Gender and Development Flashcards
(24 cards)
Harrison - how does he refer to women in developing nations
as the ‘poorest of the poor’
Giele - 6 different spheres to consider women’s position
political expression - rights
work and mobility - what work & salary
family - formation, duration and size - when and who women marry and divorce
education - access and attainment
health and sexual control - control over fertility
cultural expression - do representations of women reflect reality
modernisation theory and gender
development will improve women’s position through:
- changes in the law - e.g. equal pay, equality in education, marriage/divorce
meritocratic institutions
dependency theory and gender
Gunder Frank - exploitation of surplus value - women create more surplus value by doing unpaid work
Foster-Carter - women are at the bottom of the chain of dependency
classical marxism - women in the proletariat face the same problems as men in the proletariat
feminism and gender
Maria Mies - marxist - women are exploited for their labour have have low status/ pay and opportunities
ILO - women’s work in TNC’s and EPZ’s is exploitative, and the women there are often young and have limited power/choice
receive lower pay than men due to having lower status
causes of gender inequality in the developing world
women have a domestic role and men make the important household decisions
patriarchal culture results in death and abortion of female children
women have poor health due to reproductive issues
women are barred from education and training
there are legal barriers to opportunities for women
women are not valued in the workplace
women do not have equal property rights
Leonard
foreign aid packages are led generally by men and exploit women, who are sources of cheap labour and domestic care
women are powerless in governments and thus their voices are overlooked
Wichterich
traditional patterns of development and large scale industrial production are bad for the environment and reduce power of work for women
less paid work for women, forcing them into domestic work, making them vulnerable to exploitation by men
modernisation theory
blames internal cultural factors
argues that some cultures, especially with the religious values that underpin the values, norms, institutions and cultures of the developing world,
ascribe status on the basis on gender - means that males have patriarchal control and dominance over a range of female activities - and women have ;little status in many developing societies
low status of women is an obstacle to development because:
- their potential contribution to the economy is not being fully realised
- their status as mothers contributes to overpopulation
modernisation theory - van de gaag
in many countries, the birth of a boy is something to be celebrated, whilst the birth of a girl is cause for commiseration
modernisation theory - Bosserup
called for greater educational opportunities for adolescent girls in order to break the cycle of early childbearing
evaluation of modernisation theory
observations about cultural practices are controversial as the experiences of women tend to be used as the yardstick in terms of quality of life for women in developing countries
may be ethnocentric and imposing western values on society
some muslim women argues that islam empowers them - e.g. wearing the burkha ensures women control how men perceive their bodies
the view that mens wages will trickle down to women rarely occurs in practice - Leonard - in africa, many men are unused to the status of wage earner, and see their wages as their own money rather than a means to support their family
radical feminism - marginalisation thesis
suggests that the introduction of capitalism in developing societies has led to women being increasingly excluded from economic life, restricted to the home and being forced to be dependent on men
Leonard - emphasis of exporting cash crops in the developing world today has resulted in men, rather than women, being employed as agricultural labourers
aid projects can marginalise women - from 46 african countries, only 3.4% of trained government workers providing agricultural advice to people in rural areas were women
Leonard - aid is not gender neutral - comes with western values attached, which are often male orientated
marxist feminism - exploitation thesis
suggests that modernisation is about imposing an exploitative global system of capitalism on developing societies
EPZ’s - attract TNC’s
- 90% of workers are female
- employed as they are cheap, pliable and docile
Elson & Pearson - material subordination
- women put up with lower wages and oppressive working conditions as there i no alternative, and patriarchal culture may mean this job is only temporary until marriage
modernisation theory - possible solutions
marxist feminism possible solutions
socialism - committed to dismantling patriarchal regimes in the developing world
radical feminism possible solutions
postmodern feminism possible solutions
Mohanty - critical of how western feminists have presented women in the developing world as ‘ignorant’, poor, uneducated, tradition bound etc., compared to western women who are seen as educated, modern, and have control over their bodies and sexualities
argued that western feminists have ethnocentric and colonial attitudes
what are the 5 problems that Van De Gaag sees for women in the future
increasing militarisation of the world
disempowerment of women through economic globalisation
rise of religious extremism and fundamentalism
rejection of women’s rights as a ‘western import’
male backlash against women’s rights
Van Der Gaag - increasing militarization of the world & rape as a weapon of war
women are disproportionally affected by war as they are often victims of ethnic cleansing and rape
1998 - UN decision confirmed the concept of rape as a war crime
Morgan (2006) - argue that rape is inherent in the nature of war: it is never about sex, but about power and the military culture of violence
Van Der Gaag - disempowerment of women through economic globalisation
good things - women are entering the workforce
bad things - led to the exploitation of women by the global pornography industry - women are being trafficked between countries for the sex trade - grew rapidly between 1995 and 2005
Van De Gaag - rise of religious extremism and fundamentalism
heightened legal and social restrictions for women
FGM is being dredged up from the past by Islamic fundamentalists as an Islamic duty, despite that it has nothing to do with Islam or the Qur’an
at the heart of religious fundamentalist agendas is the control of women, reproductive rights and the family
Seagar (2003) - observed that 25 countries introduced restrictions on women’s behaviour between the late 1990’s and 2002
Van De Gaag - rejection of women’s rights as it is viewed as a ‘western import’
Islamic fundamentalists see women’s rights as a product of decadent western thought, and oppose these rights on the back of a general ‘anti-western’ feeling
AO3 - criticism by Afghan feminist Zuhra bahman - she argued that the Burkha is a symbol of traditionally conservative Afghan society, in which women were viewed as men’s possessions, to be kept hidden from other men
Van de Gaag - male backlash against women’s rights
in some developing countries it is believed that women have too many rights
‘neo-patriarchy’ - a new attempt to exert male authority through a culture of violence
South Africa - women are experiencing high levels of violence which may be partially due to a male backlash against the progress women have made
