Kate Kemper
7 May 2015
POLS 109-Women in Development
Take Home Final Exam
Take Home Final Exam
1. There is considerable discussion about what gender mainstreaming is and how it should be implemented. Discuss the use of gender mainstreaming in international organization, and how it has helped and/or hurt women in specific regions. How has gender mainstreaming in international organizations weakened women’s programming in countries in Africa for example?
In the history of furthering development in less developed countries, there has been a switch from Women in Development (WID) programming to Gender and Development (GAD) programming. There has been a debate about which tactic is more effective; some think that women can be best reached through mainstreaming, while others say that the focus on gender has weakened organizing by and for women . This GAD approach brought gender mainstreaming with it. What is gender mainstreaming? In 1995, The Beijing Platform for Action provided the original mandate for “mainstreaming a gender perspective in all policies and programs .” In addressing the power relationship between men and women, advocates of GAD argued,
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equality as a goal could be reached by working with the structure of society . A number of international organizations utilize gender mainstreaming, including the World Bank and the International Labor Organization.
In recent years, the World Bank has made great strides in devising a strategy for improving its mainstreaming efforts . For example, in 2001, the World Bank policy report found a link between gender equality and economic growth, poverty reduction, and good governance . Based on the data in this report, the World Bank called for institutional reform- this legitimized the World Bank’s gender concerns and made gender fit into the language of economists . The International Labor Organization has been concerned with women’s issues since 1926. In recent years, the ILO created the Bureau for Gender Equality and has made a lot of progress in mainstreaming gender in organizational processes
. In different regions across the globe, gender mainstreaming has been used in different ways and has yielded varying results. For example, in China, there have been many issues with land ownership and gender equality. To specialists looking at land reform in China, family farming under the country’s current agrarian reform is reminiscent of the patriarchal system that was prevalent until 1949, when a socialist state was established . Under this reform system, land tenure laws are not clear about the rights of women in terms of land ownership. While many Chinese citizens migrating to more urban areas, women and young children often remain in rural areas to guarantee their family’s right to their farm land . Some solutions to this would be that the legal right of women to own land should be put into practice and enforced, which is something that is not currently happening anywhere in rural China. This would increase a woman’s autonomy and independence, which would benefit her as a whole. In many African nations, gender mainstreaming programs have, in some cases, weakened women’s programming . Women in Niger and Senegal have experienced disempowerment due to some of these policies, in that they are facing changes imposed by policies without a government policy to protect them in their state of increased vulnerability . Women struggle to get involved in government as can be seen in the extremely low percentages of women in parliamentary seats, in ministries, and even in professional or technical work . In fact, women in these countries are experiencing a sharp increase in employment, but also an even sharper increase in unemployment . 2. Women around the world are becoming empowered and gaining equality and justice, but they are becoming empowered in different ways in different countries but face different challenges in each region. What are some of the best ways to empower women in Latin America? Why don’t these same methods work in the Middle East? How does gaining political office empower women and what are the main obstacles facing women as they try to gain political power in African nations and Middle Eastern states? How can state politics empower women in the Middle East or elsewhere? What are the biggest issues facing empowerment in (some specific countries)? The term “empowerment” refers to increasing the economic, political, social, educational, gender, or spiritual strength of an entity or entities. In different regions, empowerment looks a little different due to the issues that are most prevalent. In some nations, the state itself is the best mechanism to use in empowering women. In others, it actually is disempowering. In the Caribbean, global activities such as the UN Decade for Women and the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women have set the context for a lot of activity involving women in the Caribbean region . Women found the development strategies in the UN Decade for Women to be inadequate, and had to redefine development in their own context- a context that included the government cutting social services, freezing wages, and laying off employees. In doing this, they found that perspectives from North American and European feminists were not entirely helpful, and instead the Caribbean women drew from networks in emerging third world women’s movements . The establishment of the Caribbean Women’s Association was pivotal in Caribbean governments beginning to set up bureaus to specifically deal with women’s issues. On a national level, social activism became extremely prevalent, and women’s groups continue to experience small but important victories in furthering women’s rights . This story does not, however, translate to all other regions. The Middle East, for example, has a completely different set of problems and limitations for women. Women in Palestine specifically do not enjoy political status, access, or pull equal to males in their society. Gender discrimination is a huge issue that is a hindrance to the full political participation of women in the disputed state of Palestine . Essentially, the Palestinian Declaration of Independence which mentions that “governance will be based on principles of social justice, equality, and on-discrimination in public rights of men of women, on grounds of race, religion, color, or sex ” has not been completely put into practice. In the case of Palestinian women, empowerment must come from gender-sensitive legislation and gender equity. There are three different forms of oppression that women in Palestine have to work through. First is the fact that Palestinian men are oppressed in their stateless nation situation, and this oppression is transferred to women in a sort of “psychological backlash .” Next is the patriarchal manner in which the family complex is set up. Essentially, just like in many other place, daughters are valued less than sons, as well as subjected to early marriage and membership in a male-dominated household of one’s spouse . Finally, most women in Palestine have grown accustomed to self-regulating, meaning that they do what is expected of them rather than doing what they expect of themselves. They suppress themselves and their actions in protection against what could be said by others about them . These forms of oppression changed during the intifada, when women began to participate in uprisings in protest of the Israeli occupation. Palestinian women have a unique struggle in that they are trying to gain empowerment in a place that is not technically a state. The entire society of Palestinian-descended people has been disempowered through the elimination of their state and the rights that came with being sovereign. The Palestinian government does not have much international recognition based on the fact that it is not representing an internationally recognized state. Until Palestine finds its way back to statehood in some way, shape, or form (which is obviously the current priority), it seems that women’s issues will take a backseat. Despite this, however, the war and occupation has made women much more socially active and politically aware, which is some sort of progress .
