Content deleted Content added
Undid good faith revision 1143672199 by Onyebuchi Echezona (talk) This new paragraph about a specific publisher and their offerings does not belong in the lead, and probably nowhere in the article, without considerable revision, and removal of "EIGE" as the main topic of the paragraph. |
Clearing cite journal and cs1 errors Tag: use of predatory open access journal |
||
Line 10:
'''Theoretical approach'''
The term “women in development” was originally coined by a Washington-based network of female development professionals in the early 1970s<ref name="Tinker1990">{{cite book|author=Irene Tinker|title=Persistent Inequalities: Women and World Development|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R6aCgdeafDAC|year=1990|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-506158-1|page=30}}</ref> who sought to question [[trickle down effect|trickle down]] existing theories of development by contesting that economic development had identical impacts on men and women.<ref name="Razavi1995p2">{{cite
The focus of the 1970s [[feminist movements]] and their repeated calls for employment opportunities in the development agenda meant that particular attention was given to the productive labour of women, leaving aside reproductive concerns and social welfare.<ref name="Razavi1995p3"/> This approach was pushed forward by WID advocates, reacting to the general policy environment maintained by early colonial authorities and post-war development authorities, wherein inadequate reference to the work undertook by women as producers was made, as they were almost solely identified as their roles as wives and mothers.<ref name="Razavi1995p3"/> The WID's opposition to this “welfare approach” was in part motivated by the work of Danish economist [[Ester Boserup]] in the early 1970s, who challenged the assumptions of the said approach and highlighted the role women by women in the agricultural production and economy.<ref name="Razavi1995p4">{{cite
Reeves and Baden (2000) point out that the WID approach stresses the need for women to play a greater role in the development process. According to this perspective, women's active involvement in policymaking will lead to more successful policies overall.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Reeves |first1=Hazel |last2=Baden |first2=Sally |title=Gender and Development: Concepts and Definitions (Report 55) |url=https://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/reports/re55.pdf |publisher=University of Sussex - Institute of Development Studies |access-date=18 September 2019 |archive-date=29 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200929195546/https://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/reports/re55.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> Thus, a dominant strand of thinking within WID sought to link women's issues with development, highlighting how such issues acted as impediments to economic growth; this “relevance” approach stemmed from the experience of WID advocates which illustrated that it was more effective if demands of equity and social justice for women were strategically linked to mainstream development concerns, in an attempt to have WID policy goals taken up by development agencies.<ref name="Razavi1995p6">{{cite
'''Criticism'''
The WID movement faced a number of criticisms; such an approach had in some cases the unwanted consequence of depicting women as a unit whose claims are conditional on its productive value, associating increased female status with the value of cash income in women's lives.<ref name="Razavi1995pi">{{cite
===Women and development (WAD)===
Line 41:
'''Theoretical approach'''
The Gender and Development (GAD) approach focuses on the socially constructed<ref>{{cite journal|last=Bertrand|first=Tietcheu|title=Being Women and Men in Africa Today: Approaching Gender Roles in Changing African Societies|year=2006|journal=Student World}}</ref> differences between men and women, the need to challenge existing gender roles and relations,<ref name="Reeves 2000 8">{{cite book|last=Reeves|first=Hazel|title=Gender and Development: Concepts and Definitions|year=2000|___location=Brighton|isbn=1-85864-381-3|page=8}}</ref> and the creation and effects of class differences on development.<ref name=":02"/> This approach was majorly influenced by the writings of academic scholars such as Oakley (1972) and Rubin (1975), who argue the social relationship between men and women have systematically subordinated women,<ref name=":1"/> along with economist scholars Lourdes Benería and Amartya Sen (1981), who assess the impact of colonialism on development and gender inequality. They state that colonialism imposed more than a 'value system' upon developing nations, it introduced a system of economics 'designed to promote capital accumulation which caused class differentiation'.<ref name=":02"/>
GAD departs from WID, which discussed women's subordination and lack of inclusion in discussions of international development without examining broader systems of gender relations.<ref>{{cite
