7 Gender Equality and Women Empowerment (A)

Our Topics
WID WAD GAD

Women in Development Women and Development Gender and Development
WID
Women in Development
Women
Empowerment
By the 1970s, it became clear that
women were being left out of
development. They were not
benefiting significantly from it and
in some instances, their existing
status and position in society were
actually worsened by development.
The Women in Development (WID)
approached this issue-the exclusion of
women from development program and
approaches. WID saw women as a group that
lacks opportunity to participate in
development.
The main task, therefore, was to improve women's
access to resources and their participation in
development. The WID approach emphasized the
importance of the integration of women into
development programs and planning. Accordingly,
this was the best way to improve women's position in
society.
The WID approach, although it had limitations, increased the
visibility of women in development issues. WID was successful
in helping secure a prominent place for women's issues at the
United Nations (UN) and other international development
agencies. The UN declared that the decade of 1975 to 1985 to be
the decade for women. One of the major achievements of the
decade was the establishment of women in development
structures or machineries.
In Zambia, for instance, it was during
this time that the Women's League of the
then ruling political party, United
National Independence Party (UNIP),
was formed as the national machinery to
address women's development issues.
WID served as the starting point of making known to
the international community that the sector of
women has to be part of programs for development.
Likewise, several remarkable programs, activities,
and initiatives must be noted as these also began the
strides for women empowerment.
As a result of criticisms of the WID approach, the
Women and Development (WAD) approach arose in
the latter part of the 1970s. Adopting a Marxist
feminist approach, the main argument of WAD was
that women had always been part of the
development processes. WAD asserts that women
have always been important economic actors.
The work they do both inside and outside the
household is critical to the maintenance of society.
However, this integration has only served to sustain
global inequalities. In other words, the WID
approach that placed emphasis on integrating
women into development was not correct.
The main focus of WAD is on the
interaction between women and
development processes rather than
purely on strategies to integrate
women into development.
WAD saw both women and men as not benefiting from the
global economic structures because of disadvantages due to
class and the way wealth is distributed. WAD argued that the
integration of women into development was to their
disadvantage and only made the inequality worse. WAD saw
global inequalities as the main problem facing poor countries
and the citizens of those countries.
On the other hand, WAD has been criticized for
assuming that the position of women will improve if
and when international structures become more
equitable. It sees women positions as primarily
within the structure of international and class
inequalities.
WAD even underplays the role of patriarchy in
undermining women's development and does not
adequately address the question of social relations
between men and women and their impact on
development.
Gender and
Development
In the 1980s, further reflections on the
development experiences of women gave
rise to Gender and Development (GAD). It
brought together both the lessons learned
from, and the limitations of, the WID and
WAD approaches.
GAD looks at the impact of development on both
women and men. It seeks to ensure that both women
and men participate in and benefit equally from
development and so, emphasizes equality of benefit
and control. It recognizes that women may be
involved in development, but not necessarily benefit
from it.
GAD is not concerned with women exclusively, but with the way
in which gender relations allot specific roles, responsibilities,
and expectations between men and women, often to the
detriment of women.
This approach also pays particular attention to
the oppression of women in the family or the
'private sphere' of women's lives. As a result, we
have seen projects develop addressing issues
such as VAW. GAD focuses on the social or gender
relations (i.e. the division of labor) between men
and women in society and seeks to address issues
of access and control over resources and power.
GAD goes further than the other approaches in emphasizing
both the reproductive and productive role of women and argues
that it is the state's responsibility to support the social
reproduction role mostly played by women of caring and
nurturing of children. As such, it treats development as a
complex process that is influenced by political, social, and
economic factors rather than as a state or stage of
development.

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