Introduction
Gender and development are an interdisciplinary field focusing on the social
relations between women and men in developing and transitional economies.
According to the Oxford Dictionary gender can be defined as the state of being male
or female with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones.
In the field of international cooperation, the gender and development approach has
been gaining increasing prominence since the 1980s. Gender refers to the social
differences between women and men in contrast to the biological existence. There
are numerous differences between men and women in society and these differences
are the result of socially constructed ideas based on the sex of a person. We
therefore acknowledge that “women” and “men”, “male” and “female”, are social
constructs. The two sexes occupy different positions in society and thus, different
gender roles in society that are shaped by their gender identity. The identity is based
on the biological sex or physical constraints a person is born with and the different
responsibilities of women and men in a given culture or location that shape and
determine the roles and activities that society regards as appropriate for them. It also
determines the level of access each has to services and resources and shapes the
relationships between men and women, as well as their relative power in social,
economic and political relations (Imam 1997:2–3; Reeves & Baden 2000:3).
1. Feminisation and Gender dynamics of poverty
What is poverty?
Spicker (1999:157) defines poverty as consisting of serious deprivation where
people are conceived to be poor when their material circumstances are deemed to
be morally unacceptable. This definition implies a moral imperative and a value
judgement which means that something needs to be done about the situation. While
it is acknowledged that the core elements of definitions of poverty may differ, the
underlying assumption is that this deprivation is detrimental to the well-being of those
who are subjected it. In South Africa and in most developing countries of the world,
poverty is inextricably linked to inequality. The experience of poverty shows that it is
multi-dimensional and is affected by gender and age as well as cultural, social and
economic factors (Spicker 1999). Poverty has the tendency to expose people to
humiliation, rudeness, and inhumane treatment by public and private agents of
service. The inability to participate in community life and in the development of basic
infrastructure is a critical factor in the experience of poverty. Poor people tend to
focus on assets rather than on income.
In measuring poverty, it is of utmost importance to analyses the feminization of
poverty understand how it is measured. In reality income is the most and only base
to measure women’s poverty.
Feminisation of poverty
The term “feminization of poverty” describes the disproportionate number of women
who are poor and its link to the division of labour along gender lines (Calixte,
Johnson and Motapanyane 2010). It can also be described as the phenomenon in
which an increasing proportion of those living at or below the poverty line are
women. This is an important issue not only because it affects women, but because
women tend to live longer than men and be at greater risk of living in poverty in their
old age and also because the poverty of women frequently represents the poverty of
children. Owusu and Nketiah (2014) also describe “feminization of poverty” as a
hypothesis that postulates that women experience poverty at a higher rate than men.
There are a number of correlates that have been found to be related to the
phenomenon of women living in poverty. However, these are not causes of the
phenomenon nor do they necessarily indicate that a woman is at risk for becoming
poor. To better understand the “feminization of poverty”, it is important to determine
what factors place women at higher risk for poverty and what factors mitigate this
probability (Harnan 2006). In addition, better social programs need to be developed
not only to help raise the quality of life for women living in poverty through welfare in
the short term, but also to raise it more permanently through helping women
overcome the factors that make them at risk.
The term feminization of poverty as according to McLanahan-Kelly 2006, focuses
attention on sex differences in poverty rates and the fact that they have grown in the
last half century. Thus, feminization describes both the unequal state of men’s and
women’s poverty rates and it is caused by the following attributes;
• Lack of income
• Deprivation of capabilities
• Gender biases present in both societies and govts
• Poverty in choices and opportunities such as ability to lead a healthy, long
and creative life
• Poverty in basic rights like freedom, respect and dignity
The Canadian Labor Congress reported that in 2005, women working full time
earned 70.5 cents to the dollar that every male in a comparable job earned (Calitxe
et al 2010:17). Across the board, women are more likely to suffer from poverty than
men are (Harnan 2006). One key explanation for the feminization of poverty in the
early 1970s was a change in family structure, particularly in the number of females
headed households created by divorce.
