Gender and Development - some suggestions

The concept of "Gender and Development" (GAD) first started with the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995), which proposed gender mainstreaming as a key strategy to reduce inequalities between women and men.
Gender mainstreaming, is a call to all governments and other actors to promote an active and visible policy of mainstreaming a gender perspective in all policies and programmes so that before decisions are taken an analysis is made of the effects on women and men respectively.
The GAD paradigm proposed in the Beijing Conference is perceived as an evolution from the "Women in Development" (WID) approach.
The WID approach viewed women as passive recipients of development assistance, rather than as active agents in transforming their own economic, social, political and cultural realities. Women concerns were viewed in isolation, as separate issues, leading to their marginalization in the state system and other social structures.
In practical terms, this approach treated "women issues" as unrelated to major development concerns like human rights, democratic governance, protection of environment, globalisation, peace and disarmament, etc.
The GAD approach on the other hand seeks to integrate gender awareness and competence into mainstream development, while recognising that development activities may affect women and men differently (due to sexual differences as well as historic circumstances), and therefore emphasising the need to apply appropriate gender planning in order to ensure that the resulting conditions and results are equitable to women and men.
THIS APPROACH RECOGNIZES THAT:
-- Women and men have different and special needs;
-- Women do not constitute a homogeneous group because each woman is also marked by her race/ethnicity, class, age, sexual preference;
-- Women tend to be disadvantaged compared to men in terms of their access to and control of the means of production, and of their welfare in general;
-- Gender differences could, however also result in men being disadvantaged in certain societies although presently in most parts of the world women that are victims of discrimination.
Though the approach applies to both men and women the word "gender" is popularly understood as a synonym for women. The traditional roles attributed to men and women have changed. These are still changing.
The role of women in governance has become extremely important who must reach out and participate in the political process of their countries in order to gain access to the male dominated world of policy making. Apart from individual efforts, the State should introduce a system of effective representation of the women population in the political system of the country so that they could raise the issues at the proper forums.
It has been noticed that when these women reach any controlling or top position in the organisation they develop a discouraging attitude towards the upcoming young females which is simply because they become jealous or are threatened by them. This negative attitude of women towards other women is also hampering women development in general.
I strongly support women causes but I don't think that women rights agenda should be campaigned politically. Men and women have equal rights and these rights are enshrined in the Constitution of every country. In case of any violation of these fundamental rights men and women could seek redress from proper judicial forums. I therefore think that the movement of women for their rights is social and not political. A higher level of diplomacy, good negotiating skills and patience may, however, be required when women activists are seeking some kind of protection for themselves say for example if they want some change in law like in Pakistan there has been a demand for quite some time now for amending the Law of Evidence which presently provides that a woman's testimony is half the testimony of man. Now this is a discriminatory provision for which women activists have been pressing hard but still I do not think that they should campaign their demands as a political movement.
My concept of gender development is based on equality at all levels and spheres of life in terms of status, education, opportunities, facilities, rights, privileges, benefits, future prospects, livelihoods etc. Men and women are equal and they should be treated equally without any gender specific restrictions or limitations.
Over the past decade, the rapid growth of export-oriented multi-national companies (MNCs) in developing countries has had a decisive influence on the type of development taking place. Many export-oriented industries, particularly agribusiness (food processing, preserving and harvesting) and light manufacturing such as electronics, textiles, toys and shoes, preferentially hire women. As a result enormous numbers of women have been brought into the money economy, many of them for the first time as wage earners. However, employment by MNCs have not resulted in any substantial gains for women. On the contrary women are super-exploited by these enterprises whose main motivation for hiring women is the higher profits derived from paying women lower salaries. Many industries hire young, unmarried women and lay them off after a few years or even a few months. In this way they avoid paying not only maternity benefits but also higher wages to more experienced or senior workers. A large pool of young women available for employment enable companies to do this. Moreover the fact that these women are new to the formal labour force offers the multinationals the advantage of employees who are unorganised and who have had no experience in organising.
