MGDI 60411, Engendering Development:
Bina Agarwal, Semester 1, 2024
1
ENGENDERING DEVELOPMENT
Historical and Analytical Perspectives
____________________________
Bina Agarwal
Development Fundamentals
www.binaagarwal.com
HOW DID GENDER EMERGE AS AN
ISSUE IN DEVELOPMENT DISCOURSE?
To understand this we need to go back to
the 1960s-1970s
• Post-colonial world, people had aspirations,
national leaders had obligations
• A growing focus on citizens and their needs
• New debates on growth, inequality and
development
Bina Agarwal
TWO MAJOR DEBATES
I. Relationship between Economic Growth and
Inequality (1960s early 1970s)
II. Relationship between Economic Growth and
Economic Development (mid-1970 onwards)
________________________________
•View 1: Economic inequality helps growth since the
rich save, poor consume (Kuznets)
•View 2: Economic equality will help growth:
increase internal market demand. So we need
redistribution for growth (Leferber, 1974)
• View 3: We need redistribution with growth, since
growth and equality are in conflict (Chenery,
Ahluwalia and Jolly, 1974)
Hence all were concerned with growth but with
different perspectives on inequality
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Relationship Between Economic Growth And
Economic Development
(mid 1970s onwards)
View 1: The benefits of economic growth will trickle down to
enhance well-being of citizens and reduce poverty
View 2: Growth alone will not lead to development. Development
is about:
Fulfilling basic needs (Basic needs approach, 1975. Dag
Hammarjold foundation): faceless dev to dev with a human face
Developing human capabilities (Amartya Sen 1980s)
Freedoms: freedom from hunger, ill health; Freedom to be
educated, participate in public life, etc. Human agency matters
Human development approach (UNDP, 1990)
Sustainable development (Brundtland Report, 1985 onwards)
Both views co-exist. But we also see over time an expanding
understanding of human well-being beyond income, and removal of
social and economic inequality as integral to development.
These were key elements in opening the space to recognise
gender inequalities within development discourse.
Bina Agarwal
MGDI 60411, Engendering Development:
Bina Agarwal, Semester 1, 2024
2
GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT:
SOME HISTORICAL LANDMARKS
1961-70: recognition that women were disadvantaged and needed
government schemes to enhance their welfare.
1970: Ester Boserup’s book: Women’s Role in Economic
Development, highlighted women’s role as producers & male bias in
development
1975: World conference on Women in Mexico (divergence between
feminisms: Betty Friedan & others vs Domitila de Chungara, a
Bolivian labour unionist)
1975-80:
Country reports on status of women used sex-differentiated data
to show women lagged behind men in every sphere
Women’s movements focused on violence against Women
UN agencies took up women’s cause
Emphasis initially was on directing more state attention &
resources towards enhancing women’s (and especially poor
women’s ) welfare, by fulfilling their basic needs. But recognition
of women as producers and hence contributors to efficiency
became the basis of what was termed the WID approach (Woman
in Development)
Bina Agarwal
Broadening WID and beyond WID
Early WID focused on gender inequalities in welfare, such as
access to basic needs. Ester Boserup’s emphasis on women as
producers added an important additional dimension.
It argued that investing in women was also important for efficiency.
Hence
There was a shift from the idea that development has a negative
effect on women to the idea that excluding women has a negative
effect on development
Emphasis on merit and not only need
BUT critique of WID:
Ignored gender division of labour which places double burden on
women
Ignored women’s care work at home (reproduction)
Ignored intersections (class, race etc.) and historical disadvantage
Saw modernisation as unproblematic
Did not question male power as central aspect of gender relations
Did not discuss women’s agency or political participation
ALTERNATIVE SUGGESTED:
GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT (GAD)
Bina Agarwal
GAD vs. WID
GENDER and DEVELOPMENT vs WOMEN IN DEVELOPMENT
GAD: Holistic approach of production and reproduction
WID: Focus on production without recognizing constraints of
reproduction (child care, domestic work)
GAD: Focus on gender relations as relations of power and socially
constructed.
WID: Gender relations and power do not get recognition
GAD: Women are active agents in development.
WID: Women as deserving but passive recipients
GAD: Recognises inequality and trade-offs
WID: Win-win
GAD: Market inadequate for distributing benefits of growth
WID: Focus on income in women’s hands
GAD: Looks at local communities, bottom up approaches.
