Feminist Perspectives on Development

Easter Boserup’s book, Women in Economic Development, 1970, the Seventh Kenya National Development Plan 2003 and the World Bank  2007 have awakened the realities that “man” does not necessarily include women. The contribution of women in development has largely remained unrecognized and tended to marginalise women thereby isolating them from participating in development and decision making and sharing unequal  shares in some of the  benefits of development.

 

• Gender according to Mari Mikkola Feminist Perspectives on Sex and Gender Encapsulates the varied complex arrangements between men and women encompassing the organization of reproduction, the sexual divisions and cultural definitions of femininity and masculinity.

• Gender has been concerned with social relations - categories men and women male and female and interactions of men and women rather than their biological characteristics.It relates to their social activity - resources of production; work remuneration distribution of work, income ,exerts of authority,participation of cultural and religious activities 

• Gender relations describes the social meaning of male and female appropriate behavior  whats considered as work, behavior, characteristics 

• Gender identity -what is fitting for women to do 

• The early 1975 United Nations Organization Global Conference in Mexico  first discussed the plight of women in the world order

• The Earth Summit of 1992 at Rio de Janerio in Brazil outlined the conditions of women in the world’s especially those in developing countries 

• Beijing Confrence in 1995 came affirmative action on the things government and non governmental organizations should do to improve the plight of women in the world especially the “Girl Child” from Africa continent as a needing area

• Gender Equity,Legislation is one of the major avenues through which gender discrimination in any society can be addressed." In many instances, law has been used as a social engineer to bring about change and remove disparity and segregations in the society, as was in the case of Brownv Board of Education 78in the United States.

• According to the Charter of the United Nations, the people of the United Nations determined to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights and in the dignity and worth of the human person in the equal rights of men and women.UNWomen underscores the need for active participation and incorporation of women's perspectives at all levels of decision-making as a method of achieving the goals of equality, development and peace.

•  Carlos Pereira and Vladimir Teles also restate gender inclusivity in systems of governance as a prerequisite for a proper functioning of any democracy.It's on the basis of that philosophy that the Beijing Platform for Action notes that equality between women and men is not only a fundamental prerequisite for development and peace but also a condition for social justice and a matter of human rights.

• Article 22 of the AfCFTA Agreement is of particular relevance when discussing gender equality and the empowerment of women within the context of the free trade area. It emphasizes the need to address gender disparities in trade and to empower women by ensuring their participation in economic activities facilitated by the AfCFTA.The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is governed by the Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area

Women’s Role in Agriculture and Food Production 

•  Agriculture is the primary source of economic growth and food security in Africa .In most agricultural countries women provide most of the labor needed for agricultural production Children also provide substantial labor.explanation is that most of what women do is undervalued, or is unaccounted for, or alpether inored. 

• Many Women are the real farmers, but they do not own the land, nor do they form the bulk of the agricultural officers in the agricultural field.

• Kenya's agricultural sector engages about 75 per cent of the total labour force, earns 70 per cent of the country's foreign exchange and provides 75 per cent of all the country's agricultural output. Women provide 75 percent of all the labour needed in agriculture.

•  According to Thomas-Slater and others (1995), Kenyan women also manage 74 per cent of all the rural small-scale holdings. They comprise the majority of the rural inhabitants and are responsible for the management and conservation of soils, water, grasslands, forests, livestock, croplands and homesteads. Yet, women are literally squatters in their spouses', fathers' or brothers' land holdings. Most of them are the unpaid farming agents for their families.

• Among several household duties, they have to provide food and health-care to their immediate families and the wider society. As development proceeds, especially with the structural adjustment programmes in place, the rights of women to fulfill these roles seem to be tampered with. This has led to diminishing food supply in most African countries (Boserup, E., 1970; Tinker, I. et al, 1990; Shiva, V., 1989;

• New Internationalist, 1986). Lack of proper health services by the government has forced women to step in and provide the needed nursing care to the ailing members of the family, both in public and private hospitals and at home. In so doing, food production suffers. Again, in all the above, it is important to question the role of men in the provision of health. We need to critically examine men's contribution or reaction to diminishing food supplies, deteriorating health systems and decreasing government subsidies in social services.

Women and Environment

• African women are the grassroots natural resource managers and conservators.They are the environmental managers by virtue of their responsibilities 

• However, their roles and concerns in environmental conservation remain misunderstood and incompletely acknowledged. Thus, women have become poorer as they have progressively lost both access and control over their local natural resource base. As food providers, women have over the years developed adaptive mechanisms of utilising and conserving the natural resource base depending on specific local ecosystems and resources.

Women in Education 

• Education is a basic human right and an essential tool for achieving the goals of equality, development and peace" (UN, 1995). In the current world order, education is crucial in changing the status of women and improving their empowerment.

• However, two-thirds of the world's illiterate people are women. Lack of higher education in specialised professional fields confines women to low status and low income jobs. In the contemporary world, there is a high correlation between formal education and economic prosperity.

