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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)

Different approaches of WID: • Welfare approach • Equity approach • Anti-poverty approach • Efficiency approach • Empowerment approach

Policy and Analytic Approaches • • •

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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.

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.

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 asg 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 ive 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 of upsetting the existing power relations in society between men and women.

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