Unlike WID, the GAD approach is not concerned specifically with women, but with the way in which a society assigns roles, responsibilities and expectations to both women and men. GAD applies [[gender analysis]] to uncover the ways in which men and women work together, presenting results in neutral terms of economics and efficiency.{{sfn|Shifting views...}} In an attempt to create gender equality (denoting women having the same opportunities as men, including ability to participate in the public sphere),<ref>Development Assistance Committee (DAC), 1998, p.7</ref> GAD policies aim to redefine traditional gender role expectations. Women are expected to fulfill household management tasks, home-based production as well as bearing and raising children and caring for family members. The role of a wife is largely interpreted as 'the responsibilities of motherhood.'<ref>{{cite
GAD has been largely utilized in debates regarding development but this trend is not seen in the actual practice of developmental agencies and plans for development.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book|title=Gender and the Political Economy of Development|last=Rai|first=Shirin M.|publisher=Polity|year=2002|isbn=0-7456-1490-6|___location=Malden|pages=44–83|chapter=Gender and Development}}</ref> [[Caroline Moser]] claims WID persists due to the challenging nature of GAD, but [[Shirin M. Rai]] counters this claim noting that the real issue lies in the tendency to overlap WID and GAD in policy. Therefore, it would only be possible if development agencies fully adopted GAD language exclusively.<ref name=":5" /> Caroline Moser developed the [[Moser Gender Planning Framework]] for GAD-oriented development planning in the 1980s while working at the Development Planning Unit of the [[University of London]]. Working with Caren Levy, she expanded it into a methodology for gender policy and planning.{{sfn|March|Smyth|Mukhopadhyay|1999|pp = 55}}
Line 73:
[[File:ILO Graph of third world countries wages.png|thumb|Figure 1]]
Although the discussions made around outsourcing do not often involve the effects on women, women daily endure constant results from it. Women in countries and areas that may not have been able to work and make their own income now have the opportunity to provide for themselves and their kids.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Perraudin |first1=Corinne |last2=Thèvenot |first2=Nadine |last3=Valentin |first3=Julie |title=Avoiding the employment relationship: Outsourcing and labour substitution among French manufacturing firms, 1984–2003 |journal=International Labour Review |date=2013 |volume=152 |issue=3–4 |pages=525–547 |doi=10.1111/j.1564-913X.2013.00192.x }}</ref> Gender is brought to attention because unemployment is sometimes a threat to women. The reason for it being a threat is because without jobs and their own income women may fall victim to discrimination or abuse.<ref name="Pande">{{cite
With the availability of jobs and the seeming benefits comes a concern for the work conditions in these outsourced jobs. Although some women have acquired a job the work conditions may not be safe or ideal.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=FEW's News |title=Written Testimony Of The Federally Employed Women |journal=FEW's News |date=2003 |volume=2}}</ref> As mentioned above the jobs are in extreme demand because of how limited opportunities for employment is in certain regions. This leads to the idea of women being disposable at the workplace.<ref
=== Gender and microfinance ===
Women have been identified by some development institutions as a key to successful development, for example through financial inclusion. Microcredit is giving small loans to people in poverty without collateral. This was first started by [[Muhammad Yunus]], who formed the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.microworld.org/en/about-microworld/about-microcredit|title=Story of the microcredit|website=www.microworld.org|access-date=2018-03-01}}</ref> Studies have showed that women are more likely to repay their debt than men, and the Grameen Bank focuses on aiding women.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Economics of Microfinance|last=Armendáriz|first=Beatriz|publisher=MIT Press|year=2010|isbn=9780262014106|___location=Cambridge|pages=14}}</ref> This financial opportunity allows women to start their own businesses for a steady income.<ref>{{cite journal|last=H|first=Scott|date=2006|title=Book Review: Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle against World Poverty|journal=Review of Radical Political Economics|volume=38|issue=2|pages=280–283|doi=10.1177/0486613405285433|s2cid=153331749}}</ref> Women have been the focus of microcredit for their subsequent increased status as well as the overall well-being of the home being improved when given to women rather than men.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Household Decisions, Gender, and Development: A Synthesis of Recent Research|last=Sharma|first=Manohar|publisher=International Food Policy Research Institute|year=2003|isbn=0-89629-717-9|editor-last=Quisumbing|editor-first=Agnes R.|___location=Washington DC|pages=195–199|chapter=Microfinance}}</ref>
There were numerous case studies done in Tanzania about the correlation of the role of [[Microfinance in Tanzania|SACCoS]] (savings and credit cooperative organization) and the economic development of the country. The research showed that the microfinance policies were not being carried out in the most efficient ways due to exploitation.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Brennan|first=James R.|date=November 2006|journal=The Journal of African History|volume=47|issue=3|pages=389–413|doi=10.1017/S0021853706001794|issn=1469-5138|title=Blood Enemies: Exploitation and Urban Citizenship in the Nationalist Political Thought of Tanzania, 1958–75|s2cid=144117250|url=https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/4155/1/BloodEnemies.pdf}}</ref> One case study went a step further to claim that this financial service could provide a more equal society for women in Tanzania.<ref>{{cite