The division of labour and education along gender lines, racial inequalities and
discrimination and unpaid domestic labour all contribute to the growing feminization
of poverty. Feminists are working to decrease the income gap, to benefit the overall
health of women and the population at large. Women are more educated now than
they have ever been, but even women who are university graduates are earning less
than men. Frenette and Coulombe reached the conclusion that this was often due to
their degrees being in gendered fields of study, such as the arts and humanities
(Gaszo 2010:224). Women also tend to work in fields associated with lower pay,
which includes service and sales work (Gaszo 2010).
Racism and discrimination along the lines of ability and age also contribute to
poverty in women. Women of colour are underemployed and paid less than white
women (Gaszo 2010). They are also more likely to be employed through job
agencies and therefore have less access to benefits and their jobs are less secure
(Modiba 2006).
Gendered poverty as a state and a process
Poverty used to be conceptualized in terms of the income needed to achieve a
predetermined and physiologically defined level of survival by members of the
average households (Kabeer 2015:199). This poverty line served to distinguish the
poor from the non-poor within a population. Consequently all members of
households were thought to be likely to be equally poor or equally well-off.
Poverty as a state is expressed as a snapshot view of basic needs deficits of the
poor at a particular point in time. Poverty as a process focuses on the causes and
mechanisms of the generation and transmission of poverty over time (Fergany
1981:15). The two were of course, closely inter-related since deficits in needs at any
particular point in time were both outcomes of ongoing processes of poverty and
contributory factors. Nevertheless, the distinction served to underline what emerged
as the main funding of the study, that women and men experience the state of
poverty differently and often unequally and become impoverished through processes
that sometimes(though not always) diverge (Kabeer 1989:10).
Poverty as a process
The process of poverty can be divided into those which explain why poor people
remain poor over extended periods of time and those which explain why people both
poor and non-poor become poorer over time. A focus on processes necessarily
draws attention to the unequal distribution of the means through which people in
different contexts seek to meet their needs and purse their goals. While the means
themselves are clearly likely to vary across regions, the livelihoods literature has
been useful in drawing out a number of generalizable insights. In particular, it has
served to highlight the importance of human labour skills, knowledge and abilities to
the livelihood strategies of poor people and to the extent to which largely unskilled
family labour is the most abundant, sometimes the only capability available to the
very poorest (Sen 1992:113).
The chances of poor households climbing out of poverty depend on the quantity of
labour at their disposal, the productivity of this labour as determined by physical
strength, education, skills and on their ability to mobilize other resources (Kabeer
2015). These include material resources including land and other natural resources,
productive equipment and credit, as well as social resources such as their claims on
their kinship networks, the moral economy of the community and the state (Kabeer
2015). It is of course the large vertical inequalities in society that will determine what
share of these resources accrue to the poor.
Given the importance of physical labour as the predominant and often the only
resource at the disposal of the poor, a critical insight into the gendered processes of
poverty relates to asymmetries in the extent to which men and women are able to
dispose of their own labour or enjoy command over the labour of others.
The first and most widespread, form that this asymmetry takes relates to the fact that
while everywhere in the world, households must allocate the labour at their disposal
between earning a living and caring for the family, in much of the world, women bear
a disproportionate share of the unpaid work of caring for the family.
Other asymmetries relate to the form taken by women’s productive contributions. In
areas of strict seclusion, women either work as unpaid family labour or in home-
based forms of economic activity where they relinquish control over the production
process and to the proceeds of their labour to male household members (Kabeer
2015). Elsewhere, as in West Africa, women are obliged to provide labour on their
husbands’ farm before they can labour on their own, curtailing the returns they enjoy
from their efforts.
Poverty as a state
In many regions of the world, household income was distributed in horizontally
unequal ways, which systematically discriminated against women and girls in relation
to basic survival and well-being as measured by indicators of health, nutrition and
mortality. While gender inequalities were not confined to the poor, they tended to be
exacerbated by poverty.