WID: Can be top down
In practice today: Both approaches co-exist. Important to take all
aspects into account: welfare, efficiency, equality and
empowerment/agency
Bina Agarwal
SOME CONCEPTUAL DISTINCTIONS
Gender is seen as a relational category, unlike women which can be seen a
biological category.
Gender is a social construct, and gender relations are seen as socially rather
than biologically determined.
Gender relations – relations of power between women and men – are
complex but impinge on economic and social outcomes in multiple ways,
and in multiple arenas: the family, the community, the market and the state.
Empowerment is a process that enhances the ability of disadvantaged
(`powerless’) individuals or groups to challenge and change (in their favour)
existing power relationships that place them in subordinate economic, social
and political positions. (B.Agarwal, 1994)
The understanding of gender as a relational category, which is central to
the GAD approach, is especially important in measuring gender
inequalities.
Bina Agarwal
MGDI 60411, Engendering Development:
Bina Agarwal, Semester 1, 2024
3
THE INTERSECTIONALITY OF CLASS AND GENDER
The First UN Women’s Conference in Mexico in 1975:
First there was disagreement between Domitila Barrios de
Chungara (activist, wife of a Bolivian miner) and Betty Friedan
over the World Plan for Action
Then there was an interchange between Domitila and the President
of the Mexican delegation, to whom Domitila said:
Bina Agarwal
“Señora, … Every morning you show up in a
different outfit and … I don’t. Every day you show
up all made up and combed .. and … can spend
money on that, and yet I don’t… I’m sure you live
in a really elegant home … [while] we miners’
wives only have a small house on loan to us, and
when our husbands die or get sick or are fired
from the company, we have ninety days to leave
the house and then we’re in the street.
Now, señora, tell me: is your situation at all
similar to mine? … So, what equality are we
going to speak of between the two of us?” (Let
Me Speak!, 1978, 202-203).
From policy shifts to quantification:
landmarks
Conceptual shifts (1970s-1980s)
• Economic growth ≠ Economic development
• Basic Needs approach (ILO, 1976)
• Capabilities Approach (Amartya Sen)
• Women in Development, Gender & Development
• Environment & Development (Brundtland R)
Quantification, evaluation, monitoring
(1990s)
• Human Development Index (1990)
• Millenium Development Goals (2000)
• Sustainable Development Goals (2016)
Bina Agarwal
GENDER INEQUALITY INDICATORS AS
MEASURES OF DEVELOPMENT
•Early 1990s: Human development Reports focused
on gender inequality
•Mid-1990s- : Multiple approaches to gender
inequality
•Multiple indicators:
•Human development indicators: health, education,
•Economic indicators: employment, property, unpaid
work
•Social indicators: care work, mobility, autonomy,
social norms
•Political indicators: participation, etc.
•2000s-MDGs and SDGs
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GENDER INEQUALITY
INDICATORS
• Human Development Indicators
• Economic Indicators
• Social Indicators
• Political Indicators
Bina Agarwal
MGDI 60411, Engendering Development:
Bina Agarwal, Semester 1, 2024
4
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS
Survival
Sex ratios: female adverse ratios even with
high economic growth (e.g. India and China)
Maternal mortality
Poverty: women and children can be poor within well
off households
Education
School enrolment
Drop outs
Subjects taken
Health: inequalities in health care and nutrition
Girls and boys: anthropometric indices
(malnourishment, stunting, etc.)
Females and males: hospital admissions
MULTIDIMENSIONAL INEQUALITIES
Bina Agarwal
Female adverse sex ratios:
Females/1000 males
• The term “missing women” was coined by
Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, in an essay
in The New York Review of Books in1990. It
indicates a shortfall in the number of women
relative to the expected number of women in a
region or country if there was no gender
discrimination.
• The phenomenon is found especially in India
and China, but it also spreads over northern
South Asia, the Middle East and northern
Africa.