While there are such cases in which women were able to lift themselves out of poverty, there are also cases in which women fell into a [[poverty trap]] as they were unable to repay their loans.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/11/01/500093608/you-asked-we-answer-can-tiny-loans-lift-women-out-of-poverty|title=You Asked, We Answer: Can Microloans Lift Women Out Of Poverty?|work=NPR.org|access-date=2018-03-01}}</ref> It is even said that microcredit is actually an "anti-developmental" approach.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Bateman, Chang|first=Milford, Ha-Joon|date=2012|title=Microfinance and the Illusion of Development: From Hubris to Nemesis in Thirty Years|url=http://wer.worldeconomicsassociation.org/files/WER-Vol1-No1-Article2-Bateman-and-Chang-v2.pdf|journal=World Economic Review|volume=1|pages=13–36}}</ref> There is little evidence of significant development for these women within the 30 years that the microfinance has been around.<ref>{{cite book|title=Gender, development, and globalization: economics as if all people mattered|last=Benería|first=Lourdes|publisher=New York ; London : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group|year=2016|isbn=9780415537483|pages=106}}</ref> In South Africa, unemployment is high due to the introduction of microfinance, more so than it was under apartheid.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Banerjee|first1=Abhijit|last2=Galiani|first2=Sebastian|last3=Levinsohn|first3=Jim|last4=McLaren|first4=Zoë|last5=Woolard|first5=Ingrid|title=Why Has Unemployment Risen in the New South Africa |journal=NBER Working Paper No. 13167 |date=June 2007 |doi=10.3386/w13167|doi-access=free}}</ref> Microcredit intensified poverty in Johannesburg, South Africa as poor communities, mostly women, who needed to repay debt were forced to work in the informal sector.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Cohen|first=Jennifer|date=July 2010|title=How the global economic crisis reaches marginalised workers: the case of street traders in Johannesburg, South Africa|journal=Gender and Development|volume=18|issue=2|pages=277–289|doi=10.1080/13552074.2010.491345|s2cid=154585808}}</ref>
Line 88:
Although there is debate on how effective microcredit is in alleviating poverty in general, there is an argument that microcredit enables women to participate and fulfill their capabilities in society.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Lott|first=Charlotte E.|date=2009-05-01|title=Why Women Matter: the Story of Microcredit |journal=Journal of Law and Commerce|volume=27|issue=2|doi=10.5195/jlc.2009.28|issn=2164-7984|doi-access=free}}</ref> For example, a study conducted in Malayasia showed that their version of microcredit, AIM, had a positive effect on Muslim women's empowerment in terms of allowing them to have more control over family planning and over decisions that were made in the home.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Al-Shami|first1=Sayed Samer Ali|last2=Razali|first2=Muhammad M.|last3=Majid|first3=Izaidin|last4=Rozelan|first4=Ahmed|last5=Rashid|first5=Nurulizwa|date=2016-07-02|title=The effect of microfinance on women's empowerment: Evidence from Malaysia|journal=Asian Journal of Women's Studies|volume=22|issue=3|pages=318–337|doi=10.1080/12259276.2016.1205378|s2cid=156110946|issn=1225-9276}}</ref>
In contrast, out of a study conducted on 205 different MFIs, they concluded that there is still gender discrimination within microfinance institutions themselves and microcredit which impact the existing discrimination within communities as well. In Bangladesh, another outcome seen for some of the Grameen recipients was that they faced domestic abuse as a result of their husbands feeling threatened about women bringing in more income.<ref>{{cite journal|date=2010|title=Supplemental Material for Assessing the Impact of the Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 2000–2008.|journal=Psychology of Men & Masculinity|doi=10.1037/a0018033.supp|issn=1524-9220}}</ref> A study in Uganda also noted that men felt threatened through increased female financial dominance, increasing women's vulnerability at home.<ref>{{cite
Through the “[[Feminist constructivism|constructivist feminist standpoint]],” women can understand that the limitations they face are not inherent and in fact, are “constructed” by traditional gender roles, which they have the ability to challenge through owning their own small business. Through this focus, a study focused on the Foundation for International Community Assistance's (FINCA) involvement and impact in Peru, where women are made aware of the “machismo” patriarchal culture in which they live through their experiences with building small enterprises.<ref>{{cite thesis|last=Fogliani|first=Sandra|title=Agricultural potential in the Northern Andes, Peru; the Cajamarca Integrated Rural Development Project.|year=1997 |publisher=Carleton University|doi=10.22215/etd/1997-03661|doi-access=free}}</ref> In Rajasthan, India, another study found mixed results for women participating in a microlending program. Though many women were not able to pay back their loans, many were still eager to take on debt because their microfinance participation created a platform to address other inequities within the community.<ref>{{cite journal|last=MOODIE|first=MEGAN|date=2008-07-31|title=Enter microcredit: A new culture of women's empowerment in Rajasthan?|journal=American Ethnologist|volume=35|issue=3|pages=454–465|doi=10.1111/j.1548-1425.2008.00046.x|issn=0094-0496}}</ref>