In the 1940’s, the United Nation Conference came together to resolve issues, in reference to women to establish a commitment at treating men; and women the same in an ecumenical way. From the 1940’s to the 1970’s many different conferences were held to overcome these issues regarding the gender roles of these women compared to those of men. “Under the banner of “equality, development and peace”, each conference assessed the programs of commitments made by various nations on behalf of women; along the side of the (NGO) that funded non-profit organization and spoke on behalf of the poor from all walks of life” (Lindsey, 2011, pg. 137). These people are designed to affiliate on the process of diversity issues, to which they presented to these organizations on the importance of women in a changing world; which are “politics, religion, ethnicity, and economics” (Lindsey, pg.
The institutionalized discrimination of women in the work place is nothing new or unheard of. The brunt of it has happened fairly recently as women began to enter the labor market in force less than a century ago. The affect of this discrimination has had long lasting, generation spanning affects, but as time has passed and feminism spread, the gender-gap has slowly begun to shrink.
"Gender Studies and Social Analysis." Discipline of Gender, Work & Social Inquiry. N.p., 15 May 2001. Web. 12 Apr. 2014.
Many laws and regulations are implemented everyday into our society, involving equal rights for all. But, even with being in the year 2015; there is still much discrimination and inequality seen throughout many different institutions. Gender inequality is defined as unequal treatment or perceptions of individuals based on gender. This has been seen for many decades now, revolving mainly against women. Throughout history to even today, men have always been seen as the stronger, faster, and harder working gender as opposed to women. Today, with more women being seen working at larger firms and corporations, we still see many obstacles and challenges that they must face. While many women have fought for equality in the workplace, it is still a
"The World Bank." Gender Equality Data and Statistics. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Feb. 2014. .
The case study derives that the hypothesis of organisational change to adopt participatory approach out of donor agency’s agenda has significantly influenced GSDA to opt participatory approach. Though there is no direct pressure from the donor agency to adopt participatory approach in its working, the success of WB pilot projects in the State has greatly influenced GSDA and the policy makers to regularise this new approach. Subsequently, it acted as a driving force to involve local community in the process of planning, design, implementation and operation and maintenance of the projects. The projects proposed an Institutional Model through which the management of GW is attempted. This Institutional Model, in turn, was designed to get representation from all types of groups in the society including women. The training component of WB project helped change the mindset of GSDA staff towards new approaches and face the new challenges in GW management.
Therefore, a gender responsive framework must be implemented comprising design selection, operational staff selection and programme advancement comprising; content and material that reflect the lives and experiences of females, including their strengths and difficult
When looking at a report from Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the UN, the proportion of women in the UN at the levels in the Secretariat, with contracts for one year or longer, rose 1.7 % last year to 37.4 % on the end of June of this year. Furthermore, 83.3 % of staff at the lowest professional level, called the P-1, was made up by women but only 16.7 % of the highest staff level, the Under-Secretaries-General, was formed by women. What are the reasons for that? Is it more difficult for women to get employed at the highest staff level? What the report in general showed was that the analysis of the longer-term trends portrayed a picture of uneven progress in women’s representation at all levels. The reasons for that included unacknowledged biases among hiring managers who are not being held accountable. Moreover, another cause related was that the expectations were that managers must work long hours and always be available thereby fostering imbalances between work and home life. In addition, jobs for spouses of UN employees are not always easy to find in UN host countries according to the report and permission to work is sometimes slow in coming, making transfers impossible for some families. Like for every other company or organization the goal should be to have evenly distributed work chances for both genders which should also be reflected in the employment policy of the company. The annual growth rate towards this evenly distributed employment goal in the UN is expected to rise by only 0.4 % in professional and higher categories for appointments of one year or more.
