Theories of Gender and development - Essay Example

Emphasis will also be made to shade light on some of the critiquing approaches to development. This will be done in comparison to the effect of colonial masters in their application of mode of production as a bench mark to the contemporary culture. “…revealing the workings of power and the capitalist mode of production” (Smith 84). Women have for a long time been undermined in most nations. The gender discrimination has been felt by most women in the society with severity varying from country to country and from time to time.

For instance, in India, according to the census conducted in 1972, about 94% of women were either employed in the informal sectors working in farms and handicrafts or remained at home taking care of the family. Because early crusaders for women equality were not vocal enough in ensuring that women were given equal opportunity in matters of employment, women accepted the existence of the initial development initiative without question. Therefore, the WID approach did little to improve the social and economic status of women.

The situation has however improved given the fact that society has began to recognize women in matters development. In its approach, the WID has very much concentrated on working with women by empowering them by offering development opportunities to them through work related approaches so that women can concentrate less on home based economic activities and concentrate more on income generating activities (D'Agostino and Levine 34). Whereas Women in Development approach focuses on empowering women through self reliance projects and gender identity, Gender Development draws its focus on the gender perspective where the social and economic roles are looked at from the gender perspective rather than from the sexist approach.

Gender analysis approach with respect to Gender and Development, however, explains how development projects can be pushed in the society so that focus is not placed on women alone but rather on the relationships between men and women. This approach is however not very much different from the initial WID approach, the difference lies in the integration of women in development projects without isolation. This incorporation of women and men in economic development is essential to ensure that as men make yards of progress in their areas of income, women also do the same.

This focus in relationship between men and women is useful at the family level. For example, if I am married and own a handcart that I use for transportation, I shall have relieved my wife of the cost, energy and time for transporting, say her goods to the market. This is what Gender Development advocates for. In totality, I believe the Gender Development approach has advantage over the WID approach because of the pattern it follows in the integration of women in activities that are male dominated so that both can help in matters of national development instead of putting much weight on women alone.

It is the Gender Development that has gained recognition worldwide and most nations are enthusiastic in adopting it so as to improve on the per capita income of the citizen. WID has rather decided to remain relevant by advocating for what women can do in order to promote development (Razavi and Miller 19). However, there have emerged various critiques to the GAD and the WID approaches by various scholars