Bina Agarwal
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2011 2001
State Sex Ratios Change
India 940 933 7
Kerala 1084 1058 26
Tamil Nadu 995 986 9
Andhra P. 992 978 14
Meghalaya 986 975 11
Orissa 978 972 6
Himachal P. 974 970 4
West Bengal 947 934 13
Maharashtra 946 922 24
Gujarat 918 921 -3
Bihar 916 921 -5
Punjab 893 874 19
Haryana 877 861 16
Sex ratios: no of girls per 1000 boys, India
Bina Agarwal
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Bina Agarwal
Can economic growth improve sex ratios? India
MGDI 60411, Engendering Development:
Bina Agarwal, Semester 1, 2024
5
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
Employment
Property and wealth
Bina Agarwal
GENDER GAP IN EMPLOYMENT
• Nature of Jobs: Formal/informal
• Continuity/interrupted (life time
earnings)
• Discrimination
• Glass ceilings
• Wage gap:
Developed cts: 10-25%
Developing cts much higher
Bina Agarwal
Bina Agarwal
GENDER WEALTH GAP:
developed countries
______________________________________________
Country Category Women Men
______________________________________________
UK (1996) Total wealth 43.6% 56.4%
Pension wealth 29% 71%
Richest individuals 78 per 1000 men
USA (2004) Richest individuals
(Forbes list) 12.8% 87.2%
______________________________________________
Bina Agarwal
MGDI 60411, Engendering Development:
Bina Agarwal, Semester 1, 2024
6
Gender inequality in land ownership
Region Indicator Source
ASIA
women landowners
as a % of all
landowners
Four countries
other than India
14–37% Kieran et al.
(2015)
India 14% Agarwal
(2019)
AFRICA
Ten countries
(average)
22% Doss et al.
(2015)
L. AMERICA
Five countries 11–27% Deere &
Leon (2003)
Bina Agarwal
SOCIAL INDICATORS
Division of tasks at home
Social norms
and mobility
Autonomy in decision-making
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UNEQUAL DIVISION OF LABOUR:
CHILD CARE & ELDER CARE
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MOBILITY: PURDAH NORMS
South Asia
Bina Agarwal
MGDI 60411, Engendering Development:
Bina Agarwal, Semester 1, 2024
7
POLITICAL INDICATORS
Membership in decision-making bodies
Parliaments
Village councils
Community institutions
Voice in decision-making bodies
Attendance rate
Speaking up in public forums
Influencing decisions
Gender gap high in most developing countries
Bina Agarwal
Source: Ventures Africa, data from UN women
Women in Parliament in Africa
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PARTICIPATION IN COMMUNITY
INSTITUTIONS
Can you spot the women?
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GENDER INEQUALITY & DEVELOPMENT:
INTERACTIVE EFFECTS
Low education of mothers linked with high infant and
maternal mortality
Mother’s lack of assets and employment negatively affects
child survival, child education, child health
Gender unequal access to land and inputs leads to lower
agricultural productivity
Gender unequal access to house and land leads to higher
domestic violence, negative effect on maternal health
Gender unequal voice in public institutions, flawed
democracy, poorer governance outcomes.
Basically, gender inequalities adversely affect development
both instrumentally (as above) and intrinsically (women’s well
being is itself a measure of development & social justice)
Bina Agarwal
MGDI 60411, Engendering Development:
Bina Agarwal, Semester 1, 2024
8
Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower
women
3.1 Ratio of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary
education
3.2 Share of women in wage employment in the non-
agricultural sector
3.3 Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament
Goal 5: Improve maternal health
Gender and the MDGs
(Millennium Development Goals for 2015)
Bina Agarwal
SDG ambitions
• In January 2016, the UNDP launched The
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as “a
universal call to action to end poverty, protect the
planet, and ensure that all people enjoy peace and
prosperity.”
• The agenda contains 17 Global Goals and 169
targets to be achieved by 2030.
Bina Agarwal
Ownership and control over land and property
Access to financial services
Access to natural resources
Participation in all levels of decision-making
Eliminate all forms of violence
Eliminate Child Marriage, etc.
Access to reproductive health
Redistribute care work
Ensure equity at all levels
SDG 5: Gender Equality
Main targets
Bina Agarwal
POTENTIAL
• Access to and control over land
• Access to financial services
• Access to natural resources
• Full and effective participation in public life
SDG 5: Gender Equality
Need for critical analysis
LIMITATIONS
• Land via inheritance only and
in accordance with national laws
• Social norms restrict implementation of laws
• Inputs other than financial services?
Bina Agarwal
MGDI 60411, Engendering Development:
Bina Agarwal, Semester 1, 2024
9
Sustainable Development Goals:
Need to create synergies
Gender equality impinges not only on Goal 5 but also on
Goals 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 10 12, 16 among others