Women Of The Third World : Planning From A Gender Perspective

This book is a crucial dose of reality for those of us that are spoiled by the comforts we have grown used too. Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn explain in the book “Half the Sky” why empowering women in the developing world is ethically right and extremely vital.It is a gripping story of how customs and culture have historically oppressed women. The strength of the human rights movement and of actual change across all cultures is going to be asteadfast task of courageous women who give themselves permission to say no to so many years of unthinkable tyrannical cultural customs and fight for a new way of life. Many of us close our eyes

If the United States of America is considered one of the most powerful countries in the world, how did that come to be? The United States has always had significant influence on other countries regarding technology, business practices, lifestyle, and more. However, American Imperialism is evidence of how much influence America has on other governments. Which is the notion of expanding America’s military, economic and cultural ideologies into other territories. American Imperialism started during the Spanish-American war in the late 1890’s. This was the start of America’s expansion and involvement in foreign affairs.

The affected resources is not the only problem; the decision making over the fate of the land is another part of the difficulty for women. In most of the poorer countries, men have the control of the land and what becomes of it. They make the laws and usually women do not have a political voice in the decision. Laws in most of Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia discriminate against women in regards to ownership of properties. Women cannot properly be the steward of the land and its resources that both men and women depend on to survive and continue their

This article addresses four main points. First, at the UN’s Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, the significance of women’s contribution was emphasized by the World Bank. However, according to the authors, the perception of women as goods was strengthened by the World Bank because of its emphasis on economic outcomes and its consequent failure to pay attention to the meaning of women’s empowerment and gender equality. Second, the World Bank, UN agencies and other institutions were observed to value only young women and girls, thus completely ignoring men’s role . Third, despite the existence of programs encouraging women empowerment such as microfinance and conditional cash transfers, women are forced to work for their livelihood coupled with the burden of housework. The authors also cast doubt on the notion that investing in young women and girls leads to the promotion of women’s empowerment and gender equality, or actually improves the economy as they are often unconsciously regarded as cheaper labor . Therefore, they underscored that while smart economics might

The first assumption argues that “western” feminist discourses emphasize that all women are bound together by a shared oppression and are powerless (53-54). Mohanty systemically explores this theory through an in depth analysis of five categories in which women of the third world are traditionally presented as homogenous victims by “western” feminist. The first two categories, women as victims of male violence and women as universal dependents, arguably offer the most straightforward deconstruction of the gendered body of knowledge that is power. Women, especially women of the third world, are all seen as victims of male violence and control (54). All women are defined as powerless, and all men are defined as powerful (55). Similarly, all women are defined as powerless dependents in the second category. Mohanty argues, “this is because descriptive gender differences are transformed into the divisions between men and women” (55). This division possesses a privileged position as the explanation for the oppression of women (56). Therefore, women are seen as a powerless group no matter what the historical or cultural situation because they are deemed so prior to any analysis (56).

Women, whether in the western world or third world countries, are socialised in patriarchal societies where misogyny is often internalised. As a result women often make choices, which reflect their subordinate status to keep to the norm and stabilise themselves economically and socially. Women in countries in sub- Saharan Africa, South and East Asian areas, though in differing contexts face similar struggles of subservience and manipulation. Women accommodate, resist or adapt to the sexist oppressive system. Those who choose to bargain with the social constructs aim to enhance their situation, giving them more power and to some extent freedom from ideological societies that subjugate them.

The Self-Help Groups are informal associations of people who choose to come together to find ways for the betterment of their living standard. The SHG’s in India help to build social capital among the poor section of society, especially women. The Self Help Group (SHG) is a small voluntary association to form a group. It is informal and homogenous in nature of not more than twenty members. It basically consists of maximum 20 members as any group having more than 20 members has to get registered under Indian legal system. It is informal to avoid bureaucracy, corruption, unnecessary administrative expenditure and profit motive. The SHG is a home grown model for poverty reduction which also works to empower and shape the lives of its

Baserup (1970) suggested that women needed to reduce the work loads they had so that they take part in education, projects which will also extend their power in the economy. In addition, Baserup pointed out that women have to receive credit facilities for greater economic projects. For example, Baserup echoed the mechanization of “female farming’ in African women farmers and revolutionarize traditional forms of agriculture for productive efficiency extracted from Schech and Haggis (2000). Rogers (1980) also suggested for a complete overhand of male attitudes against women. Rogers explicitly challenged this in her survey of the FAO institutional arrangement. She concluded that no women were found in field officers in technical division. Rogers (1980) therefore, concluded that women were not only excluded from planning and decision making but were being ignored and overlooked. Furthermore, households were assumed to be male headed which also generalized women as housewives (Rogers 1980:66 in Schech and Haggis, 2000). This shows that women’s work was regarded as non- work due to male bias. However, the WID approach agitated for equity, empowerment, efficiency and equal participation of women in existing structures.

“…if women and girls are left out of planning for disaster response or risk reduction measures, the special talents, skills and knowledge of 50 percent of the population are not capitalized upon and the needs of the most affected are unlikely to be met” (UNDP, 2010; p). If humanitarian measures are undertaken without regard to the dynamics of gender in situations of pre-existing societal inequalities, needs will not be met effectively and the intention to do good will also subsequently lose all meaning (Oxfam, 2013).

Women across the world struggle to make their voices heard so that today’s challenges can be an aspiration in equality for the future. To understand the struggle women are facing around the world, individuals look to feminists and conflict theories that empower and drive domination and oppression. Feminist theorists like West and Zimmerman, MacKinnon, and Smith defend women’s rights and call for an open and organized society that promotes equality for all genders, ethnic, cultural, and religious groups. Additionally, one of the conflict theorists, Dahrendorf, argues historical changes and inequality creates groups of conflict that attribute to women’s suppression within leadership roles in society. Overall, the struggle for

In most cases within the civil society realm, economic status also hinders women’s individual empowerment. Mudege and Kwangwari (2013) also asserts that women who holds economic power tends to have bigger say that those with less. It is clear that sometimes women join civil society organizations to pursue their own social class interests that may not

on the Role of Women in Development, in the age of globalization, Governments’ policy choices

This essay aims to deal with a social institution that is often described as the realm outside the state, market and family- the civil society, and if it advances women empowerment. The idea of civil society as presented is this essay refers to units that are often associated with advancement of democracy, non-violence, participation, inclusiveness and equality. Loosely, civil society is also framed in this essay as a sector of voluntary organizations and non-government organizations (NGOs), people’s organizations and other alternative social development agencies which operates at the local level. I take on cases from Zimbabwe and India as manifestations that even though a local

On the recommendation of Dr. Teshome, a professor of Women’s Studies and Anthropology, I opted to take a graduate level Anthropology course called Global Development. For this course, I read various development theories in the context of social, political and economic disparities in the world. We discussed the ramifications of certain development policies implemented in the global south. These theoretical texts along with real case studies captured my interest in policy formulation and the role of gender in development. I presented my final project on feminist critiques of some conventional

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