SOSC 1430 Chapter Notes - Chapter Pages 86-106: United Nations Population Fund, Ester Boserup, Sexually Transmitted Infection
3 Oct 2016
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SOSC 1430
October 27th, 2015
Gender and Development: The Struggles of Women in the Global South
-While initially ignored by state development programs and international financial institutions
sponsored by he rich countries, women have gone from being simple recipients of social
assistance to ‘objects to be integrated’ into development, and have become indispensable
actors in quest to eradicate poverty
-Women have failed to benefit to the same extent as men from the ‘trickle-down’ effects of
economic, political and social development promised by international development polciies
An Obstacle Course
-Living in extreme poverty - 70% are women
-In Africa - women responsible for 75 percent of agricultural work and 60 to 80 percent of the
production and marketing of resulting foodstuffs - earn only 10 percent of total revenue and
own less than 1 percent of land (Commission of the European Communities, 2007)
-While education of women is integral to achieving their sexual and reproductive rights,
interventions that build alternative and more gender-equitable models, and that include
attention to masculinities, have accomplished positive effects, such as preventing pregnancy
and sexually transmitted infections
-In numerous countries of the South, women repressed by family honour codes and
customary laws, rendering them second class citizens - under pretext of cultural and religious
beliefs, father/brothers/uncles/male cousins - seek to control women and their sexuality in
both public and private spheres
-Patriarchal domination, exerted from childhood onward, justifies range of repressive
behaviours, from real or symbolic confinement, through violence, to the elimination of women
and girls
-Category of ‘Third World women’ not homogenous - diversity of female experience
demonstrates that cycle of misery, oppression, and exploitation does not affect everyone
equally
-Extent and persistence of discrimination against women vary according to complex system of
power relations (gender, social class, race or ethnicity, age, religion, sexual orientation,
among others)
-Boys and men who do not conform to dominant masculinities of their society are also affected
by patriarchal discrimination
Examples of Repressive Practices
-One child policy, selected abortion, infanticide, and abandonment of females - because of
preference for boys - Asian continent has demographic imbalance resulting in estimated 90
million ‘missing’ women
-Globalization - stimulated increase of sex tourism and international human trafficking
-In many countries in Global South, military and police promote a masculinity that normalizes
and promotes sexual violence
The Emergence of the Field “Women, Gender, and Development”
-‘Gender’ as used in feminist studies - Ann Oakley in 1972 - term distinguishes biological sex
(physiological and biological characteristics such as genitalia) from associated socially
construction of sex (acquired sexual identities, such as femininity versus masculinity)
-‘Gender’ rearely includes consideration of the role of masculinities in development (Esplen,
2006)
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SOSC 1430
October 27th, 2015
Social Assistance
-‘Welfare approach’ rooted in the context of the decolonization and political independence of
numerous African and Asian countries
-In South, formation of nation-states favoured the emergence of local elites, who were often
more concerned with increasing their personal power than redistributing societal wealth
-Population increase believed to make economic advancement more difficult
-World Bank adopted Malthusian perspective, which sees family structures in developing
countries as the ‘greatest obstacle’ to the prescribed social and economic modernization -
presumed that large families, characterized by early marriages, too many mouths to feed,
illiteracy, and low incomes, were responsible for overpopulation, which was incompatible with
‘development’
-Large international agencies (United Nations Population Fund, Food and Agriculture
Organization of UN, UNICEF, World Health Organization) put in place population control
initiatives targeting female reproduction - maternity and child care
-Social welfare programs based on initiatives such as training of social workers, familial well-
being, and community development sought to implement family planning and to combat
malnutrition
-Women closely monitored - bodies became focus of social control of fertility, while thoughts,
experiences, and sexual and reproductive health needs were ignored and marginalized
The Case of India
-First country to adopt a public program to reduce its birth rate and used surgical sterilization
as key weapon in policy arsenal
-Government offered monetary or in-kind compensation to those who underwent sterilization
-In response to pressures, some civil servants demanded sterilization certificates as a
prerequisite for obtaining governmental permits or employment - others authorized police
raids to forcibly sterilize women as well as poor men
-Means of population control have become more sophisticated thanks to spread of more
subtle new technologies, such as ultrasound scanning, which have enabled selective abortion
of female fetuses
Women in Development
-Women in Development (WID) approach rose out of liberal feminist movement and in the
context of three social phenomena that changed ideas about the ‘feminine condition’ -
mobilization of feminist organizations in the North, declaration of the United Nations Decade
for Women (1975-85); and publication of seminal book regarding role of women in
development
-North American and Europe - in nineteenth century - women suffragettes fought for right to
vote - patriarchal system placed women under authority of fathers or husbands, thus reducing
them to the subordinate position of minors
-Second wave feminists demanded recognition not for their reproductive role but as full
citizens and complete individuals - demands were political, economic and legal - right to
study, work, divorce, control own property, freely express sexuality (controlling own fertility,
right to abortion, and sexual pleasure)
-General Assembly of the United Nations - first global conference on women in 1975
-Adopted a World Action Plan, which would be implemented over course of a decade, based
on three objectives deemed priorities in future aid targeting women:
1. Complete equality between men and women and eliminated of sex-based discrimination
2. Integration and full participation of women in development
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Document Summary
Gender and development: the struggles of women in the global south. Women have failed to bene t to the same extent as men from the trickle-down" effects of economic, political and social development promised by international development polciies. Living in extreme poverty - 70% are women. Patriarchal domination, exerted from childhood onward, justi es range of repressive behaviours, from real or symbolic con nement, through violence, to the elimination of women and girls. Category of third world women" not homogenous - diversity of female experience demonstrates that cycle of misery, oppression, and exploitation does not affect everyone equally. Extent and persistence of discrimination against women vary according to complex system of power relations (gender, social class, race or ethnicity, age, religion, sexual orientation, among others) Boys and men who do not conform to dominant masculinities of their society are also affected by patriarchal discrimination.