According to Chambers (1989:119) an important contribution to the literature was the
idea of a hierarchy of needs among the poor in the sense that the basic survival
needs of the present had to be satisfied before making plans for the future or
concerning oneself with more intangible concerns with status, self-esteem, autonomy
and dignity. This hierarchy played out in gendered ways.
This was evident in one women’s explanation for doing agricultural waged labour in
the fields in a country where norms of propriety required respectable women to
remain seduced within the home: “What need have the poor for self-respect or
propriety? Everything is dictated by scarcity; scarcity of food, scarcity of clothes, and
scarcity of shelter, there is no end to scarcity, there are mothers who cannot feed
their children, can they afford propriety (Kabeer 1989:7).
This statement suggested that for those living on the margins of physical survival,
the struggle to stay alive was indeed an overriding priority, as suggested by Robert
Chambers. If the hierarchy of needs is imposed by one’s objective position in
society, rather than a reflection of subjectively determined preferences, the
statement also conveyed the harsh nature of the trade-offs that defined poverty.
These women could abide by her community’s norms and enjoy their approval or
she could feed her children.
Gendered poverty as a state: Female-headed households
Single mothers are the poorest women in the society and their children tend to be
disadvantaged in comparison to their peers, hence these female headed households
only hold about a two third of the income of male headed households. Female
headship is one example of ways in which gender inequalities differentiated the
experience of poverty. Female headships were empirically associated with poverty in
a country like Bangladesh, where women were largely dependent on male earnings.
Buvinic and Yousseff (1978:189) attention was drawn to female households heads
as a special category among the poor; indeed, as the poorest of the poor. The use of
the phrase “the poorest of the poor” in relation to female headship and the rise of
female headship in a number of regions of the world, served over time to establish it
as a marker of the perceived process of the feminization of poverty (Buvinic 1993:1).
Female supported households continue to be used widely as an indicator of poverty.
A recent report by the Un Women (2012:1) suggests that in all but three of 25
countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, the ratio of women to men in the working age group
in the poorest households varied from 110 to 130 to every 100men. This estimate
makes sense if we recognize that women are less likely to have paid work than; that
when they have paid work, they are likely to be paid less than men and that as a
result, households that rely primarily on female rather than male earners are likely to
be poorer on average (Kabeer 2015).
In my opinion, gendered poverty in my country (South Africa) can be regarded as a
state. Poverty may have declined but women and female-headed households still
suffer most. Women are up to thirty percent poorer than men on average. There is
an even larger poverty gap between female-headed households and male-headed
households, a difference of as much as hundred percent (100%), despite improved
education, health and basic services.
2. Gender analysis and mainstreaming in the development debate
Gender mainstreaming as according to Ecosoc 1997, is the process of assessing the
implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies
or programmes, in all areas and at all levels. It is a strategy for making women’s as
well as men’s concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design,
implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political,
economic and societal spheres so that women and men benefit equally, and
inequality is not perpetuated. The goal is to achieve gender equality. It is a term that
has no ready popular reasonance and yet is now used quite comfortably in policy
circles (Daly 2005:433). According to Theobald (2002:1), gender mainstreaming
“symbolised a move away from looking at women as a separate target group or
vulnerable group to a more far-reaching goal of gender equality.
This further articulates to women in development focused on highlighting the
important roles of women and documenting women’s inequitable positions in society
and in the development process. This concerns with women as presentative of half
of the population not a special interest group. As such the concept was adopted to
include women into the day to day running of economic developments. As according
to Rathgeber 1988:3 women in Development approach was adopted pointing to the
fact that women’s contribution for development is not recognized by the policy
makers. However, women were brought into development policy on very sex-specific
terms. Men were seen as the heads of households and productive agents. Women
were seen as housewives, mothers and reproducers (Rathgeber 1988:5). Therefore,
development efforts targeted the male population, while women were relegated to
the marginal welfare sector. According to women news 7 and 8, 1991 from the
United Nations office articulate that women’s productive roles are made distinctive
towards production or economic activities and reproductive or human resources
maintenance activities.