Line 94:
Another example is the Women's Development Business (WDB) in South Africa, a [[Grameen Bank]] microfinance replicator. According to WDB, the goal is to ensure “[…] that rural women are given the tools to free themselves from the chains of poverty […]” through allocation of financial resources directly to women including enterprise development programs.<ref name="WDB">{{cite web |url= http://wdb.co.za/about/#.UpUPR-KmZRc |title=WDB about page |year= 2013 |website=Women’s Development Business |publisher=WDB |access-date=28 November 2013}}</ref> The idea is to use microfinance as a market-oriented tool to ensure access to financial services for disadvantaged and low-income people and therefore fostering economic development through [[financial inclusion]].
Diving into another example regarding Microfinance and women from ''Women Entrepreneurship Promotion in Developing Countries: What explains the gender gap in entrepreneurship and how to close it?''is Vossenberg (2013) describes how although there has been an increase in entrepreneurship for women, the gender gap still persists. The author states “The gender gap is commonly defined as the difference between men and women in terms of numbers engaged in entrepreneurial activity, motives to start or run a business, industry choice and business performance and growth” (Vossenberg, 2). The article dives into how in Eastern Europe there is a low rate of women entrepreneurs. Although the author discusses how in Africa nearly fifty percent of women make up entrepreneurs.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://web2.msm.nl/RePEc/msm/wpaper/MSM-WP2013-08.pdf |title=
As a reaction, a current topic in the feminist literature on economic development is the ‘gendering’ of [[microfinance]], as women have increasingly become the target borrowers for rural [[microcredit]] lending. This, in turn, creates the assumption of a “rational economic woman” which can exacerbate existing social hierarchies<ref name="Rankin2001">{{cite journal |last=Rankin |first=Katharine N. |year=2001 |title=Governing Development: Neoliberalism, Microcredit, and Rational Economic Woman |url=http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/apcity/unpan011685.pdf |journal=Economy and Society |volume=30 |pages=18–37 |access-date=2 November 2013 |doi=10.1080/03085140122912 |archive-date=3 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203130259/http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/apcity/unpan011685.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>).
Line 114:
Advocated chiefly by the [[World Bank]], smart economics is an approach to define gender equality as an integral part of economic development and it aims to spur development through investing more efficiently in women and girls. It stresses that the gap between men and women in [[human capital]], economic opportunities, and voice/agency is a chief obstacle in achieving more efficient development. As an approach, it is a direct descendant of the efficiency approach taken by WID which “rationalizes ‘investing’ in women and girls for more effective development outcomes.”<ref name="Chant and Sweetman (2012)">{{cite journal|last=Chant|first=Sylvia|author2=Sweetman, Caroline|title=Fixing women or fixing the world? 'Smart economics', efficiency approaches, and gender equality in development| journal=Gender & Development| date=November 2012|volume=20|issue=3|pages=517–529|doi=10.1080/13552074.2012.731812|s2cid=154921144}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Chant|first=S.|title=The disappearing of 'smart economics'? The World Development Report 2012 on Gender Equality: Some concerns about the preparatory process and the prospects for paradigm change|journal=Global Social Policy|date=16 August 2012|volume=12|issue=2|pages=198–218|doi=10.1177/1468018112443674|s2cid=145291907}}</ref> As articulated in the section of WID, the efficiency approach to women in development was chiefly articulated by [[Caroline Moser]] in the late 1980s.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Moser|first=Caroline O.N.|title=Gender planning in the third world: Meeting practical and strategic gender needs|journal=World Development|date=November 1989|volume=17|issue=11|pages=1799–1825|doi=10.1016/0305-750X(89)90201-5}}</ref> Continuing the stream of WID, smart economics’ key unit of analysis is women as individual and it particularly focuses on measures that promote to narrow down the gender gap. Its approach identifies women are relatively underinvested source of development and it defines [[gender equality]] an opportunity of higher return investment. “Gender equality itself is here depicted as smart economics, in that it enables women to contribute their utmost skills and energies to the project of world economic development.”<ref name="Chant and Sweetman (2012)"/> In this term, smart economics champions neoliberal perspective in seeing business as a vital vehicle for change and it takes a stance of [[liberal feminism]].