MNCs involvement in developing countries, have taken a new turn recently to what has been called "global outsourcing". Under this approach complex production activities are broken down into a number of steps that need not be adjacent to one another and indeed could be oceans apart. These may either heavily capital intensive or highly labour intensive. The cheapness of labour is the fundamental attraction when these locational decisions are made. For example in electronics MNCs carry out most of their labour-intensive production operations in developing countries.
Around eighty percent of their work force is female. It is often said that this is because Asian women have "nimbler fingers" that these MNCs employ women by preference. The availability of male labour in many of the developing countries where MNCs (not necessarily electronic firms) operate testifies to a systematic preference among MNCs for female labour.
Even in some regions where the age of marriage and of first childbirth is so low that unmarried childless women are not available on the labour market, for example, in Haiti and other Caribbean countries, older women, whose children have grown are employed instead of the younger, usually better educated men among whom the rate of open unemployment is very high in these societies.
It may not be an exaggeration therefore if I say that developing countries rapid growth lies in their specialisation and comparative advantage in products made by women.
Nevertheless, on balance, I think these events have been good for women development and growth as they have gained cash out of these events, as opposed to working without any monetary reward. However women's lesser technical and scientific qualifications are likely to prevent them from, entering the newest, high productive, high-wage jobs. It is but necessary that occupational segregation should be broken down to allow women access to these kind of jobs in the highly productive activities for which access to technical education and training is a prerequisite.
Everywhere in the world, women manage natural resources, own small business and take part in community life, in addition to fulfilling their roles as mothers, wives, and home-makers. However, although women's work is a fundamental factor in economic and social development around the world, society grants women few rights in return. In many countries, women may not even own a plot of land. Neither can they inherit property, obtain credit, have a career or go into business.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948 guarantees the rights and freedoms of all the people of the earth. Unfortunately, laws and treaties related to human rights are not always applied equally to men and women. In the poorest countries, malnutrition is more common among girls than boys and girls have less access to health care. More troubling is the fact that women are the leading victims of violence. The list of violations is long: the killing of new born females, rape, forced prostitution, sexual harassment, torture, murder after dowry payment, conjugal violence, excision, forcible confinement and so forth. Around the world, women are challenging the forces which stand in the way of respect for their inherent rights: national governments, religious, legal and cultural institutions and their own family environments.
Admittedly, every society has class differences. But in countries like Pakistan where wealth is concentrated in the hands of a very few, this difference is extenuated all the more and the religious and social constraints which are less binding in many western states make this difference all the more pronounced.
According to a house woman in Pakistan, "women's development programs have to be defined within the parameters of the social and traditional values.
One cannot fight a campaign for women's rights asking for the liberty of northern women. Such a campaign will never be grassroots based because many of the women themselves won't believe in it because of their strong religious beliefs and social upbringing." There is admittedly a dire need for women development programs. Not random campaigns but focused programs.
There should be done some extensive ground research and not policy research alone on issues like: women headed household, issues for women where the men migrate to other cities/countries for jobs, women in the extreme conservative belts where there is chronic depression because of no social outlets, so on and so forth. The general men-bashing and idolising the western notion of liberty for women at this point in time is a waste of resources.
I therefore think the following measures should be adopted for protecting the interest of women and promotion of their well being. I have divided them in three core areas as follows:
DEVELOPMENT ISSUES:
-- Women's right to obtain an abortion by her own choice should be unambiguously declared an absolute legal right.
-- Serious attention should be given towards providing reproductive and maternal health care facilities.
-- Women should be provided opportunities in new technologies and training based on market needs.
-- Inheritance cases of widows and orphans should be taken up on priority basis by courts and settled within a reasonable time.
-- Property in the name of woman should be recognised as her property and the law relating to benami transactions which generally affects women adversely be done away with through statute.
-- In the case of transfer of property by which ever means or issuing of general powers of attorney by women their personal presence before any registration office or revenue authority or any other office or authority be made mandatory. Intimation of all such transactions should be sent to some central location so that information in this regard could be verified.
