Contextualizing Gender Within Human Development:

1
Contextualizing Gender Within Human
Development

• By Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh, HD Consultant
• Gender Mainstreaming Training
• UNDP Belarus
• October 10-11th, 2005
• Shahrbanou.tadjbakhsh_at_sciences-po.fr

2

• What do you know?
• What do you understand?
• What do you agree with ?
• But as a professional
• How can you analyze?
• What can you convince?
• What can you defend?

3
A Revolution in Two steps

• First we
  stormed the palace
• Then we realized we ourselves were not one
  people, so we had to adjust

4
Mahbub Ul Haqs Revolution

• The obvious is often the most difficult to see
  The true wealth of a Nation is its People
• Economic growth is only a means of enlarging
  people s choices.
• Human well-being is the purpose, the end, of
  development.
• HD Puts people back at the center stage Both as
  means and ends of development.
• Human Development is the process of widening
  peoples choices and the level of well being
• Agency and Evaluative

5
Sens Evolution Ethics and Values

• Development is the increasing of human freedom
• About expanding individual freedoms, such as
• Freedoms to do what you want to do
• To be what you want to be.
• Freedom is at the same time the main goal and the
  main means to achieve development.
• Expanding CAPABILITIES to
• Read and write
• Lead long and healthy lives
• Earn a decent living
• Participate in decision makings that affect their
  lives
• Without these, many choices are simply not
  available, and many opportunities in life remain
  inaccessible.

6
HD is not the same as

• Economic growth
• Social development
• Human resource development
• Basic needs approach

7
HD Economic Growth

• which is understood as the increase in a
  countrys per capita income and is measured by
  the GDP/GNP
• The theory of growth has 3 assumptions a)
  development is the growth of income and b) basis
  of income growth is capital accumulation, and c)
  Conventional micro economic model is based on the
  assumption of rational individuals who maximize
  their utility

8

• Growth Advocates
• Expanding income is an end in itself
• Growth does trickle down

• HD Advocates
• income is a means enhancing peoples
  capabilities the end
• Simultaneous expansion of choices in other
  dimensions social, cultural, political - and
  economic
• not accept trickle down as automatic

9
But

• No automatic link
• Some choices do not depend on income
• Incomes contribution to satisfaction of needs
  decreases as income increases (marginal utility)
• Per capital income does not take into account
  distribution between rich and poor, unevenly
  distributed
• depends on national priorities for spending
  guns or butter, elitist or egalitarian model

10
Economic growth without human agency is

• Jobless growth where the overall economy grows
  but does not expand the opportunities for
  employment, nor targets employment choices for
  both men and women.
• Ruthless growth where the fruits of economic
  growth mostly benefit the rich, leaving the
  majority of the people struggling in ever
  deepening poverty.
• Voiceless growth where growth in the economy has
  not been accompanied by an extension of
  empowerment and participation. Voiceless growth
  is also growth that gives women a minor role to
  play in the management and direction of the
  economy.

11
HD encompasses simultaneously

• Efficiency Efficient use of resources and
  increase of their availability. HD is pro-growth
  and productivity.
• Equity Distributive justice, especially for
  choices and opportunities
• Freedom and Empowerment, Possibility of choosing.
  Sen Freedom has a constitutive value (value by
  itself) and an instrumental value ( as a means to
  efficiency and to equity)
• Sustainability not just for present generation
  but next ones too

12
Human Development is a Rupture (storming the
palace)

• a) An ethical rupture, keeping in mind the ends,
  the what for, the way in which each proposal
  contributes -or not - to enlarge peoples
  choices.
• b) A theoretical rupture because HD proposes an
  alternative explanation of how development is
  achieved, of how it is produced by human beings
  rather than by impersonal or object-like
  variables.
• c) A methodological rupture because the paradigm
  proposes a different way to achieve development
  in its various dimensions.

13
Always ask Where are the people?

• It is about checking quality growth over quantity
  growth
• Not obvious Take income generation projects If
  we dont know the situation exactly, how can we
  be sure that the impact is increasing the choice?