Rethinking women in development: modernization economic theories, gender
inequality, capitalism from WID to DAD
Gender inequality is still thriving phenomenon that needs to be addressed
throughout the world. According to the world bank it appears in three main domains
that is the accumulation of human and physical capital endowments, including
education, health, land, and other assets such as financial resources that women
and men accumulate during their lifetimes, the use of these endowments to take up
economic opportunities and generate income. Access to economic opportunities
determines how endowments and time generate income and consumption; and third
and the use of these endowments to take actions affecting individual and household
well-being. In this course, we will refer to agency as the process by which an
individual, woman or man, makes choices and translates these into desired
outcomes. These choices include: control over resources, decision-making over
family formation, control over movement, freedom from violence, and the ability to
have a voice in society.
Gender Roles framework
Gender plays a big role in development as it looks to establish long term effects on
females in areas that include their education towards development. As according to
the commission on growth and development (2008), long-Term Effects of Female
Education The education of girls provides a strong test of a government’s
commitment to equality of opportunity. Many formidable obstacles stop girls from
completing their schooling: family financial pressure, lack of safety, even things as
basic as inadequate toilet facilities. But if these obstacles can be overcome, the
payoff is very high. Educated women have fewer, healthier children, and they have
them when they are older. The result is children who are more successful in school,
largely because they benefit from their mothers’ education. Educating girls and
integrating them into the labour force is one way to break an intergenerational cycle
of poverty.
Gender and Efficiency
One may argue with abilities how far can women push themselves in archiving or
finishing a certain task. Their efficiency as compared to men is questionable to the
extent that some thoughts have suggested that one needs muscular energy to be
competent enough to be in the development sector. The world bank alludes that
gender equality is a core development objective, because it’s an intrinsic human
right. Development should result in fewer gaps in well-being between women and
men. This therefore means that it is not up to one group of people to be efficient but
cohesive effort of two groups coming together without discrimination the other
completes the job. The increased participation of women in the labor force
throughout the developing world has not translated into equal employment
opportunities or equal earnings for men and women, but however gives the
opportunity for a job to be completed in time with enough labor at hand
Women and Development (WAD)
The Women and Development approach pointed out that women are already
integrated into the development process in an exploitative way. This is due to the
fact that planners hold imprecise assumptions about women’s specific activities
leading to the neglect of women’s real needs and over-exploitation of their labour.
Activists and theorists argued that women would never get their equal share of
development benefits unless patriarchy and global inequality are addressed
(Rathgeber 1988:8). More-so the united nations article 17 of 1989 on women and
development urges governments to identify their own quantitative and qualitative
national targets in such fields as education and training, employment, income
generation health and women in public life with regard with full integration with
women in development and to commit adequate resources to women and
development programmes.
Global women’s conferences: gender equality, Beijing declaration
The declaration protects women from any form of discrimination or exclusion in the
development industry. It allows all women from the youngest to the oldest to be
educated towards economical development, hence paving way for a balanced
working community. The UN Beijing Declaration articulates that women rights are
human rights as such, equal rights, opportunities and access to resources, equal
sharing of responsibilities for the family by men and women, and a harmonious
partnership between them are critical to their well-being and that of their families as
well as to the consolidation of democracy. Women seek empowerment and
advancement thus including the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion and
belief, thus contributing to the moral, ethical, spiritual and intellectual needs of
women and men, individually or in community with others and thereby guaranteeing
them the possibility of realizing their full potential in society and shaping their lives in
accordance with their own aspirations. This hence allows gender biases to be
addressed in a way that balances the hiring of women in the development industry
as stipulated and demonstrated by the world bank in the 1970s.
