The Gender And Development Approach: The Development Of Women In Development

Development goals have long been criticized for neglecting women 's critical role in the development process. In this essay, I will prove that the 'Women in Development ' approach served as a blueprint to significantly decrease the power gap between men and women. Despite its failure as an approach, the foundation built along with the weaknesses served as guidelines that strengthen the new approaches that followed. With that said, I argue that the Gender and Development approach is the most applicable approach to effectively eradicate the power gap between men and women in the global south, through its focus on achieving a degree of equality hereof, in the political, social and economic spheres. This argument will be proven through a critical

Mao-Tse-Tung once said, “women hold up the sky” (Boulding et.al, 2012). Gender equality has become a global phenomenon that is recognized by international institutions, developing and developed countries that are key players in international development. Waves of feminist movements have resulted in the adoption of approaches that are geared towards; “Gender equality...the extent to which women are present in positions of political authority and decision making” (Boulding et al, 2012), which translates to women 's socio-economic and political participation in development. In the pursuit for equality, a more in depth focus is placed on undermined issues such as gender-based violence, gender division of labour, women empowerment

In the 'Women in Development ' approach which was later introduced in 1975 a particular focus was placed on the relationship between patriarchy and capitalism, based on a Neo Marxist ideology. The 'Women and Development ' perspective aimed to “ explain the relationship between women and the process of capitalist development in terms of material conditions that contributed to their exploitation” (Martinez, 2012). Meaning that the approach addressed particular socio-economic structures that form our capitalist society such as class, mode of production and the international division of labour guided by the unequal balance of power between countries of the core and periphery. However the approach was weak on its lack of regard for power relations within the family