14
Then we realized we were not one

• It is fine and dandy to talk of the people,
• But people are not one
• So we had to putting women back into people, and
  people back into development

15
We had made presumptions

• Dont presume equal participation in economic
  life, but understand the differences between men
  and womens needs, access to resources, and the
  diverse impact of economic growth on them.
• Development aid is gender neutral, it is gender
  blind. It assumes that men and women have the
  same needs so a project that is developed for
  increasing their overall choices automatically
  will lead to an increase in their overall
  choices.
• Development aid and planning being gender
  neutral, means that it is really designed to
  target the majority or the visible, which often
  means men.
• BUT THAT IS NOT THE CASE, because men and women
  are different.
• It does not trickle down

16
Gender Equality (HDR 1995)

• HD if not engendered is endangered.
• Gaps between women's expanding capabilities and
  limited opportunities.
• Analysis of under-valuation and non-recognition
  of women in work
• Inequality is not only a problem of access to the
  means but a problem of freedom denied or
  curtailed.
• HD recognizes gender discrimination is present
  not only in income or wealth but in
• Freedom to enter contractual relations and
  decide on properly
• Freedom to participate in public life and have
  political leadership
• Freedom to receive training, enter and to compete
  in the labor market
• Freedom to live. Premature girl death

17
Measuring our revolutions

• HDI --------------------gt GDP
• GDI --------------------gt HDI

18
Gender Development Index (1995)

• Measures achievement in the same basic
  capabilities as HDI, but takes note of inequality
  in achievement between women and men. GDI is
  simply the HDI discounted, or adjusted downwards,
  for gender inequality.
• Methodology imposes a penalty for inequality
• The greater the gender disparity in basic
  capabilities, the lower a countrys GDI compared
  with its HDI.
• The GDI reflects gender imbalances in basic
  health, education and income.

19
Gender Empowerment Index

• Examines whether W and M are able to actively
  participate in economic and political life.
• 3 dimensions
• Economic participation and decision making is
  measured by the of female administrators and
  managers, professional and technical workers.
• Political participation and decision making are
  measured by of seats in parliament held by
  women.
• Power over economic resources is measured by
  women's estimated earned income (PPP US).

20
Trends (2004)

• Data from 2004 GEM shows discrimination against
  women persists despite high national ranking on
  HDI . Many poor countries outperform far richer
  countries. In terms of participation and
  inclusion, women fare better in Botswana, Costa
  Rica and Namibia than they do in Greece, Italy
  and Japan
• Countries with worse disparities between their
  GDI and HDI values are Saudi Arabia, Oman,
  Pakistan, Yemen and India
• Countries that have the closest correspondence
  between HDI and GDI are Sweden,Denmark,
  Australia, Latvia and Bulgaria
• GDI for Belarus is 53

21
GDI GEM Top and Bottom 5 (2004 HDR)

• Top 5 (GDI)
• Norway
• Sweden
• Australia
• Canada
• Netherlands
• Top 5 (GEM)
• Norway
• Sweden
• Denmark
• Finland
• Netherlands

• Bottom 5 (GDI)
• Niger
• Burkina Faso
• Mali
• Guinea-Bissau
• Burundi
• Bottom 5 (GEM)
• Yemen
• Saudi Arabia
• Bangladesh
• Egypt
• Sri Lanka

22
Definition of Gender

• Into English language in 1972 as a result of the
  need to refer to the social relationship between
  men and women.
• Came out of a need to address the unequal
  differences between men and women, specifically,
  beyond the words used to differentiate between
  people (class, status, race, etc.)
• Before purely a grammatical meaning Gender was
  he, she or it (masculine, feminine, neuter). Now,
  gender refers to the social difference between
  men and women, where sex refers to the
  biological one.
• A working definition Social meaning given to the
  biological differences between men and women and
  the socially constructed relations between men
  and women.

23
Recognizing Gender isan art

• - Analytical tool for understanding social
  processes and social norms
• - is a social stratifier, as class, race and
  ethnicity
• - is at the basis of the most fundamental
  division of labor in society productive and
  reproductive activities.

24
From WID to GAD We learned!

• 1947-1970 Maternal and Child Health
• 1970s Women in Development
• Criticism of WID
• 1980s Gender and Development

25
Gender Aware Planning

• is based on the premise that traditional
  planning methods do not take into consideration
  the different needs and interests of women and
  men arising from their different socially
  ascribed roles and responsibilities in society.
• Challenges that all members of the household have
  same interest, reflecting equal power between men
  and women in household decision making.
• Central to this is concepts of practical and
  strategic gender needs, and recognition of
  womens and mens multiple roles, reproductive
  and productive activities.

26
(No Transcript)
27
It is recognizing and addressing the strategic
needs of a society

• Addressing practical gender needs facilitate
  existing gender roles by
• enabling women to do existing work better
• reducing work burdens within their multiple
  roles
• overcoming practical problems in all roles
  (health, food, tools, income etc)
• Addressing strategic gender needs change existing
  gender role by
• achieving greater equality for women and men
• raising womens status, power and choice
• closing access gap ( e.g. equal wages, legal
  rights, asset ownership, non-traditional jobs,
  control of fertility, income, life style)
• harder to achieve due to different time scale
  and planning needed.

