, the equity approach is also concerned with fundamental issues of equality (between men and women in the

marketplace). It places considerable emphasis on economic independence as synonymous with equity. (Moser, 1993) o The WID approach…focuses mainly on women in isolation, promoting measures such as access to credit and employment as the means by which women can be better integrated into the development process. o WID, while recognizing the critical role of women in the development process, does so without necessarily referring to the nature of women’s subordination. (Marchland and Parpart, 1995) o Although WID interventions have been a necessary step in the right direction, this approach has proven incapable of challenging gender stereotypes and male structures of power. (Hirshman, 1995) What is GAD? • Gender and Development…has focused on an analysis of gender as a socially constructed relationship, shaped and sanctioned by values held by the members of society. GAD identifies the social construction of production and reproduction as the basis of women’s oppression. (Riaño 1994) • The GAD approach maintains that to focus on women in isolation is to ignore the real problem, which remains their subordinate status to men. In insisting that women cannot be viewed in isolation, it emphasizes a focus on gender relations, when designing measures to “help”

women in the development process. (Moser, 1993) o An understanding of the social construction of gender allows for the recognition that because men and women play different roles in society, they often, consequently, have different needs. o GAD calls for both short-term and long-term approaches to women’s development, and to a gender-sensitive rather than a womanonly approach. The short-term goals of GAD specialists are often cast in much the same language as WID, i.e. they involve education, credit, improvements in the legal system, etc. The long-term goals include ways to empower women through collective action, to encourage women to challenge gender ideologies and institutions that subordinate women. (Par part, 1995) o While GAD proponents rarely challenge the goal of modernization/Westernization, some scholars believe the GAD perspective provides the possible space to do so. Wid is a good approach towards empowerment of women but the major criticism is that it should include women in the process. Conclusion; Women plays a major part in development but the problem is that their significance their contribution is overshadowed by men in the society. Feminist are working towards this goal and will achieve it sooner than later.