...ds & Gelleny, 2007). Moreover, the status of women is independent on policy adjustments in developing countries. Governments in developing countries should organize an economically and political stable environment, to be economically attractive (Maxfield, 1998 as cited in Richards & Gelleny, 2007). Other critics state governments are forced to cut expenditures in education and social programs. This phenomenon especially affects women (Ayres and McCalla, 1997, as cited in Richards & Gelleny, 2007). Since the public sector is one of the main employers of females, women are often the most disadvantaged by governmental efforts to cut expenditures in the public sector (Hemmati and Gardiner, 2004, as cited in Richards & Gelleny, 2007). As a result, women will become unemployed and unable to expanded education among themselves or their children. (Richards & Gelleny, 2007)
Women as a group make up an enormous portion of the world’s population. Thus the development of women, the changes implemented that affect them both positively and negatively are integral in study the world. Introduction to the field of women and development can be traced back to the 1950’s post World War II., specifically the period of reconstruction. Due to focus on external issues rather than internal issues, programs like the United States Marshall Plan were created, emphasizing the need to bridge the gap between developing and developed nations. The study of women and development gives an overall perspective of women’s development in comparison to other areas. Women’s development shapes many things including our perspectives and our public policies. I will assess the contributions of the three major theoretical debates applied to the field of women and development and explain how they shaped the field.
Unsatisfied with changes made, leaders of the movements called for “black power” to unit, recognize their heritage, define their goals and create their own organizations. The 1970s experience saw the emergence of empowerment within women’s movement. The term was introduced by Sen and Grown in 1985 in their book titled “Development, Crisis and alternative vision: Third World Women’s Perspectives”. In this book, the authors discussed “women empowerment” and also identified women’s organization as the nuclear for gender transformation (Medel-Anoneuvo 1995:13). Today, women empowerment as a term is been used everywhere ranging from the “UN”, World Bank to IMF” as well as religious institutions; but empowerment for women in Yelequelleh is far from reality due to the lack of education and skills. The term aims at developing goal, for example, the “UN’s MDGs 3” seeks to “promote gender equality and empower women”. Though women empowerment can be seen as self-confidence aspect of development, its meanings are
It is argued that societies who supports education for women are more prone to experience dramatic social progress. It is further explained that when women enters the workforce, they contribute to their countries' economic prospects, and this leads to their economic independence thus improve their stature both at home and in the community. According to the report, globalization is the 'antidote to the intolerant fundamentalism' that helps eliminate regressive taboos responsible for the promotion of gender discrimination. When discussing the impact of globalization on women, Subhalakshmi (2012) looked at women workers in India. She explained that globalization has opened up various employment opportunities for Indian women, hence increasing their purchasing power, self-confidence and independency. This, in turn, is seen as a potential way to increase equality between the sexes and afford women an equal stance in
We now live in a world with diversity and equality. This country has laid the institutional mechanisms so that women seem not discriminated against and accepted it as a mature attitude. People seem rarely to argue with discrimination against women in the school, home and the workplace. The authoritarian and monolithic culture evolved into a cultural center of diversity and creativity. People are different, and that is evolving as a society to recognize and embrace the presence of each other. In fact, our society is rapidly increasing the female activities. This means, women have important roles in this society and affect the industries development. According the National Center for Education Statistics,
The theoretical fundamentals of development discourse have experienced many changes over the decades. The role of both men and women in the development process has received much attention in the last few decades. Although the principle of equality was recognized as early as in 1945 in the UN Charter. The new theory argues that a person’s role was specified under a patriarchal framework where the scope of gender -masculine or feminine- was limited within the biological understanding of sex (male/female).
The world still struggling to overcome the issue of gander and the political and economic dominance of men trough out the human history. yet, in most developed countries the participation of women’s in the economy is growing and creating stable and peaceful society. But in most of the Arab country and third world countries the culture and the political systems are not promoting women to participate in the economics activities outside their house. For several years the United Nation, other international and non-governmental organizations worked to promote and educate societies to narrow the gap between men and women participation in the economy and education.