Advantages And Weaknesses Of Women In Development

INTRODUCTION Development goals have long been criticized for neglecting women issues especially the impact of gender roles on equality between men and women in developed and developing countries. This essay would argue that the use of the gender and development approach into the development processes, would be used to overcome the power gap between men and women in the global south and north, thus, achieving a degree of equality hereof, in the political, social and economic spheres. This argument will be proven through a critical analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the approaches to overcoming gender gap through comparing and contrasting the ability of the approaches to be implemented effectively.

DIMENSIONS OF GENDER GAP

WOMEN IN DEVELOPMENT

The first development approach to improving the gender gap failed to encompass women of all societies. The women in development approach were established in the 1970s. This

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,95). 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. One of the strengths of the women and development perspective was that unlike the women in development approach it considered inequalities between men and women in private space and treated family as a unit of production. However the approach was weak on its lack of regard for power relations within the family unit.