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Gender and development
People were born as females or males, but they learn to be boys or girls who will grow into men or women. Through the process of socialization they learn that for them there are appropriate attitudes, roles and activities, that is models of behavior, which is considered to be socially accepted. This learnt behavior builds the gender identity and determines the gender roles.
Gender
The introduction of the term gender, not only in our country but all around the world is in order to make a distinction between those characteristics of men and women which are biologically determined and non-changeable (sex) and those, socially determined characteristics which are subjected to changes (gender).
This difference between the sex and the gender has been done in order to emphasize that everything men and women do and everything expected from them, except for their sexually determined characteristics (producing sperm, giving birth and breast feeding), can change and it changes with the passage of time and under influence of different cultural and social factors.
This implies the fact that the gender is a dynamical concept and that the gender roles, or the men and women roles vary from one to another culture and from one social group to another, within the same culture. Realized like this, the gender is an analytically social concept, which in contrast to the other social categories is an elementary organizational principle of each society. Namely, the gender has a few dimensions which are mutually connected: social dimension; the relations between the family members are the core of the family life as a basic entity where in the process of socialization certain roles are learned; emotional dimension – the identity development of each individual is related to certain gender roles (to be a man or a woman); and cultural dimension – the values and norms which play an important role in determining the individuals’ socially accepted behavior.
That is why, when we talk about gender relations, relations between men and women and gender equality, very often we face strong feelings and emotions where the personal and social aspects are intertwined.
On the way to social equality the gender is the last barrier because it includes the transformation of own attitudes and procedures and goes into the most intimate relations.
The understanding of the gender differentiation and gender discrimination will help us understand the differentiation and discrimination in some other areas, too: ethnical, class, racial...And the essence...We find it in the non-equal power relations.
Development approaches – women in development
The 70’s were years when great attention was paid to women, especially with organizing the first World women conference in the United Nations and proclaiming the Women Year (1975).
Since then, in many countries women have carried out campaigns in organized way, have lobbied for abolishing the discriminatory law regulations and for legal recognizing the women’s right for equality. In 1979 the United Nations passed the Convention for elimination of all kinds of women discrimination. With this women have gained a lot in terms of the formally-legal aspect, however the change of laws and the countries’ politics have not guaranteed an equal treatment.
Women who were “invisible” by then and excluded from the development processes, have now started to “integrate” in the development processes thinking they will be more useful with this. This specific emphasizing of the woman has become a more spread development subject called “women in development”.
This approach points that if women were given more resources, they would produce more products and services for bigger profit for them and their families. Increasing the economical independence, thus the women’s power, was considered to be a solution to the problem of women’s subordination. The projects whose objective was to realize incomes by the female population have increased and the training courses for training women for various kinds of jobs became more popular. It was considered that more women in key positions in the business and more prestigious professions would mean a better presenting and bigger power of the women as a group.
This approach has gone through a great number of critics directed towards the emphasizing of the women’s production capacity without recognizing the reproduction responsibilities, which resulted in bad estimation of stretching the invested time (woman’s dearest resource) and the women’s invested work. That is how both the women’s working norm and the load of the domestic obligations also increased. This approach was also criticized as a result of perceiving women in isolation and ignoring their position in terms of men, which brought to emphasizing the non-equality and expanding the gap between men and women.
In the 80’s a new theory developed which is an alternation of the theory of “Women in development”, however in terms of the approach it is meaningfully different – “Gender and development”.
Namely, while the approach “Women in development” in the focus of attention put women and tries to integrate them in the development processes, the approach “Gender and development” bases on men and women roles analyses, the non-equal relations which exist between them and the possibility for their transformation. The objective of this approach is the change of these non-equal relations and establishing some balance in the relations of power between men and women.
The holistic approach of the “Gender and development” recognizes that men and women’s interests are different, it recognizes men’s contributions, but also recognizes the subordinate women’s position. This approach analyzes those known conceptual units as the community, home and family and looks them in their existing relations, which, unfortunately, are not based on equality, but on some complex systems led by a position and power.
This approach also recognizes women’s differences, variations and experiences in terms of their subordinate role and they differ in terms of classes, ethnicity, sexual determination and age and it does not agree with the presumption that all women always have same interest.
The central point of analyses which this approach uses and through the prism it examines the existing relations in the society is the gender division of the labor, that is different kinds of work done by men and women, as well as the capacities and capabilities on the bases of which everything which is appropriate for them is subscribed.
This approach tries to base the interventions on analyses of men and women roles and needs in order to qualify women to improve their positions related to men in ways which are going to be useful and which are going to transform the society in whole.
Neda Maleska-Sacmaroska
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