Women in Development

 

As an integrated global community, it is essential to examine alternative development models outside of neo-liberal ideals. My position is one of advocacy in an effort to spark consciousness within the individuals and governments who sign off on top-down development programs and fund the research that makes progress possible. My postulate is one that emphasizes the importance of viewing global injustice as fundamentally gendered. This essay will seek to examine the nascence and burgeoning centrality of women’s struggle in the globalized world. The purpose of this paper is to propone women’s prodigious roles in sustainable development from top-tier decisions, to on-the-ground pragmatic implementation.

            To contextualize women’s struggles in development discourse, I cite Finn, Perry, and Karandikar (2012), who speak of the gendered nature of globalized oppression and emphasize the need to analyze issues of social justice through feminist discourse. Despite a dearth of research examining the gendered hue of global injustice, it is intuitively clear that women are among the most vulnerable populations to a myriad of human rights violations and general malfeasance (pgs. 2-4).

Citing some statistics from the UN report, The World’s Women (2010) illustrates this fact: nearly 70% of impoverished people on the planet are women; between 75-80% of the world’s refugees are women; women make up less than 10% of the world’s leaders and less than 1 in 5 members of global parliaments are women; only 13 of the 500 largest corporations in the world have a female CEOs; two-thirds of the world’s illiterate adults are women; women are concentrated in insecure jobs in the informal sector with low income and few rights; women’s nominal wages are 17% lower than men’s on average; the value of women’s unpaid housework amounts to 10-35% GDP worldwide, a number in the trillions; women are being increasingly affected by HIV and are more likely to suffer maternal health complications in developing countries; the primary victims of today’s wars are not soldiers, but civilian women and children; the use of rape as a weapon of war has become increasingly evident; violence against women is a near-universal phenomenon.

While these statistics are certainly disheartening, as Sheryl Wu Dunn, a renowned advocate for the global advancement of women and co-author of Half the Sky, describes in her TED-talk (2010), “women are not the problem, they are the solution.” Sheryl speaks to the need to shift examination from the extent of quandary to the nascence of the problem.

If an earthquake happens, we call it a ‘natural disaster;’ similarly when a woman is raped, physically or psychologically, we call this a ‘tragedy.’ In borrowing from Dr. Paul Farmer’s (2011) examination 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti, he ruminates that natural disasters are only as much of a disaster as the pre-existing social vulnerabilities allow (pg. 117-118). Similarly, tragedies suffered by women are only the result of a social milieu that fosters injustice. Using passive language to describe gendered issues negates the opportunity for examining overarching structures of oppression. 

Remer and Worell (2002) describe Kimberlé Crenshaw’s concept of ‘intersectionality’—a feminist framework for examining structures of oppression as a wheel within which interdependent axes of vulnerability operate. This model emphasizes that all oppressed populations form unique identities through individual experience in the context of complex umbrella of social power dynamics (pg. 30-32). Intersectionality speaks to the labyrinthine nature of oppression and the experiences of women in the context of goliath mechanisms of globalization. 

Feminist lenses of analysis make it clear that women’s issues are global issues. In the words of UN Executive Women Director and former president of Chile, Michele Bachelet, “where we fail to capitalize on the potential and talents of one half of the population, we also squander the potential to reduce poverty, hunger, disease, environmental degradation and violence,” (UN News Centre, 2011).

I believe women’s empowerment is the key to sustainable development and the amelioration of global injustice. The UNFPA and RAFAD (2010) defines empowerment as: 1) the right to have the power to control their own lives--within and outside the home 2) the right to have access to opportunities & resources 3)the right to have & to determine choices 4)a sense of self worth. As expanded upon by Bisnath (2001), embedded in these rights are facets of cognitive, economic, political, psychological, and sexual empowerment.

Empowerment of women is imperative for the betterment of any society for numerous reasons. Some specific examples include women’s responsibility for socializing future generations; if women are devalued and trying to thrive in a system that has set them up to fail, chances of successfully rearing children or lifting a family out of poverty are very slim. In economic terms, Women can provide the human capital necessary to stimulate local economies and are also known to invest a higher percentage of their obtained resources back into the long-term welfare of their family (UN News Centre, 2011). If women are continually denied access to the market, they cannot contribute all of their valuable perspective, skills and personalities to global progress. Engaging in global discourse that subtly ‘gender-blind’ results in policies and projects missing half the story.