28

• MESSAGE Both practical and strategic gender
  needs must be addressed for programmes to be
  gender sensitive. Specific activities may focus
  on needs or strategies, both overall programmes
  require some degree of both. Strategic gender
  needs are easy to ignore, they are more abstract
  and difficult to monitor. Needs must be
  mentioned in program goals.

29
Yet

• Development programmes should focus on both
  categories, but often do not take them together.
  Much attention is paid to the practical needs of
  women mostly, without considering long term
  affects on strategic needs.
• Credit programmes for example should also work
  with banking institutions in order to have long
  term effects. Micro credits schemes, if they are
  not planned thoroughly with sustainability as a
  goal (i.e., to involve institutions such as
  banks, NGOs, etc) cannot answer the strategic
  needs of women.
• One important point of discussion is who decides
  on the strategic needs of women? Is it the UN,
  the society or the women themselves? Can we
  apply the same standards of an international
  setting to a rural village?
• It is also necessary to conduct surveys and
  studies to find out what are the practical and
  strategic needs of a community in order to design
  programmes that would address them adequately.
  The participants discussed the importance of
  carrying out methodological research and
  gathering objective information.

30
(No Transcript)
31

• The word ECONOMICS can be written across both
  categories. It is not possible to do productive
  work in society without reproductive work. They
  are interlinked. Yet, GNP does not take into
  account the unpaid reproductive work, where women
  feature, and to which women often move when there
  are structural changes resulting in 1)
  unemployment (Movement from PP to RU) 2)
  Sectorial shrinkage (where the state sector (PR)
  shrinks, there is movement into UR).
• When women lost their jobs, they usually move to
  the unpaid reproductive sector, back at home.
  When men loose their jobs, they try to find
  another productive paid work, or productive
  unpaid work, or move out of the labor market
  altogether. Men move to the unpaid productive
  sphere so as not to lose their skills. Many, both
  men and women, go to the informal sector. It is
  mostly the state sector that provides paid
  reproductive work, when the state shrinks,
  workers usually move to reproductive unpaid work.

32
Message

• Invisibility of bulk of womens work
• Economically profound
• Structural adjustments must take into account
  effects on reproductive work
• The Unpaid Reproductive sector of the economy,
  which is not rewarded, usually absorbs from other
  sectors during restructuring.

33
The principles Added Value

• The 4 principles apply, as do others
• Justice and Equality
• Efficiency and Sustainability (the macro
  dimension)
• Credibility and Accountability
• Quality of Life (the micro dimension)
• Alliances
• Chain Reaction.

34
Equity, Justice

• From the Human Rights point of view, the
  eradication of all forms of discrimination, be
  they economic, social, political and cultural, is
  a indispensable for the protection of human
  rights, a commitment that all governments have
  endorsed.
• It is a matter of Justice, FAIRNESS, equal
  representation
• When the efficiency argument is hard to prove,
  given that it is difficult to prove the role of
  women within national income, there is renewed
  emphasis on equity, because it is harder to
  ignore the inequality of womens positions.
• Conventions Most states party to a variety of
  normative documents (CEDAW, Beijing, Cairo, etc)
  Basic principles in own constitutions Not enough
  to convince for resources, but useful to provide
  reference to specific mandates and international
  commitments. Remind governments of shared values
• Reiterated by Human Developments focus on
  enlarging peoples choices and on their access
  to resources and personal self respect as
  vital components of development.
• HD means enlarging what people can actually do,
  their capabilities, become the purpose of
  economic growth.
• Gender inequities clearly reduce womens
  capabilities.

35
Efficiency argument externalities

• Equal inclusion of men and women in all aspects
  of development and society pays off for the
  country as a whole. Nations cannot afford to
  ignore the contributions and economic and social
  capacities of both men and women in all spheres.
  The development of any country that does will
  ultimately suffer in the medium and long term.
  This is an argument that addresses macro
  aspects of development i.e. the welfare and
  prosperity of a nation as a whole.
• These arguments are particularly effective
  because they address the bottom line money. They
  prove that investment in gender equality will pay
  off for the country as a whole in the future.
• Given share of contribution to economy, not
  taking into account impacts negative overall
  growth