• According to UNESCO (1995), illiteracy rates of people aged 15 years and over were as follows: African males-43.3 per cent, females-64.5 per cent and the continental GNP per capita was $629. 

• In Africa, the high illiteracy rates for women have meant that they are in the lowest paying jobs, mostly manual occupations. Many of them are in the informal sector, especially in agriculture, while those with little education are in low paying jobs in the service industries of the formal sector. In Kenya for example, 78.9 per cent of people in the lowest paying jobs are women. In the highest paying jobs. 

Problems and issues facing women in education

• Limited access to education due to various traditional and even modern customs and attitudes such as early marriages, early pregnancies, and female roles for the girl-child in most households.

• Limited enrolment, retention and completion. In many communities, fewer girls than boys get enrolled in formal schooling. Just a fraction of those who start are able to finish any level of schooling. Most of them drop out for a wide variety of cultural, social, political and economic reasons. In Kenya, primary school enrolment in Standard One is about 5 million; 49 per cent of these are girls and 51 per cent are boys which is quite comparable. However, only 34 per cent of the girls finish Standard Eight while 70 per cent of the boys do.

• 3 Poor performance is characteristic of female students compared to the male students at any level. This is as a result of various reasons which range from domestic responsibilities, poor resources in girls schools, and wrong attitudes to women and their ability to perform well in education.

• 4 Curricula and teaching materials in most learning institutions "are gender-biased and insensitive to the specific needs of women. Text books and other teaching materials portray stereotyped attitudes and reinforce discriminatory practices and tendencies (that) undermine girls' self-esteem" (Wanjama, 1996).

• Other problems that hinder women's progress in education include poverty, ill health, violence, illiteracy, and lack of decision-making powers right from the household level to the community level.

Women in population health and nutrition 

• Debate on population control is mainly focused on women as the main actors in reproduction. There exists discrimination in the demographic approach to population studies. For instance, production figures are based on the number of children per woman, not per man. The question is, in a female's reproductive life-span, how many children can she produce and how many can a male with the same life-span oduce? An examination of the birth control measures also shows a lot of discrimination. In the first place, there are several methods of family planning that romen can use but very few for the men. Again, the argument is that in a thirty-dây cycle, a woman is productive only in about 48 hours, the rest cannot conceive. Nevertheless , she has  here, contraceptives  to choose firm for a short period of time , on the other end a man productive from as earky as  about about 12 years to moge every single minute he has an erection. if lanty 12 ring methods have to be mentinely eirin to the east productive members of the society, which would be the most appropriate gender to use them?

• Discrimination of women in less, i cian balieved the acros times. in many traditions, if a couple was childless, it was be ier that only the woman was bari, not the man sterile. If a couple only hail rid ren of one sex, the fault was wiene wife. Today, if there are too many children in the family, the mother is responsible. Yet, scientifically, it has been proven that there are more sterile men than baren women; that it is the male's chromosomes that determine the sex of a foetus; and that men are the most productive members of the society.

• As far as health is concerned, women have various health problems that are related to their productive and reproductive roles, their inferior social status, illiteracy and poor access to relevant health information. This situation is compounded by the retrenching of health services by governments through structural adjustment programmes (SAPs). As a result, there is an increased workload for women especially in nursing the sick members of the family. And the AIDS epidemic has made the situation worse as the most serious cases are left by the health system in the hands of female relatives. Orphans left behind also increase the female workload in families.

• With diminishing resources, nutrition is threatened. Most mothers have limited access to food production resources and as a result, the family nutritional factor becomes the first to be compromised. This starts with the nutrition of the adult female in the household: she is the last to eat, eats less, and at times foregoes a meal if food is not enough.

• Women in commerce and industry

• In commerce and industry, we find most women in the informal sector. This is the sector that most governments give lip service to in spite of the fact that it is the most important sector in the developing countries and especially in Africa. As in all the other sectors of the economy, women form the majority of the most poor y paid workers in this sector. They also engage in the most risky areas of the business, such as prostitution, street vending and illegal brewing of beer. In many of tise as well as their customers.as upations, their lives are at risk and they are harassed by the state administration In developed countries, the situation is not any better. Most women are in at - irines so the employers do nothiven is pay any heir insurance, mei can mally reliest and pension benefits. Mave e, in airies areas women slea paid les forthe same job done coMpare with ail he eat vide, women stil earn.

Women in politics (decision-making and power sharing)

• Women are under-represented in the world's key decision-making sectors such as parliament and other international and national institutions that shape the development process. Not only are they missing power in the public domain but also within the households. According to Wanjama (1996), this is due to several factors, including inadequate education, conflict between domestic responsibilities and professional roles, and lack of recognition for women's knowledge and skills.

• In addition, patriarchal attitudes and beliefs play a significant role in denying women the political power to share in decision-making, both within the private and public sectors.

Amadiume I , Male Daughters,Female Husbands ; Gender and Sex in the African Society 

Khasiani S.African Women Environment Managers 1992