-- Women's share in all property and assets acquired after marriage (but excluding inherited property, marital gifts and other financial contributions due to her from her husband) in the name of either spouse, based on her paid and unpaid contributions be legally recognised and secured for her in case of divorce or her husband's death. Rules for calculating her share should be carefully and sensitively developed.
-- The issue of unequal inheritance must particularly be kept in mind while suggesting financial mechanisms to empower women. For example, Morocco recognising the current realities, has recently declared the wife a partner (40%) in rural households with reference to property and enterprises to ensure her due share.
-- Women's access to ownership and control of assets, particularly government distributed land and property be increased through the registration of title-deeds of all state lands allotted for lease or home sites, jointly in the name of the husband and wife and in the case of female headed houses, to the primary earner.
-- Campaigns should be run to motivate people to make just economic provisions for wives, sisters and daughters and informing them on ways of doing so through wills, gifts, trusts, insurance policies, financial and saving schemes etc.
LABOUR AND SERVICE ISSUES:
-- Review of all existing labour legislation and new legislation where necessary should be done in conformity with the approach to reject gender as a classificatory device.
-- In drafting legislation special care should be taken to ensure that laws which genuinely increase the opportunities available to women and operate favourably toward them be enacted, laws which claim to protect women while in fact deprive them of opportunities should be struck down.
-- A special minimum quota should be fixed for apprenticeships of women in order to ensure that they have access to training opportunities.
-- Women should be compensated on the internationally recognised principle of equal pay for equal work.
-- Women should be represented on the executive bodies of the trade unions of the establishments in which they work. Female representation on these bodies should be commensurate with the percentage of the workforce that they comprise but at least large enough to ensure that they have a meaningful voice on all issues of import to them. Women should also be represented on the executive bodies of the collective bargaining agents.
-- Employers who comply with stringent affirmative action targets for female workforce membership should be rewarded if possible with reduced corporate taxes or other incentives.
-- Laws for corporate social responsibility should be introduced in and their compliance should be strictly monitored by the government/other independent local agency.
-- Networking for national legislation to curb the power and exploitative activities of multinationals for health, safety and environmental regulations and if possible interaction with international agencies.
FAMILY LAWS:
My proposals under this heading are specifically in connection with Muslim women, though they may be applicable to non-Muslims also:
-- Since the Nikah registrar deals with question of family law where there is a substantial involvement of women, it is therefore necessary to have women appointed as Nikah registrars.
-- Laws should be enacted to punish those who coerce non-consenting parties into marriage.
-- Women and men should have a right of equal inheritance.
-- The law should be amended providing punishment for cruelty to a wife. The law should prescribe a strict sentence where such cruelty leads a woman to suicide.
-- The prescribed minimum of at least 18 years of age for the marriage of girls should be strictly enforced. The offence against this should be non-cognisable and anyone should have the right of complaint. The parents/guardians, the groom (if adult) and the person solemnising the marriage should be liable to punishment and fine both in case of infringement of this provision.
-- A child marriage should be liable to be dissolved or annulled if contracted in violation of the law and if the child complains. This right may be exercised by the child till she/he attains the age of twenty one.
-- Forced marriages should be made a punishable offence under the Penal laws as they violate both the fundamental rights and the tenets of Islam.
In the end I may state that the present international economic climate is fundamentally inimical to development. Employment prospects in general and particularly for the younger generation and for women have deteriorated drastically over the last few years. Prices of commodities have gone up heavily. Inflation and poverty have increased alarmingly.
In these circumstances, I think re-assessment of national and international policies have become imperative. Co-ordinated measures are needed from the international community as a whole and from developing countries regionally and nationally.
Only in this way, we may be able to restore the dynamism of the world economy and create an enabling environment conducive for development. Besides this I think we as individuals should focus on learning new skills and become educated so that we are more able to face the challenges ahead.
(Mehreen Rehman is a corportae lawyer. She is pursuing higher studies in Canada. United nations University, International courses, 2003. This is her final paper: international co-operation and development.)