Gender and Development

October 21-2010
• “I was really surprised when I was told
that my grandmother did not come to
see me till a month after my birth”.
• I was born seven years after my only sister
Chandranshu and my birth was a big
disappointment for her,"
• ……………Saina Nehwal

India has one of the lowest sex
ratios in the world
• Sex ratio:
Japan 1041
USA 1029
Indonesia 1004
Bangladesh 953
China 944
India 933

Reasons for the skewed sex ratio
STRONG preference for sons over daughters exists
in the Indian subcontinent.
Female infanticide and foeticide
1 out of every 3 girls does not live to see her 15th
 birthday.
Transfer of reproductive technology.
It is estimated that a dowry death occurs in India
every 93 minutes.
The NCRB statistics show that 91,202 dowry
deaths were reported in the country from
January 1, 2001 to December 31 2012.

Haryana-highest discrimination
• Haryana has the dubious distinction of having
the worst male-female ratio among all states
while Kerala fares the best.
• According to the 2011 Census, the number of
females per 1000 males in Haryana in 2011
stands at 879

Women Achievers
????? MANY MORE
ELIMINATED BEFORE
THEY COULD ……….

Sex and Gender
• Sex refers to the biological characteristics
that categorise someone as either female or
male;
• GENDER REFERS TO THE
SOCIALLY DETERMINED ROLES/
IDEAS AND PRACTICES OF WHAT
IT IS TO BE FEMALE OR MALE

Selected concepts central to Gender
and Development thinking
1. Culture
• The distinctive patterns of ideas, beliefs, and
norms which characterise the way of life and
relations of a society or group within a society

2. Patriarchy
• Systemic societal structures that
institutionalise male physical, social and
economic power over women.
• male is the primary authority figure central to
social organization and the central roles of
political leadership, moral authority, and
control of property, and where fathers hold
authority over women and children.

3.Gender Relations
• Hierarchical relations of power between
women and men that tend to disadvantage
women

4. Gender Discrimination
• The systematic, unfavourable treatment of
individuals on the basis of their gender, which
denies them rights, opportunities or resources

5.Gender Division of labour
• The socially determined ideas and practices
which define what roles and activities are
deemed appropriate for women and men

6.Gender Equality and Equity
• Gender equality refers to equal access to
social goods, services and resources and equal
opportunities in all spheres of life for both
men and women. When there is gender
inequality, it is women that are more likely to
be disadvantaged and marginalised.
• Women and men should not only be given
equal access to resources and equal
opportunities, but they should also be given
the means of benefiting from this equality.

7.Gender Needs
• Shared and prioritised needs identified by
women that arise from their common
experiences as a gender

8.Gender Training
• A facilitated process of developing awareness
and capacity on gender issues, to bring about
personal or organisational change for gender
equality

9.Gender Violence
• Any act or threat by men or male-dominated
institutions, that inflicts physical, sexual, or
psychological harm on a woman or girl
because of their gender

10.Women’s Empowerment
• A ‘bottom-up’ process of transforming gender
power relations, through individuals or groups
developing awareness of women’s
subordination and building their capacity to
challenge it

11.Women’s Human Rights
• The recognition that women’s rights are
human rights and that women experience
injustices solely because of their gender

Two approaches
1. Women in Development
1. Gender and Development

The WID (or Women in Development)
approach
• The WID (or Women in Development)
approach calls for greater attention to women
in development policy and practice, and
emphasises the need to integrate them into
the development process

Gender and Development
• In contrast, the GAD (or Gender and
Development) approach focuses on the
socially constructed basis of differences
between men and women and emphasises
the need to challenge existing gender roles
and relations

• The main objectives of a Gender and
Development approach (GAD) are to strengthen
the effectiveness of development work in
improving the situation of both women and
men, and achieving progress towards social and
gender equality.
• The focus is on social and gender equality as an
objective, rather than women as a target group.

7. Gender Analysis
• The systematic gathering and examination of
information on gender differences and social
relations in order to identify, understand and
redress inequities based on gender.
1. Gender Roles or Harvard framework
2. Social Relations Analysis.

Gender Roles or Harvard framework
• The Gender Roles framework focuses on
describing women’s and men’s roles and their
relative access to and control over resources.
• The analysis aims to anticipate the impacts of
projects on both productive and reproductive
roles.
• It takes the household, rather than the
breadth of institutions, as the unit ofanalysis

Social Relations Analysis.
• This analysis moves beyond the household to include
the community, market,and state institutions and so
involves collecting data at all these levels.
• It uncovers differences between women, divided by
other aspects of social differentiation such as
class, race and ethnicity.
• The aim is to understand the dynamics of gender
relations indifferent institutional contexts and thereby
to identify women’s bargaining position and formulate
strategies to improve this.

Gender and Development

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