Introduction
Gender development has lately become a key area of debate amongst researchers, religious groups, and politicians among others. This essay reviews the ‘Gender and development’ authored by Kabeer and Sweetman. The authors look at the patterns of poverty with regard to the growing gender inequalities in the world. The article looks at the way that we understand the concept of gender and development and the growing gap between the men and women. In particular, the journal article discusses gender equity in the middle income and high-income countries by highlighting some of the flaws with regard to the aspect of economic growth and the human progress.
Article Summary
To understand gender equity, the author discusses the issue of gender and development by looking at international policy, research and practices with regard to the way in demystifies other forms of inequality which calls for policy makers to focus on gender and development as the main concern when discussing other issues such as poverty, inequality and Gross Domestic Product of any country (Kabeer & Sweetman, 2015). Instead, the article advocates for social justice and economic well-being as a major concern in the growing economies.
The article seeks to address this gap by looking at the importance of strengthening the capacity of people to determine their priorities as part of gender development. It looks at the role that women play in development which is still not recognizable in most parts of the world. The author thus looks at various approaches to women and development and gender related development. Lastly, the article points out several lessons that should be addressed in gender and development program for both the underdeveloped and the highly developed countries of the world (Kabeer & Sweetman, 2015).
To understand equity, the authors use three approaches that are the anti-poverty approach, efficiency approach, and equity approach. One important area in this article is that it shifts its focus from just women to the term gender meaning that it looks at equity from both the male and the female perspective. The author discusses both the social, economic, cultural and political studies with regard to gender equity. The authors thus argue that for there to be a sensitive gender transformation in the world.
These structures examined with a view of discussing them following a top down approach. According to the authors, the main concern when it comes to gender and development in the issue of ‘gender mainstreaming’ that calls for proving higher priority to women issues with regard to the social, economic and political interventions. For this reason, the study analyzes the gender and development approaches of several developed and developing countries by stressing the importance of gender sensitive transformation of structure over which the transformation of women is embedded.
However, it is important to note that such approaches to empowerment should be done at the grassroots level to the top level. Perhaps, it is the only way women can improve their social, political and economic powers. This situation means that countries need to put more support in awareness programs, political mobilization, and networking with a view of realizing the campaign on gender and development. The authors are more concerned about the gender empowerment approaches than addressing the challenges of inequality, which are the most critical and promising areas that should be emphasized in gender development. The article discusses these convergence points for different approaches, especially with regard to gender development and inequality.
Critic of the Authors
In discussing the issue of inequality on gender and development, the authors fail to address some of the most vital areas when it comes to inequality. At the outset, the article does not discuss household structures and ways in which they contribute to gender inequalities. For example, the fact that women have more roles to play apart from competing in the socio-economic and political world that is usually male dominated (Talsi, 2007). There is usually a general tendency to ignore the functions of a household when it comes to gender and development. For example, nowadays, there is a clear division of labor and equal decision-making power and control of resources for both men and women in their homes (Cranny-Francis, Waring, Stavropolous, & Kirby, 2003). The issue of division of labor is no longer the one that the husband would be productive in bringing food to the table while the woman would be the one to take care of the children and the home.
These assumptions are not correct since they provide a misleading picture of what gender inequality is all about. Nowadays we also have female-headed households where women are the key decision-makers and economic managers. This issue is crucial to gender and development as research shows that there are areas in the world where one-third of the families are female-headed. Elsewhere, women contribute to almost half of the household financial needs. The Sub-Saharan Africa contributes highly to female-headed households with over 31% (Talsi, 2007).
The main point here lies in the relationship between poverty and female-headed households. However, the implication of female headship in the family with regard to the social and economic status of the household is not the same in each country. It depends on other factors such as women access to basic services and jobs. Besides, this relationship is controlled by the social acceptance of female headship. Regardless of the possibility of the female-headed households prospering, the efforts of women are never recognized. Therefore, the authors fail short of discussing the development towards this direction and how gender inequality debates leave out men.
Findings
According to the article, the major findings with regard to gender and development were that developing countries are the worst hit with the issues of inequalities due to the high number of double standards (Cranny-Francis et al., 2003). In addition, the best way to ensure gender and development lays in the social and political will of the country (Fine, 2011). In highly developed countries, women and men both compete for high offices and are provided with equal opportunities unlike their counterparts in the third world. With this regard, it is only through awareness programs continuous mobilization that equality would be realized with regard to gender.
Conclusion
With regard to the finding, it is only the equity approach that provides space for gender and development. Such approaches do not only provide an opportunity for women but also for men. Eventually, it will provide benefits for both men and women. The equity approach is best since it also supports the integration of women into the development processes by providing them with access to employment and market places. One of the major concerns about the equity approach is that it is not restricted to economic development but questions the inequalities between women and men in a much broader perspective.
Reference List
Cranny-Francis, A., Waring, W., Stavropolous, P., & Kirby, J. (2003). Gender Studies: Terms and Debates. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Fine, C. (2011). Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company.
Kabeer, N., & Sweetman, C. (2015). Introduction: Gender and Inequalities. Gender & Development Volume, 23(2), 185-188.
Talsi, K. (2007). A Conceptual Framework for Gender and Development Studies: From Welfare to Empowerment. New York, NY: Jenner.