Gender and Development (GAD)
Gender and Development originated in opposition to views that women were
excluded from the development process and needed to be incorporated into
mainstream policies, institutions and programs. Early gender and development
theorists critiqued the prevailing development paradigm that promoted market-led
development and structural adjustment and stabilization packages as a response to
debt and balance-of-payments problems, as well as the view that women should be
integrated into a process that benefits a few and impoverishes many (Beneria and
Sen 1982). Gender and development seeks to correct systems and mechanisms that
produce gender inequality by focusing not only on women, but also by assessing the
social status of both women and men. It also emphasizes the role of men in
resolving gender inequality and places importance on the empowerment of women,
who are placed in a socially and economically weaker position than men.
3. Gender equality in the labour market
Gender Equality
Gender equality does not necessarily mean equality of outcomes for males and
females. Using the definition in the World Development Report 2006, gender equality
means “equal access to the opportunities that allow people to pursue a life of their
own choosing and to avoid extreme deprivations in outcomes”. With this definition
World Bank (2001), World Bank (2005) states that “it is gender equality in rights,
resources and resources”. Equality of resources refers to equality of opportunity,
including equality of access to human capital investments and other productive
resources and markets. Equality of voice captures the ability to influence and
contribute to the political discourse and the development process (Global monitoring
report 2007:106).
The concept of gender equality leads to freedom of all the human being for
enhancing their personal abilities and making choices without considering the gender
restrictions. Gender equality indicates the equality in life for women and men,
through considering their requirements and desires and involving the relocation of
power and wealth (Reeves and Baden 2000). Economic growth can be obtained by
giving importance to gender equality because by promoting gender equality we are
empowering women to contribute more in economic growth (Klasen 2002).
The role of men in gender equality
International surveys show that there are a significant number of men who consider
themselves feminists and who are in favor of gender equality. Men must listen to the
voices and concerns of women to understand how inequality and discrimination
affects them. Not only must men learn to listen about the problem of violence against
women but they must also take responsibility to help bring about change (Michael
Kaufman 2010).
Caregiving is traditionally done by women, while breadwinning is men’s work.
Despite many progressive milestones, current governmental policies surrounding
caregiving still do not move society towards gender quality (Anne-Marie Slaughter
2016). Women’s work is as important as men’s work. Accepting equality and
rejecting gender stereotypes would help end discrimination against men seeking jobs
typically done by women, increase their participation in family life and ease the
economic burden of supporting their families as more women enter the workforce. If
we continue to live in a society where gender inequality exists, we all lose. Gender
equality is not just about policies, it’s about the quality of life.
Equality benefits men, it boosts their wellbeing, helps create a greater balance
between their work and family life and improves the employment opportunities for
their daughters. Men should care about feminism for the sake of the women they
love and for their own sake too (Nikki Van Der Gaag 2016). Men should stand as
allies at women’s side.
4. Gender equality and financial, economic and social
empowerment of women
A majority of microfinance programs target women with explicit goal of empowering
them. According to Hashemi et al (1996), there exist several indicators of
empowerment for women involved in microfinance mobility, economic security, social
freedom, major household, decision-making and freedom from male domination,
political and legal awareness.
Microfinance plays a major role in access to and control of financial resource.
Hashemi et al (1996), Goetz and Gupta (1996) states that, “the ability of women
maintains control over credit they receive and income accruing from it”. Women
maintain significant control over their loans activities. According to Ackerly (1995),
Goetz and Gupta (1995), it seems obvious that the effect of microfinance service is
higher when women actually control the financial resources acquired in their names.
Microfinance plays a critical role in improving women decision making by contributing
in economic activities. Microfinance makes women economically independent by
putting capital and financial resources in their hands. Economic independence
results in higher bargaining power for women in their households and communities
and subsequently results in higher prestige and self-esteem. Microfinance services
lead to women empowerment by positively influencing women’s decision making
power at household level and their overall socioeconomic status.
