Aspects of Development - Gender

Question 1

women and development

Answer 1

.used to be invisible inn study of development
.growth of feminism and global social movements take gender issues more seriously
.human development report - gender inequality index
.mdg and sdg - includes promotion of gender equality, empowerment of women and improvement in maternal health

Question 2

gender inequality - women’s health

Answer 2

.pregnancy and childbirth serious risks to health where facilities are inadequate - risks increase when girls marry at young age

Question 3

gender inequality - poverty

Answer 3

.more likely to live in pov than men - ‘feminisation of pov’
.makes women more likely to be affected adversely by other develop. e.g. climate change

Question 4

gender inequality - marriage

Answer 4

.some cou troes in me and asia - forced marriage/ marriage of girls at v young age

Question 5

gender inequality - education

Answer 5

.girls still less likely to go to school then boys
.2/3 of worlds illiterate ppl are women

Question 6

gender inequality - gender preferences

Answer 6

.many cultures - preference for boy kids - can lead to selective abortion, results in gender imbalance

Question 7

gender inequality - violence towards women

Answer 7

.estimaated that 1 billion women worldwide have been victims of violence by men
.includes practices e.g. fgm

Question 8

gender inequality - work

Answer 8

.women have triple the burden of work for an income, domesticc work and emotional work including care of children
.most countries - women earn less than men, even for same work

Question 9

example of gender inequality in natural disasters

Answer 9

.2004 indian ocean tsunami - 4x more women died
.reasons put forward - women less likely to be able to swim, often trying to save kids, men more likely to be away from home (in cities) and more able to run and cling to debris
.results - shortage in women would mean that more would be married earlier (abandoning ed.) and try to take on roles of missing women

Question 10

what progress has been made for women’s rights

Answer 10

.ed. oof girls now seen as normal and expected
.van der gaag - progress being threatened, econ. gl. led to increase in trafficking and growth on industries where women work are exploited
.gl. produced backlash - where trad. values and practices reasserted - women’s rights can be seen as as. w western values

Question 11

examples of women’s rights being threatened

Answer 11

.ed. of girls seen as threatening Islamic fundamentalists, attempted ass. of Malala who advocated for ed. of girls in Pakistan
.kidnapping of schoolgirls in Nigeria by boko haram
.increase in violence in South Africa, caused by perception that women have too many rights (been describes as a ‘neo-patriarchy’ - attempt to assert male superiority through culture of sexual violence)

Question 12

mt and gender

Answer 12

.has little say abt gender issues - can be seen as part of ‘malestream’ of socio (concentrates on men)
.closley ass. w sociological perspective of functionalism and took nuclear family as an ideal family for modern society w husbands and wives having complimentary roles
.man work for money, women work within household - seen as fair an equal
.as countries modernised, women would be restricted to work within home
.leonard - v masculine view of what its like to be modern

Question 13

dt and gender

Answer 13

.also arose from second wave feminism and had little say abt gender issues .can also be viewed as being a part of ‘male stream’ socio
.more focus on relationships between countries rather than social groups w little discussion of women (same applies for world systems theory)

Question 14

why are women overlooked in these theories

Answer 14

.work women tended to do was within household and subsistence agr. including essential survival tasks e.g. grinding grain - overlooked by measures e.g. gni and official statistics
boserup - mt and lib fem view argued such measurement needed to be extended to include women , espec. brig them into paid work so they cab benefit from modern.

Question 15

development of socialist feminist thinking

Answer 15

.began to have an influence
.pointed out that boserup assumed that modern. was benign and that att. needed to be paid to the ways in which women were exploited within global capitalist system

Question 16

social feminist thinking

Answer 16

.looks at underdevelop. and neo-colonial exploitation - more relevant to dev. countries than radfem (sees women’s subordination to men as most important issue, in south, most women see need to work w men who they share an unequal position w)

Question 17

what do socialist fem. draw attention to

Answer 17

.new form of exploitation, argue it shows how global spread of cap. requires exploitation of women
.mainly young women employed ion sweatshop factories by tnc’s
.companies pay little and treat female workers poorly partly on false ground that work is unskilled
.can sometimes help women achieve financial independence but often money goes straight to man - boss at work usually man, training and job security rarely provided

Question 18

gender issues today

Answer 18

.effect of gl. - nature of services trad. offered by women
.ehrenreich and Hochschild - millions of women leave dev. countries each year to work as nannies, maids and sex workers in developed world - suggested that move into work for many women in developed countries created ‘care deficit’ bcs theyre unable to spend time prev. gen of women did on family and home
.cheap labour eases situation but also creates ‘care deficit’ bcs women work abroad

Question 19

ecofeminist view

Answer 19

.idea that women have a diff rel. w nature and enviro than men based either on innate nature or on social rel. which put women in a position of working w and understanding natural resources
.men seen responsible for most enviro damages, treating enviro as smth to be dominated rather than looked after
.women seen as vital to attempts to protect the enviro

Question 20

aid and gender

Answer 20

.aid not gender neutral - comes w western values attached, usually means Mae dominated values
.e.g. agricultural training programmes offered more to men bcs assumed that men are more suited to technical and scientific training and women play greater role in growing food
.often helps men rater than women w their work, bcs women work still generally unrecognised and undervalued