Gender and Development: The Challenge of Mainstream

Author(s): Patricia Nilsson

Source: Consilience , 2013, No. 10 (2013), pp. 125-135
Published by: Columbia University

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/26476143

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Consilience: The Journal of Sustainable Development
Vol. 10, Iss. 1 (2013), Pp. 125 – 135

Gender and Development: The Challenge of

Mainstream
Patricia Nilsson
School of Oriental and African Studies, London, UK
email: nilssonpatricia@gmail.com
Abstract
Mainstream institutions have only begun to address issues in Gender and
Development since the 1970s, and it is time to evaluate how sustainable the
progress in this field has been. In this essay, I briefly discuss three specific
challenges facing gender advocates. First, I discuss the risks gender advocates take
and the opportunities they miss when treating women as a homogenous group.
Second, I evaluate the difficulty of balancing transformative policy and
integrationist policy. The former seeks to change entire systems but risks being
seen as too radical to be adopted by international influential institutions. The latter
allows gender awareness to become adapted by these same institutions (i.e. gender
mainstreaming) but risks not truly bringing the transformation needed. In the final
part of my essay, I argue the importance of halting the “Sanctity of Culture,” a
phrase coined by feminist economist, Naila Kabeer (1999). I further this analysis by
looking at an Indian case in which an increased ratio of women is gaining education
but see little increase in other factors of equality.

Author’s Note
Patricia Nilsson is pursuing a degree in Economics and Development Studies
at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.

Keywords: Gender and Development, Humanitarianism, Education,

Feminism

1. Introduction
The fight for the equal treatment of women has been hindered by a veil of
tradition and religion, which has stood in the way of criticism and rationalism.
Whether it is an Australian woman’s fight against sexism in parliament (Al Jazeera,
2012), a Pakistani girl’s protests for her rights to an education (New York Times,
2012), or a Polish girl’s battle to abort a pregnancy caused by rape (BBC, 2012), these
women are all fighting against their society’s values, values that do not stem from the
women themselves but affect them in every respect. In this essay, I focus on gender
issues in developing countries where women are often overrepresented amongst the
very poorest because of gender disadvantages (Kabeer, 1999, p.35). In many

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126 Consilience

cultures,1 women suffer from an imposed role of inferiority which, as Kabeer (1999,
p.15) summarizes, leads to “gender differentials in nutrition, food allocation, health
status and health expenditure, education, mortality rates and life expectancy.” In
most development movements, criticism is directed towards the mainstream status
quo that hinders transformative policies (Kabeer, 1999), and gender advocates are
seen as having a trademark of relatively radical and transformative ideas. When it
comes to development, the most prominent and influential multi-lateral institutions
are the United Nations and the World Bank. As with any other organization of such
immense size, the UN and World Bank suffer from bureaucratic problems that make
it hard for minority movements to make their demands for transformative change
heard.
I will discuss the problems that gender advocates face when switching from
transformative policy to integrationist policy as well as study how integrationist
policy is needed to reach long-term transformative effects. I will also briefly cover
the dangers of treating women as a homogenous group with equal interests, as in the
popular myths of a global “sisterhood.” In the final part of my essay I will argue the
importance of halting the “Sanctity of Culture,” an excellently descriptive phrase
from Kabeer’s work. (Kabeer, 1999, p.7)

2. The Dangers of Treating Women as a Homogenous

Group

The term “sisterhood” appears frequently in feminist discourse as a signifier

of the unification of women for a common cause. (Morgan, 1996; see Kabeer, 1999,
for related critique). This idea of global sisterhood is a fallacy for two reasons: it
implies that women around the world have no conflicting interests to those of
“womanhood,” and it ignores that women live in completely different contexts,
political systems, moral structures and belong to different age cohorts, ethnicities,
and income groups. In reality, women of some regions, societies, or classes often
benefit from structures that discriminate against women living in different systems.
For example, the poor working conditions of a middle aged Bangladeshi woman may
not be of concern to a British student indulging in cheap fashion. Another example
might be the first wife of an Ivory Coast household who might oppose the abolition
of polygamy since additional wives often function as unpaid servants (Boserup, 1970,
Ch. 2). In the words of Kabeer, “Women carry identities other than those of
gender”(Kabeer, 1999, p.30), 2). The idea of a global sisterhood would imply that
there is an equivalent brotherhood - two groups with clashing interests. For equality
to ever occur, both sexes need to be supportive of it. The terms of sisterhood and
brotherhood convey the idea of a power struggle between the sexes where men are
seen as a homogenous group of “holders of privileges or perpetrators of violence”
(Stocking, 2004, p.vii). Some feminists still want to argue that men really are and
should be addressed as the barrier to equality, but such a debate creates damage

1
The word “culture” is an indefinable and imprecise word that I usually refrain from
using. In this essay, however, it will appear when I reference different traditions and
ways to structure society in unspecified regions.