36

• Lack of participation of women would mean that a
  major part of the skilled and well educated human
  resources available would be wasted.
• Inequality between the sexes can breath social
  discord and instability in the both in the family
  and, inevitably, in society.
• It is a fact that without the significant
  contribution of the reproductive labor, often
  generated by women, the productive sphere cannot
  function.
• The empowerment of women benefits children and
  families. Investment in female empowerment and
  education increases womens productivity while
  decreasing fertility and infant mortality.
  development multipliers. No other single
  factor has so much impact on so many diverse
  outcomes
• Discrimination in labor market brings
  inefficiency
• Segregation of labor and wage discrimination
  market brings quality and value of the sector
  down
• Falling birth rates are often caused or
  exasperated by failure of society to support
  womens capacity/choice to combine their
  reproductive and productive rights and
  responsibilities.
• How women deal with shocks (Coping mechanisms)
  are assets that have to be used in planning
  social policies, poverty strategies etc.
• Studies show that economic transition leads to
  decline in family income in general, but
  structural adjustment programmes specifically
  reduce social support (i.e. the level of
  resources available to women in their
  non-producer roles) without redressing their
  disadvantages in their role as producers.
• Overwork, which is a distortion of allocation of
  resources, limits response to economic
  transition
• Lack of women in decision making power means
  reduced development impact of expenditures

37
Sustainability

• Closely linked to efficiency arguments are
  sustainability arguments. Because gender
  mainstreaming adopts a human development
  perspective, which has the long-term objective of
  creating a socially just and sustainable society,
  gender mainstreaming is inextricably about
  ensuring sustainability as well. Furthermore,
  because gender mainstreaming demands a holistic
  approach to policy making where coordination and
  cooperation (both vertical and horizontal) are
  key, interventions are more likely to be
  sustainable

38
The tricky trade-off

• Womens issues are they human rights issue or
  efficiency issue? In other words, do you see
  women as vulnerable, that have special rights to
  be protected, or do you see them as
  opportunities, that because of their strength on
  some issues, promoting them would mean more
  overall growth in society. (examples not only as
  mothers, but economic actors, human rights
  activists etc., in disaggregated occupations, in
  civil society, etc)
• For the Government of Belarus, are women
  vulnerable groups or opportunities?

39
Credibility and Accountability Arguments

• Asks decision makers to do the math because
  women and men each make up half of the
  population, any data, policy or recommendation
  that does not recognize and address both genders
  equally will be ultimately flawed, and will thus
  have no credibility.
• If large segments of the population are not
  adequately reflected in new laws and
  institutions, and are not given the opportunity
  to participate in public life, the legitimacy of
  the new political systems would be questioned. A
  true democracy cannot allow for the silencing of
  at least 50 of the population.
• Accountability arguments in particular are useful
  for reminding governments of their responsibility
  to ensure social justice and sustainable human
  development.
• In democratic states, governments must be
  accountable to the population and must further
  the interests of all its members both men and
  women. A failure to address social justice or
  gender equality issues is also a failure of
  governments to be accountable to all citizens.
• Furthermore, many gender-sensitive interventions
  are not just gender exercises for their own sake
  they are about holding governments accountable
  for their use of public funds and for the
  fulfilment of their political promises.
• Gender mainstreaming can offer concrete
  mechanisms for introducing a greater degree of
  accountability into governance.

40
Quality of Life Arguments

• Increased attention to gender equality issues
  will improve the lives of individual men and
  women.
• While it is commonly recognized that women stand
  to benefit from increased attention to gender
  equality, quality of life arguments also point
  out the benefits to be gained by men and families
  as well. They stress the importance of social
  relationships and interdependence of social
  actors, claiming, for example, that if women are
  empowered, those closest to them stand to gain as
  well.
• On the flip-side, inequality or hardship for one
  gender will negatively affect other social actors
  as well. For example, the negative effects of
  depression in men or poor employment
  opportunities for women affect families, children
  and spouses as well.
• Quality of life arguments are useful for
  promoting a gender dimension in programmes aimed
  at curbing social pathologies. For example,
  issues such as suicide, alcoholism, addictions
  and chronic stress are strongly linked to
  changing gender roles and relations in society
  and the inability of individuals to cope and
  adapt. The argument here therefore underlines how
  a gender perspective can limit these pathologies
  and improve the quality of life of members of
  society.

