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Women Of The Third World : Planning From A Gender Perspective

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EMPOWER WOMEN IN THE THIRD WORLD: PLANNING FROM A GENDER PERSPECTIVE
In recent decades, the process of development in the Third World has largely deprived women and marginalized them of their control of resources and authority. However, the burdens of their traditional duties are still heavy. Women not only take care of the whole family within households, but also play an essential role in community management and security. While the important role is widely recognized by worldwide, that is not necessary meant that the issue of gender has been satisfactorily involved into planning practices. Historically, planning problems of women were considered as problems of social welfare, rather than of development. However, the social welfare…show more content…
The origins of the empowerment approach are derived less from the research of First World women, and more from grass-roots organization experience of Third World women. Empowerment approach aims to change the position of Third World women. Since the late 19th-century, Third World feminism has been an important force to change, but with women’s participation more often in nationalist and patriotic struggles, working-class agitation and peasant rebellions than in the formation of autonomous women’s organizations.
A diverse range of women’s organization including Self-Help Groups (SHGs) have developed in this context conveying a multitude of issues and purposes. Experience in many Third World countries demonstrates that the flow of financial assistance to women was too marginal to enable them to get rid of poverty. Women in Third World countries need grassroots based organizations to enable them to come together, analyze their issues by themselves, and to fulfill their needs. These groups-based participatory programs have made significant improvement in the conditions of living poor women. SHGs are small informal associations created for the purpose of enabling members to reap economic benefit out of mutual help, solidarity, and joint responsibility. The group-based approach not only enables the poor to accumulate capital by way of small savings but also helps them to get access to formal credit facilities.
Generally, SHGs are able to reach the poor people
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