Cheston and Kuhn (2002) stated that, “Microfinance programs have been potential to
transform poor relation and to empower women”. Microfinance help to place vital
resources in the hands of rural women, which otherwise will not be available to them.
This helps women to increase their economic activities and raise their standard of
living in the process.
Providing access to microfinance for women is considered to be a precondition of
poverty alleviation and women’s empowerment (Mayoux 1997). By focusing on
women’s empowerment from microfinance perspective, the policy development
circles have started putting more emphasis on gender relations than ever before and
they consider as a weapon against poverty (DFID 2006:1). It’s very important to
empower women by providing them access to microfinance as gender inequalities
hinder economic growth and development (World Bank, UNDP and CIDA).
Three paradigms; feminist empowerment paradigm, poverty alleviation paradigm
and financial sustainability paradigm are very important to understand the concept of
women’s empowerment in microfinance.
Feminist empowerment paradigm
It underlines the gender policies of many NGOs and the perspectives of some of the
consultants and researcher looking at gender impact of microfinance programmes
(Johnson 1997). This paradigm rooted in the development of some of the earliest
microfinance programmes in the South. The underlying concerns of this paradigm
are gender equality and women’s human rights. Microfinance is promoted as an
entry point in the context of a wider strategy for women’s economic and socio-
political empowerment. The main focus here is on gender awareness and feminist
organization.
Poverty alleviation paradigm
Poverty alleviation paradigm main considerations are poverty reduction among the
poorest, increased well-being and community development. The focus is on small
savings and loan provision for consumption and production. This paradigm justifies
some level of subsidy for programmes working with particular client groups or in
particular contexts. Poverty alleviation and women’s empowerment are seen as two
sides of the same coin. The assumption is that increasing women access to
microfinance will in itself increase household income which will then translate into
improved well-being for women and enable women to bring about wider changes in
gender inequality.
Financial self-sustainability paradigm
The financial self-sustainability paradigm underlines the models of microfinance
promoted since the mid-1990s by most donor agencies and practice guidelines
promoted in publications by USAID, World Bank, UNDP and CGAP. The main
consideration in programme design is provision of financially self-sustainable micro-
finance services to large numbers of poor people, particularly micro and small
entrepreneurs (Mayoux 2000). Mayoux states that “the focus is on setting of interest
rate right to cover costs, to separate microfinance from other interventions to enable
separate accounting, to expand programmes so as to capture economies scale, to
use groups to decrease costs of delivery”. In this this paradigm, it is assumed that
increasing women’s access to microfinance services will in itself lead to individual
economic empowerment, well-being and social and political empowerment.
Women Empowerment
Women’s empowerment was based on economic and financial empowerment but
now its concept has been wider which involves Psychological, intra home relational,
socio cultural, legal and political aspects (Majoor et al 2009). Few studies have
shown that it is a process which helps the women to gain gender equality (Majoor et
al 2009). Women’s empowerment is such a process that enhances the capacity of
women for making choices about desired activities and results as well (Krishna
2003).
Create an Enabling Environment for supporting financing for gender equality
Microfinance services and changes in outcomes can’t be considered as gender
equitable, unless women have equal access to microfinance and dynamic
empowerment for confronting gender inequality (Mayoux 2005). In prospective of
broad strategy for women’s empowerment, microfinance is an entrance point. It
emphasizes on rights of gender equality and feminist association (Mayoux 2005).
Regularities should legally allow Non-Financial institutions as well as Non-
Governmental organizations for financial services, in this way there may be a
significant development in microfinance ultimately useful for poverty reduction
(Littlefield 2010).
Sensitizing central bankers and regulators on the special needs of poor women
For supporting poverty decrease plan, microfinance interference has to reach
beyond that small number of women who have already got benefit, through access
to resources and expertise. First they have to access disadvantaged crowd of
women and poverty sector. Secondly, to find out the substitutes of high poverty-
targeted plans. There should be an evidence of gender mainstreaming in regularities
and conditions for loans and savings.
