Gender and development : evolutions and debates around a concept now indicator of international development (3/3)

Temps de lecture : 7 minutes

Gender and development : evolutions and debates around a concept now indicator of international development (3/3)

04.09.2020
Written by Jeanne Prin
Translated by Bianca Wiles
From its entrance on the academic scene to its elevation to a development measurement tool, Gender has been the source of numerous debates. Multilateral development agencies, subjected to the heuristic diversity of the concept, have been accused of standardising and bureaucratising Gender for the benefit of a neo-liberal paradigm which was itself accused of reinforcing gender inequalities. Rather than a simple concept, the multiplicity of debates around the topic of Gender makes it “an ideology that necessarily raises particular political positionings when criticised^[1]Bereni (Laure), Chauvin (Sébastien), Jaunait (Alexandre) and Revillard (Anne), Introduction Aux études Sur Le Genre. 2e édition Revue Et Augmentée. ed. Louvain-la-Neuve, De Boeck, 2012, p.57. … Continue reading” .
The complex undertaking of depoliticising the concept of Gender through development projects
Nowadays, the harshest critiques against development programs point at the technification of the concept of Gender. What is criticised is the concept being devoid of substance, taken out of its original context, in order to be readjusted to a smoother definition. The development project’s attempt to reach a consensus in the 1990s was itself an area of contestation. These critiques arise from the historical and theoretical wealth of the concept. Having become a living concept, the effort to domesticate it through development projects has understandably lead to numerous debates. This is further complicated by the theoretical historicity of the notion of development itself. The intersection of these two disciplines “enables us to re-examine development studies^[2]Verschuur (Christine), Guérin (Isabelle) and Guétat-Bernard (Hélène) (dir.), Sous le développement, le genre, Marseille, IRD éditions, 2015, p.33. [quote translated from French]”. In fact, Gender and development raise questions on relationships of dominance between men and women but also between developed and under-development states. Such power relationships take an important place in discussions condoning a decolonisation of development. This is proven through the linkage between domination and depatriarchalisation in the rhetoric of many feminist Latin American voiced through their slogan « No se puede descolonizar sin despatrialcalizar^[3]Vershuur (Christine) and Destremau (Blandine), « Féminismes décoloniaux, genre et développement. Histoire et récits des mouvements de femmes et des féminismes aux Suds », 2012, Revue Tiers … Continue reading». Similarly to Black Feminism^[4]For additional information as to the goals of the Black Feminist movement please refer to : Manon Cassoulet-Fressineau, “Intersectionality: studying gender through the lens of interlocking systems … Continue reading, the 1980s has seen many voices emerge, both in the Global North and South, highlighting differences in casts, classes, and race in development projects dealing with gender inequalities. According to post-colonialist theorists, the recommendations made by these projects add to the neo-colonisation of the Global South as they promote a capitalist and euro-centric model which is not tailored to situations of those these projects seek to help.
Seen as a professionalisation tool for women’s movements, Gender seems to be a favoured method for NGOs to attract funding. The increased hybridisation and the connectedness between the academic sphere and development institutions have brought about collaborations between researchers, notably in social sciences, within the larger international NGOs. The porosity between scientific and institutional fields has contributed to the emergence of Gender professionals. The latter quickly found the term « femocrat^[5]Calvès (Anne-Emmanuèle),« 17. L’empowerment des femmes dans les politiques de développement : Histoire d’une institutionnalisation controversée », 2014, Regards croisés sur l’économie, … Continue reading» in feminist movements’ vocabulary. The inflation of international funding directed towards empowerment programmes caused what some call the NGO-isation  of the concept. The first victims of this movement are the smaller and local feminist organisations. The reclamation of the topic by Gender experts too remote from the feminist action itself is harshly rejected by many in Latin America.
In fact, in the name of the militant history of the concept, certain Chilean feminist organisations opposing the “technocrats of gender poverty^[6]Lacombe (Delphine), « Entre survivance des ONG et mise en mouvement : pratiques et débats des féminismes nicaraguayens à l’heure de la globalisation du genre », 2011, Cultures & Conflits, … Continue reading”, gave substance to their contestations as their school of thought calls for a return to the vocal origins of the concept. Autonomism, a movement created in 1996, calls for a redistribution of funding from larger international NGOS and UN institutions to local NGOs. The criticism of globalised gender should be credited for revealing the deeply political nature of the concept, especially in Latin America where, beyond epistemological debates, Gender has been intrinsically linked to national emancipation movements^[7]Lacombe (Delphine), « Entre survivance des ONG et mise en mouvement : pratiques et débats des féminismes nicaraguayens à l’heure de la globalisation du genre », 2011, Cultures & Conflits, … Continue reading. The obvious technification of Gender alienates the underlying political claims made by a movement that essentially seeks to question power relations. This technification is also at the centre of debates surrounding a concept that has lost its critical spirit “under the grip of consensual expectations that pervade the spheres of development^[8]Verschuur (Christine), Guérin (Isabelle) and Guétat-Bernard (Hélène) (dir.), Sous le développement, le genre, Marseille, IRD éditions, 2015, p.149. [quote translated from French]”.
Methodological limitations : action-oriented discussions
Despite the efforts made by international development institutions and NGOs, it must be concluded that gender inequalities, on a global scale, persist. Between 2004 and 2010, the non-agricultural informal sector in Sub-Saharan Africa represented about 66% of female employment. Adding to this, the same region suffered from a persisting 33% gender pay gap in 2016^[9]Banque Mondiale, « Les femmes, l’entreprise et le droit », 2014, p.22, Available at : http://pubdocs.worldbank.org/en/851531519930689473/WBL2014-KeyFindings-FR.pdf. In the face of these numbers, proponents of a militant approach to gendered development policies question the means implemented by institutional development actors.