There are numerous examples of ‘broken’ countries ‘building back better,’ in the words of Dr. Paul Farmer (2011), by placing women at the center of reconstruction. An excerpt written by Didi Bertrand Farmer, wife of author Dr. Farmer, in Haiti: After the Earthquake, describes the national trauma while also emphasizing the exacerbated jeopardy of sexual violence and exploitation women and girls faced in the temporary settlements of this devastated country (pg. 301). Her words exemplify the cognitive process I believe should be institutionalized in development rhetoric, “women are the centerpost…of our families and society. The reconstruction of Haiti will succeed only if we strengthen its centerpost by educating and empowering our country’s women and girls,” (pg. 303).

Pragmatically, Farmer suggests leadership quotas and an emphasis on female involvement in local and bureaucratic decision-making, as well as decentralized efforts with a national goal towards gender equality (pg. 305). I also believe sustainable development should focus efforts on the elements of women’s lives pivotal to struggle or success: economic factors such as access to credit, stable jobs, microfinance programs and small business initiatives, increased education efforts—such as sexual education, language immersion, and literacy, health resources centered on maternal health, preventative care, and financial support for receiving said services, local agricultural involvement and/or education about how to incorporate sustainable resources back into a drained community, advocating for the amendment of property rights to include women, providing incentives for political participation, et cetera. As a student, I also recognize the premium institutions place on quantifiable data; I therefore vouch for the government and other academic organizations to fund research that, echoing Bisnath (2001), acknowledges differential factors of race, gender, and economic standing, among other axes of oppression. Theoretical models for analyzing the forces of globalization and development have to be revamped by research that views these issues as inherently gendered.

Farmer looks to her experience in Rwanda as a model for development centered “on the backs of…women—victims of rape and physical violence, wives abandoned by husbands imprisoned or fleeing imprisonment, women who had lost family members, friends, neighbors, lovers, children,”(pg. 305). This quote illustrates an idea I encounter daily in my local community, as well as in my studies of international social work— women are resilient creatures.

Although women continue to struggle for justice, it is the feminine perseverance for the sake of bettering future generations that should be capitalized on as our world moves forward with an eye on sustainable development. So much of the current paradigm of globalization is about violence, dominance, and control. Patriarchy can be equated with violence—men against women, institutions against communities, government against people, individual against individual, humans against nature. On a more philosophical level, if characteristics of femininity are incorporated as valuable tools of the global decision making process, the result may be a ‘kinder and gentler’ version of globalization. It is for these reasons that I urge all development agencies and governmental institutions to plug women back into the equation; embracing femininity, literally and figuratively as a mode for behavior and expression, will be transformative for all.

 

References

Bisnath, S. (2001, November 26-29). Globalization, Poverty and Women’s Empowerment. UN Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) Group Meeting on "Empowerment of Women Throughout the Lifecycle as a transformative strategy for poverty eradication." New Delhi, India.  

Farmer, P. (2011). Haiti After the Earthquake. New York, NY: PublicAffairs.

Finn, J.L., Karandikar, S., & Perry, T. (2012). Gender Oppression and Globalization: Challenges for Social Work.

Remer, P. & Worell, J. (2002). Feminist Perspective’s in Therapy: Empowering Diverse Women. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. (2010). The World’s Women 2010: Trends and Statistics. New York, NY: United Nations Publication. Retrieved from <http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/Worldswomen/WW_full%20report_BW.pdf>

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Research and Applications for Alternative Financing for Development (RAFAD). (2010). Exploring Linkages: Women’s Empowerment, Microfinance and Health Education. United Nations Population Fund. Retrieved from http://www.unfpa.org/webdav/site/global/shared/documents/publications/2011/Exploring%20Linkages%20-%20Women%27s%20Empowerment,%20Microfinance%20and%20Health%20Education.pdf

UN News Centre. (2011, June 27). Empowering Women Helps Fight Poverty and Other Social Ills, UN Official Stresses. Web. 25 Nov. 2012. Retrieved from <http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=38863&Cr=gender+equality&Cr1#.UMTZ3oVA7n4>.

WuDunn, S. (2010, July). Our Century’s Greatest Injustice. In TEDGlobal 2010. Oxford, England.