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Consilience Nilsson: Gender and Development

rather than progress for the gender awareness movement. The book Gender Equality
and Men: Learning from Practice, released by Oxfam, offers examples of how important
it is to include men in the work for female rights. Therefore, the women’s movement
is not exclusively addressing a “sisterhood,” but needs to reach all members of
society, both women and men.

3. The Risks Attached to Mainstreaming

Gender and development philosophy is essentially a critique of the

mainstream approach to development. For development critics, the main problem is
the unwillingness of major influential policy makers to change current structures of
economy and power. Even if the gender awareness advocates’ goals are
transformative, their message must be comprehensible and implementable for policy
makers in the current development structure, otherwise the message will not be
heard (Kabeer, 1999; Standing, 2004; Razavi, 1997; Razavi and Miller, 1995). An
important example of this is the views of Ester Boserup in her 1970 text Woman’s
Role in Economic Development, a work that led to a shift in the view on gender issues
within the UN, World Bank, and other multilateral institutions (Razavi, 1997,
p.1113). Boserup describes women as important in the both the economic and
productive sphere; therefore, they are a significant factor in the process of economic
growth that no country can afford to overlook (Boserup, 1970). The way to influence
policy-making is through speaking the instrumental language of policy makers.
There are, however, risks with gender mainstreaming or alteration of gender
theory to fit into mainstream policy. One risk is that institutional gender
mainstreaming is not political, but merely terminological. An example talked about
widely by feminists such as Kabeer (1998), Kandiyoti (1998), and Standing (1991)
regards the neo-classical view of the household. Mainstream economists view the
household as a “unit,” and the head of the household maximizes utility for every
member of that household. However, several feminist economists have shown that
relationships within households are more often depicted by power relations than by
self-sacrifice (Kabeer, 1999).
Kabeer’s argument means that even though an institution calls itself gender-
aware, it might still implement policies in ways that disable women from having
participatory roles, hence preventing female economic and social empowerment.
Standing (2004) argues that “[theoretical feminist analysis] cannot just be advocacy-
based but require[s] a grounding in how institutions work, how to develop
contextually-based strategies and create workable alliances in constrained
environments.” Standing raises a valid point on how it should be the feminist
economists themselves who must be responsible for adapting their theories to the
context of institutions (that is “mainstreaming” them) in order to minimize the risk
of gender untrained bureaucrats deviating from the core values of gender theories.
An excellent example of this is the World Development Journal, volume 23(11), that deals
explicitly with gender economics. Its introduction, written by feminist economists
Cagatay, Elson, and Grown, reads that “This issue grew out of the efforts of feminist
economists to go beyond analyses of the gendered effects of adjustment and to
demonstrate the relevance of gender as an analytical category in macroeconomics”
(Cagatay, Elson, and Grown, 1995).

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128 Consilience

Clearly, it is better for gender theory to have a role within policy making than
to be disengaged and without influence due to rigidity, but gender advocates face
problems with no straightforward answers as they enter the mainstream. As
summarized by Razavi, “… selective up-take of gender [theories] presents useful
insights into the way development institutions work. It also hints at the political
dilemmas facing feminist advocates: entering the mainstream entails making alliances
and compromises, and modifying one’s agenda and language. Some feminist critics
have argued that […] what has been lost in the process of assimilation has been so
central to the feminist agenda that there seems to be little reason to pursue the same
strategies any further.” (Razavi, 1997, p.1112)

4. The Urgent Need to Put Female Rights above Sanctity

of Culture

So far, I have discussed challenges that feminist theorists face within their
own field (the fallacy and dangers of the idea of women as a homogeneous group)
and the challenges of influencing institutional implementation (the need for scientific
and rigorous arguments for female empowerment and the risks associated with
gender mainstreaming). The last part of this piece will focus on obstacles at the
grassroots level, which include structural and traditional discrimination of women
and sanctity of culture.2
Gender discrimination often stems from biological differences between men
and women (for example, women being physically weaker and women’s ability to
childbirth) being distorted into constructed social differences (for example, women
being mentally weaker and women’s innate desire and suitability to raise children)
(Kabeer, 1999). Kabeer separates what she calls discrimination through “biological
differences,” using what are perceived to be “facts“ about how the world is, from
discrimination through sanctity of culture, using a set of values of how the world
should be (Kabeer, 1999, p. 4-12). I would not use that distinction since these “facts”
arise to fit a certain set of values (for example, a woman’s place is in the home taking
care of children and household, thus she will not need an education), and
discrimination always derives from ideals of how the world should be. Furthermore, so-
called “factual” explanations (women do not want to vote, or, wearing a chador
liberates women from staring men) are invented to suit these specific beliefs. The
mistake of addressing women as a group with homogenous interests is again
apparent since both women and men adopt values that are disadvantageous and
discriminatory toward women. If a woman undeniably expresses a desire to be
treated unequally to a man, then who is to tell her that she is wrong?3 Indeed, not
accepting her opinion would be quite the opposite of what female rights advocates
try to enforce. But to leave the matter at that is a dangerous oversimplification of the