The strong interest given to the implementation of microfinance in Global South countries is indicative of inherent issues within development strategies dedicated to gender. In the Andra Pradesh region in India, empowerment is reflected in the presence of many NGOs dedicated to microfinancing, and villages where women-oriented self-help groups flourish. These groups offer microfinancing services to women, encouraging self-employment through the creation of income-generating activities. In reaction to this strategy, the rural Indian population voiced its opinion against local and international NGOs’ blindness to the social realities of their field of intervention^[10]Tawa Lama-Rewak (Stéphanie), « Le local et le global dans le mouvement indien des femmes », 2006, Cahiers du Genre, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 183-202.. The idea of an entrepreneurial woman is limited by certain particular features of Indian society, notably limited mobility, the weakness of their social network, or yet, its fragmentation into casts. These contradictions are reinforced by the lack of training in how to use loans. From this came the re-appropriation of these micro-credits by its users for health or children’s education projects, rather than the launch of a business activities. The modification and adaptation of these projects can be noticed in Latin American countries where the appearance of comedores populares (soup kitchens) has brought about the appearance of a rich community life and has led to the creation of job-creating cooperatives^[11]For additional information on comedores populares and other models of solidarity economy see : Nobre (Miriam) and Viudes de Freitas (Taís). « Possibilités et limites de la construction de … Continue reading. Furthermore, the control these development organisations operate in cases of default on the credits or the importance given to the results of their actions seem to create asymmetry in the relation between the NGOs and women.
The discrepancies between the development strategies and the daily realities of those supposed to benefit from them is also tangible in the field of private property. Access to private property is encouraged as it is considered essential to the women’s empowerment. International conventions such as CEDAW started a process of generalising individual property rights, thereby generalising the Western model. Again, ignorance or lack of genuine interest on lived social realities in the intervention fields undermines the effectiveness of the adopted strategies. In societies where practice may override the law, the globalised model of private property is sometimes contradictory with particular customs of the region. Accordingly, in patriarchal systems where the customary regime of succession values men, women are more likely to lose the titles obtained, supplementing their husbands’ land heritage. Also, women’s low access to financial and agricultural resources in certain rural societies of the global South brings them to rent their property from the male population as a matter of efficiency as the latter generally hold the larger investment capacity. The consolidation of individual private property, especially when it is not followed by measures ensuring the security of this property, only risks reinforcing land inequalities rather than erase them^[12]Talahite (Fatiha) and Deguilhem (Randi), « Genrer l’analyse des droits de propriété. Introduction », 2017, Cahiers du Genre, vol. 62, no. 1, pp. 5-17..
The issue of indicators is also central to the debates relating to the appropriation of the gender issue by development projects. How to adapt international frameworks to the national realities of the Global South? How to measure development? Regular criticism is made against different international institutions using measuring tools which sometimes seems to forget about the diversity in local contexts for the benefit of a global and universalist model. The focus on continuously adding to their data black box, this thirst for results sometimes seems to take precedence over the means used to achieve them. From the perspective of empowerment which is founded on the idea of giving women “the choice of their objectives to reach and the means to reach them^[13]Calvès (Anne-Emmanuèle), « 17. L’empowerment des femmes dans les politiques de développement : Histoire d’une institutionnalisation controversée », Regards croisés sur l’économie, vol. … Continue reading” indicators such as those used by the World Bank or the Gender Empowerment Measure can seem paradoxical. This necessity to adapt international development indicators to the plurality of Global South women’s individual situations was the object of a study conducted by French researchers from the INSEE-Corporation and the IRSTOM. The “Improving the Methods of Investigation in Rural Africa” (Amélioration des Méthodes d’Investigation en milieu Rural Africain) project, through the study of the plurality of production units within agricultural families of Sub-Saharan Africa has brought to light “the both futile and idealist undertaking^[14]Sourisseau (Jean-Michel) (dir.), Agricultures familiales et mondes à venir, Paris, Editions Quae, 2014, p.62.” of the universalist model promoted by development projects. This is notably the case when it comes to the definitions of “family” and “household” which, in practice, do not correspond to the nucleic Western family.
Conclusion
This analysis of the evolution of this concept within the sphere of development proves the importance of accounting for contexts within which gender will have been interpreted, sometimes to a paradox. Debates surrounding the notion of Gender as an instrument of development give off the impression of a concept detrimentally affected by its own historicity. The etymological labyrinth (empowerment, gender mainstreaming, etc…) within which we seem to lose the concept of Gender, does not allow, or rather hardly allows, for the settlement of a consensus on its “good” use. Technologically-driven and bureaucratised, the development projects aiming at reducing gender inequalities promote a global action set up by institutions which, by nature, are incapable questioning the foundations of the patriarchal system of domination. Subsequently, the criticism on Gender’s loss of substance and identity when it intersects with the sphere of development is furthered and fuelled by unsatisfying results of those programs seeking to reduce gender inequalities.
To cite this article : Jeanne PRIN, “Gender and development : evolutions and debates around a concept now become indicator of international development (3/3)”, 04.08.2020, Gender in Geopolitics Institute.