Groups to strengthen women’s network
Microfinance women’s groups should be used to encourage and support women.
Women’s group is useful for non-monetary service support, such as literacy
programs, wellbeing programs and it will also help to lower program expenses. Such
groups also support association between women and other active community
association as well as the advanced civil culture network as a whole (Mayoux 2005).
There is a clear link between women empowerment and level of women personnel.
Some microfinance services are for women only and at the same time most of the
staff members are females. On the other hand some microfinance institutes have
equal employment policies which are essential for equal rights but it doesn’t possibly
empower women (Zahoor et al 2015). As it creates obstacles in hiring females for
executive positions because of gender restrictions. So strategy should be developed
by making changes in the following; criteria and process of recruitment, culture of
institute and working conditions (Zahoor et al 2015).
5. SGDs as building blocks for the 2030 Agenda
The international forum of national NGO platforms and 6 regional coalitions from all
continents representing over 22,000 development, human rights and environment
issues. The IFP has been engaging within the international community on the setting
and negotiation of the sustainable development goals (SDG) agenda from its
beginning. Ahead of the high level political forum to be held in July 2016, the IFP has
built with its constituency the following statements on the key building blocks of a
successful implementation of the SDGs agenda. This IFPs declaration is based on
the political analysis of IFPs members at national and regional levels.
Once more, the international forum of national NGO platform (IFP) welcomes the
new international agenda of sustainable development goals, as it embodies a
collective willingness of the countries around the world for more progressive,
inclusive, human rights driven and gender sensitive agenda. In comparison with the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), we believe this agenda is more
transformative, aiming at being universal and more coherent.
Although the level of ambition should have been higher, the gender is positively
starting to touch upon the root causes of inequality poverty, climate change, human
discriminations and social exclusions. This has been achieved due to the more
inclusive and participatory process for the definition of the SDGs.
Conclusion and Summary
Gender analysis emphasizes on the importance of analysing women as well as men
in relation to each other rather than in solution and understanding gender relations at
all levels of social organisation and spheres of work. Gender equality has been a
topic in the 21st century which calls for a balance in defining gender roles and
allowing diverse thoughts to be shared. However the there are limits to what we can
learn from the gender division of labour and too often assumptions are made on the
basis of this alone which fails to comprehend that labour and responsibility are not
the same. On the other hand poverty plays a big role in defining gender as women
are forced into taking part in activities that male dominated. In some instances
women take up the bread winner role other than being caregivers as a result of
poverty that keeps driving families apart.
Despite major advances in the field of gender and development, women worldwide
still experience gender inequality, extreme poverty and disempowerment. According
to Riley (2007:1), this can be ascribed to three main factors: (1) the global policy
environment; (2) deep-rooted social fundamentals; and (3) organisational attitudes.
The call for gender mainstreaming at the Beijing World Conference on Women has
come to a standstill due to various reasons such as lack of political will, scarce
resources, new liberal economic and policy environment, lack of gender
disaggregated analysis and an integrated gender approach, lack of agency or voice,
and social
injustice (Riley 2007). The plight of vulnerable women and threats to their rights
continue to exist on many levels posed by structural barriers, culture, traditions,
social entrenchments, globalisation and economic processes (CWP 2014). Cornwall
and Rivas (2015:400) especially emphasise the scant consideration given to
“structural barriers to women’s individual self-actualisation, let alone their collective
mobilisation.” According to them, a paradigm shift must take place to reclaim the
gender agenda with emphasis on structural changes to address the unequal
systemic character of development (Cornwall & Rivas 2015:400). Madzwamuse
(2015:2) emphasised that gender inequality is “one of the most important structural
reasons why Africa has not reached its MDGs on poverty reduction and other
development targets.” According to him, economic justice for women is central for
gender equality, and based on the principles of participation, social and distributive
justice (Madzwamuse 2015). The activities that follow will guide you through the Post
2015 development and transformative agenda for gender equality