41
Alliance Arguments

• Alliance arguments highlight gender equality as a
  prerequisite for forging formal alliances or
  partnerships with other nations. In the context
  of Eastern and Central Europe, accession to the
  European Union is a very salient example EU
  countries are mandated to implement various
  instruments for the promotion of gender equality,
  including the adoption of gender mainstreaming
  practices.
• However, while this argument is currently very
  effective for calling governments to task, it is
  ultimately unsustainable unless coupled with
  concrete substantive reasons (such as efficiency
  and quality of life) as to why issues of gender
  equality need to be addressed. Without these
  solid substantive arguments, alliance arguments
  can backfire.

42
Chain Reaction Arguments

• Lastly, all of the above arguments are
  strengthened when the links between them are
  highlighted. Gender equality can in fact produce
  a chain reaction of benefits, just as the
  effects of gender inequality can be passed on
  from individuals to families and communities.
  The chain reaction argument highlights how
  sound the investment in gender equality actually
  is it will bring not only short-term, localized
  benefits, but medium and long-term benefits that
  will ripple through society strengthening the
  nation as a whole.
• At the same time, mainstreaming should also
  remain aware of chain reactions that might
  produce negative gender equality effects if not
  anticipated and dealt with in an integrated
  manner. For example, a top down mandate for
  family-friendly workplaces might bring backlash
  and even greater exposure to harassment against
  women in their place of work. Similarly,
  advancement of women may lead to greater
  depression and pathological behaviour among men.
  These risks highlight the crucial need to create
  complex strategies for gender mainstreaming,
  whereby a number of initiatives are mutually
  reinforcing. Thus a negative chain reaction
  argument can be used to convince decision-makers
  that mainstreaming must proceed in a strategic
  and holistic manner.

43
Long term goals

• Gender is seen as society (men involved in
  debate)
• Policies and programmes are designed directly
  with Gender, not an added cause
• Macro- Economic polices are not designed first,
  and then social issues added to them but
  designed by incorporating the interests of men
  and women into them, both as a subject (agents of
  change) and an object (impact)
• No need for special commissions, etc because of
  everyone taking the cause
• No need for these trainings because everyone
  realizes that Women are People Too..

44
Quiz 1 MDG Goals and Targets Where is the
gender?
45
Quiz 2

• What are your development issues and how are they
  gendered?

46
Quiz 3 conducting a Gender Analysis of Sectors

• 1) Gender Roles What are the Gender roles in
  this sector (socially constructed), both within
  the household and at the community level?
• 2) Gender Division of Labor Analyzed by
  differentiating between productive and
  reproductive tasks. Who does what? Value of
  labor? Are there jobs done by people depending on
  age or sex? What are sources of household income?
  How do women earn money? Who decides how the
  money is to be spent? Who decides how land is to
  be used?
• - Consider that womens involvement in both
  productive reproductive makes them work longer
  hours per day than men, their considerable
  workload is to be taken into account when
  designing and implementing programmes.
• - Womens work is often excluded from national
  employment and income statistics, because labor
  is unpaid, or takes place in the informal sector
  not covered by labor legislation. Results in
  serious under-estimation of womens contribution
  to development and society. Identify the
  validity and reliability of existing statistical
  data and to collect more precise information on
  womens work.

47

• 3) Differential Access Who has access to and
  control over resources and benefits? Who
  participates? How? Who benefits? Who has
  information? Who makes decision? Who is a member
  of community or household decision making? How
  much influence do women have over decisions that
  affect them?
• - by law or by tradition, sometimes women not
  allowed to on capital assets such as land,
  buildings and equipment, or not able to enter
  into legally binding contracts (opening a bank
  account, starting a business, obtaining credit)
  without permission of their husbands or another
  male family member.
• 4) Power Relations inequalities emerging from
  division of labor and unequal access, achieve
  power to negotiate on equal terms. Capacity of
  changing decision making processes that establish
  and reinforce existing socio political and
  economic systems norms.
• - Often have access to resources needed to work,
  but no control over the income earned through
  their labor.
• Who controls resources in household.
• 5) Gender needs arising from unequal power
  relations, different roles, etc.Practical and
  Strategic needs. Ask women themselves.

48

• 6) Constraints and Opportunities which exist
  within the larger socio-economic environment and
  which may affect the programme under
  consideration.
• Economic conditions, demographic conditions,
  prevalent norms and values, political events,
  legislation and regulation, training and
  educational levels, institutional arrangements.
• Watch out for direct or indirect discrimination
  for either men or women.
• 7) What is the capacity of your organization and
  other partner organizations to overcome gender
  gaps.
• - Type of organization, major areas of
  interventions, capacity to plan and implement.
• - Gender policies, activities and experiences
• - Organization structure to deal with gender
  issues
• - Perception of gender among staff.