2
Arguments based on values and not facts are harder to argue against. Much
discrimination against women (not allowing women the right to education or the
right to sexual freedom) is protected by the concept of it in fact being “culture” and
therefore legitimate.
3
See Figure 2

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Consilience Nilsson: Gender and Development

context in which we live. It must become apparent how offensive to humanity it is to

try to argue that a woman, who thinks that she is less worthy of an opinion than a
man, thinks so because of biological reasons rather than of cultural ones. A question
that is relevant when discussing which obstacles gender advocates face on a
grassroots level is whether current development policies are improving the situation
for women in developing countries. A seemingly evident way to encourage
independence and critical thinking would be through education and participation in
the public sphere. Women have a higher rate of return to education than men
(Psacharapoulos and Patrinos, 2004), and studies show that gender-based violence
decreases with the education of women (See figure 1: DHS, 2005, as cited in
Simister, 2011). However, as Figures 2, 3, and 4 show us, discriminatory gender roles
appear not to be affected by higher education for women. Indeed, it seems likely that
a school operating in a gender discriminating society will not be an arena for the
development of critical thinking, but instead be responsible for reinforcing gender
roles. Increased levels of education for women do not directly mean greater
autonomy for women. In many cases, particularly where higher education is of poor
quality, students do not expand on their abilities to critique and create opinions, but
instead become more deeply indoctrinated within current societal structures.

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130 Consilience

Figure 1: Gender-based violence by wife’s education (Source: DHS

2005 (all Indian States) as cited in Simister, 2011

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Consilience Nilsson: Gender and Development

Wife’s education (years)

Figure 2: Attitude to Obedience by Wife’s Education

Source: WAS 2002 & 2007 (all Indian states) as cited in Simister, 2011

Wife’s education (years)

Figure 3: Unpaid Housework by Wife’s Education

Source: WAS 2002 & 2007 (all Indian states) as cited in Simister, 2011

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132 Consilience

Wife’s education (years)

Figure 4: Husband & Wife’s Earning by Wife’s Education

Source: WAS 2002 & 2007 (all Indian states) as cited in Simister, 2011

It is widely believed that low education is the most prevalent among both
perpetrators and victims of domestic violence (World Health Organization, 2010,
p.21). Therefore, the data on decreasing domestic violence in Figure 1 has more to
do with the above-mentioned phenomena than with the empowerment of women.
The data in Figures 2, 3, and 4 clearly show that “education is necessary, but not
sufficient, for development” (Simister, 2011, p22). To overcome the sanctity of
culture, gender advocates must defend the idea of social justice for all, with equal
right to education, equal right under the law, and equal right to sexual freedom.
Additionally, to “not presume an undifferentiated public with identical needs and
interests” (Molyneux, 1998, p. 242), advocates should support feminist groups in
developing regions and help them to engender local policy and encourage women to
take a place in the public sphere.
Values, tradition, and therefore, culture are not and cannot be sacred. The
malice of refusing women the right to be independent individuals cannot be
protected behind the veil of values called culture.

5. Conclusion

There is a sense of frustration surrounding the concept of gender and

development. The first multilateral institution to appoint a Women in Development-
adviser was the World Bank in 1977 (two years after the First Conference on
Women), and the concept of gender mainstreaming was first formally endorsed
during the 1995 Conference on Women in Beijing (World Bank, 2010, p. 12). In
other words, the inter-structural and bureaucratic gender awareness movement is

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Consilience Nilsson: Gender and Development

fairly young, and patience is required in anticipation of transformative results.

However, nearly 20 years have gone by since the last Conference on Women.
Feminists are afraid that a new conference would detract from the progress made
during the Fourth Conference on Women. This unfortunate state is largely due to
the global rise of religious fundamentalism and conservatism (Kabeer, 2012). Clearly,
this is a time when gender advocates may struggle to keep their influence over states
and multi-lateral agencies. Thus, it is more important than ever that they stay united
as a movement rather than torn apart by inter-organizational disagreements (Kabeer,
2012). In this essay, I have discussed how the gender equality movement will not
garner enough support if it does not invite men into the movement. Furthermore,
the feminist movement should never assume that all women have equal interests, or
that they necessarily conflict with the equal interests of men. When it comes to
influencing policy, gender advocates need to keep using well-reasoned arguments
when they propose policy to legitimize the fight for equality, even in the purely
economic sphere. However, gender has been widely adapted by mainstream
institutions, and this is the time for feminists to demand more transformative
actions. Gender advocates should never accept sanctity of culture and always
demand equal social rights.

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134 Consilience

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