Social and Political Development
Population
Gender
Education
Health
Empowerment
Millennium Development Goals

Promote gender equality and empower women (#3)
–

Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably
by 2005, and at all levels by 2015
Health:
–
Reduce child mortality (#4)

–
Improve maternal health (#5)

–

Reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five
Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio
Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases (#6)
Achieve universal primary education (#2)
–
Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling
Population Clock

http://math.berkeley.edu/~galen/popclk.html

http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.h
tml
World Vital Events

Births-Deaths=Natural Increase
http://www.census.gov/cgibin/ipc/pcwe
Demographic Transition Model
Population Pyramids
Theories of population growth


Malthusian: Agriculture grows
arithmetically/Population grows exponentially
Malthus assumptions
–
–

Highly judgmental of poor
Assumptive of western cultural norms and standards
Modern Malthusian ideas: “population bombs”,
”limits to growth”, “carrying capacity”
–
IPAT: Impact=Population x Affluence x Environmental
Disruption of technology
Migration: Push/Pull Factors

Push Factors:
–

Conditions that cause people to leave their area
Pull Factors:
–
Conditions that attract people to another location
Theories of population growth

Boserup
–
–
Pop density creates ag intensification
Cornucopians—technology and free enterprise better
than state control:


CONTRACEPTION and POPULATION CONTROL: Coercion
for both women and men
Political Economic approach
–
–
Land and resources unequal distribution pop
Structural Adjustment and concentration on cash crops


Ignores subsistence economy
emphasizes need for other utilities to provide access to survival
Theories of population growth

Social Relations of Gender approach
–
–
–
–
–
Labor utility
Security utility
High infant and child mortality
Others: cultural son preference
Subordination of women
Gender and Development
Attention to gender analysis, empowering women
and reducing gender equalities will:





Reduce population
growth
Avoid development
mistakes
Support productivity
and economic
growthpoverty
reduction
Improve governance
Support health
goals for women
and children
History of gender and development


Decline in women’s status, economic and
political situation
Colonial shifts
–

Decline of rights to land and status
Development shifts
–
1950’s: Welfare approach


women as “homemakers”
1970: Ester BoserupWID (Women in
Development)
Judith
Carney
:
Irrigation
and
Women
Farmers
in the
Gambia
Irrigation and Women Farmers in the
Gambia
Irrigation and Women Farmers in the
Gambia

Colonial Development Corporation (CDC)
–
–
–
–
irrigation and development scheme
Started alienation of women’s land rights
Assumptions about ownership of land by men
IGNORED:



Women had strong access to land resources and their
benefits from rice farming
Also responsibilities for food and support of children
Post colonial development schemes made
similar mistakes
Irrigation and Women Farmers in the
Gambia
Irrigation and Women Farmers in the
Gambia

World Bank, China, IFAD irrigated rice projects
–

Small Scale and Large Scale Double cropping schemes
Ignored the elaborate system of land rights and
cropping responsibilities
–
–
–
Women’s land taken
Women expected to labor for men’s fields year round
No way to generate same income and maintain
independent decision making over their labor and
livelihoods
Irrigation and Women Farmers in the
Gambia
Irrigation and Women Farmers in the
Gambia

Women rebel
–
–


Refuse to work at certain times of year when they
want to work on their own fields
Form work groups to drive up wage labor
Projects are very expensive/unsuccessful
Some people are switching to nontraditional export crops, but food security
is still a problem
Irrigation and Women Farmers in the
Gambia

Conclusions:
–
–
–

Need to address social and gendered organization of
production
Especially in Africa, no joint-utility households
Need to link gender equity to productivity
Alternatives:
– Focus on food production
– link ownership/management to women’s cooking
units
– Consider small scale irrigation technology that
responds to refined traditional environmental
knowledge of women and their work schedules
History of Gender and Development

1975: First World Conference on WomenMexico City:
–


Equity? Heavily debated
Basic needs/anti-poverty approach
Convention on the Elimination of all forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW),
adopted by the UN General Assembly in
1979
History of Gender and Development



Early 1980’s
– “New household economics” replaced household
as “black box”
– feminist critique of SAPs: both rural and urban
WID Efficiency Approach
– Neoliberal approach: utilitarian
GAD Empowerment approach
– 1985: 2nd World Conference on Women
(Nairobi)
– 1987: Third world feminists:
 DAWN and Chipko, etc.
Mainstreaming Gender

Fourth World Conference on Women
Platform for Action, 1995 (Beijing)
–
Gender is a development issue
Women in the World
Women in the World
Gender disparities have tended to decline
over time, but remain largest in low-income
countries --except in political participation
Gender Equality in Low Income Countries
1.2
Gender Equality in Middle Income Countries
Gender Equality in High Income Countries
Female/male ratio
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
1970
1980
1990
1995
Life expectancy
Primary enrollment
Secondary enrollment
Parliamentary representation
1970
1980
1990
1995
1970
1980
1990
1995
Gender mainstreaming in
Development

“Social relations of Gender”gender
analysis
Gender analysis
Gender
Analysis
Links between gender equality and
economic growth
Lower population
growth, more
efficient replacement
Gender
equality
Increased labor
productivity
Economic
growth
More efficient
allocation of
resources
28 April 2003
14
Where women and men have more
equal rights, governments are less
corrupt
10
9
8
Index of corruption
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
4
4.5
5
5.5
6
6.5
Wom en's econom ic and s ocial hum an rights
7
Benefits for future generations

Women invest their incomes in their children,
men in themselves


Ex: In Brazil, income in the hands of mothers has four times
the positive impact on children’s nutrition (height-for-age) as
income in the hands of fathers.
Better educated mothers invest more heavily in
their children’s learning

Ex: In India, children of literate mothers spend two more
hours a day studying than children of illiterate mothers.
Benefits of Women’s Education:
Economic Growth
Health benefits of women’s
education: Lower malnutrition
Health benefits: child
immunization
MDG Gender equality indicator-adequate?