The thinking behind smart economics dates back, at least, to the lost decade of the [[Structural adjustment|Structural Adjustment]] Policies (SAPs) in the 1980s.<ref name="Chant and Sweetman (2012)"/> In 1995, World Bank issued its flagship publication on gender matters of the year Enhancing Women's Participation in Economic Development (World Bank 1995). This report marked a critical foundation to the naissance of Smart Economics; in a chapter entitled ‘The Pay-offs to Investing in Women,’ the Bank proclaimed that investing in women “speeds economic development by raising productivity and promoting the more efficient use of resources; it produces significant social returns, improving child survival and reducing fertility, and it has considerable intergenerational pay-offs.” <ref>{{cite
Other [[international organizations]], particular [[UN]] families, have so far endorsed the approach of smart economics. Examining the relationship between child well-being and gender equality, for example, [[UNICEF]] also referred to the “Double Dividend of Gender Equality.”<ref>{{cite book|last=UNICEF|title=The state of the world's children 2007: women and children: the double dividend of gender equality.|url=https://archive.org/details/stateofworldschi0000unic|url-access=registration|year=2006|publisher=United Nations Children's Fund|isbn=9789280639988}}</ref> Its explicit link to a wider framework of the [[Millennium Development Goals]] (where the Goal 3 is Promoting Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment) claimed a wider legitimacy beyond economic efficiency. In 2007, the Bank proclaimed that “The business case for investing in MDG 3 is strong; it is nothing more than smart economics.”<ref>{{cite book|last=World Bank|title=Global Monitoring Report 2007: Millennium Development Goals: Confronting the Challenges of Gender Equality and Fragile States (Vol. 4).|publisher=World Bank-free PDF|pages=145}}</ref> In addition, “Development organisations and governments have been joined in this focus on the ‘business case’ for gender equality and the empowerment of women, by businesses and enterprises which are interested in contributing to social good.”<ref name="Chant and Sweetman (2012)"/> A good example is “Girl Effect initiative” taken by Nike Foundation.<ref>{{cite news |title=Nike Harnesses 'Girl Effect' Again |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/11/giving/11VIDEO.html?_r=0 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=November 10, 2010 |access-date=1 December 2013}}</ref> Its claim for economic imperative and a broader socio-economic impact also met a strategic need of NGOs and community organizations that seeks justification for their program funding.<ref name="Chant and Sweetman (2012)"/> Thus, some NGOs, for example [[Plan International]], captured this trend to further their program. The then-president of the World Bank [[Robert B. Zoellick]] was quoted by Plan International in stating “Investing in adolescent girls is precisely the catalyst poor countries need to break intergenerational poverty and to create a better distribution of income. Investing in them is not only fair, it is a smart economic move.”<ref>{{cite book |last=Plan International |title='Because I Am a Girl: The State of the World's Girls 2009. Girls in the Global Economy. Adding it All Up.' |publisher=Plan International |page=11 and 28 |url=http://www.ungei.org/resources/files/BIAAG_Summary_ENGLISH_lo_resolution.pdf |access-date=2016-05-05 |archive-date=2016-05-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160516031212/http://www.ungei.org/resources/files/BIAAG_Summary_ENGLISH_lo_resolution.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> The global financial meltdown and austerity measures taken by major donor counties further supported this approach, since [[international financial institutions]] and international NGOs received a greater pressure from donors and from global public to design and implement maximally cost-effective programs.
| |||