Bridging the Gender inequality gap
Bridging the Gender Inequality Gap
Despite the implementation of global policies and projects to address gender inequality in the developing world, women continue to lag behind men in virtually all aspects of development. In Africa, women are responsible for 75% of all the agricultural work as well as 60 to 80 percent of the production and marketing of the resulting foodstuff, yet the earn only 10 percent of the total revenue and own less than 1 percent of the land (Pages 86 – 87, International Development). Furthermore, women account for 64 percent of adults worldwide who cannot read and write with understanding, unchanged from the 63 percent in 1990 (Page 87, International Development). Women continue to be denied the right to self-determination and access to economic, socio-political, educational and health resources. In order to bridge the gap in power and access to resources between men and women, projects and policies geared toward the empowerment, integration and education of women and the introduction or transformation of systems to support these changes need to be implemented. A combination of the Women in Development (WID), the Women and Development (WAD) and the Gender and Development (GAD) approaches to development will be required to address this gender inequality.
Generally development in emerging nations is addressed either by the Modernization or Dependency theory. The modernization theory holds the view that all countries follow a similar path of progression towards development, i.e. the position an underdeveloped country is in today was previously held in the past by one of todays developed countries. Therefore the aim here is to accelerate economic growth, increase consumption and strengthen the nation state in order to put it on a growth path that would bring it in balance with the developed countries. The modernization theory accomplishes this through the diffusion of modern values and institutions and makes use of the “elites” (a small
Despite the implementation of global policies and projects to address gender inequality in the developing world, women continue to lag behind men in virtually all aspects of development. In Africa, women are responsible for 75% of all the agricultural work as well as 60 to 80 percent of the production and marketing of the resulting foodstuff, yet the earn only 10 percent of the total revenue and own less than 1 percent of the land (Pages 86 – 87, International Development). Furthermore, women account for 64 percent of adults worldwide who cannot read and write with understanding, unchanged from the 63 percent in 1990 (Page 87, International Development). Women continue to be denied the right to self-determination and access to economic, socio-political, educational and health resources. In order to bridge the gap in power and access to resources between men and women, projects and policies geared toward the empowerment, integration and education of women and the introduction or transformation of systems to support these changes need to be implemented. A combination of the Women in Development (WID), the Women and Development (WAD) and the Gender and Development (GAD) approaches to development will be required to address this gender inequality.
Generally development in emerging nations is addressed either by the Modernization or Dependency theory. The modernization theory holds the view that all countries follow a similar path of progression towards development, i.e. the position an underdeveloped country is in today was previously held in the past by one of todays developed countries. Therefore the aim here is to accelerate economic growth, increase consumption and strengthen the nation state in order to put it on a growth path that would bring it in balance with the developed countries. The modernization theory accomplishes this through the diffusion of modern values and institutions and makes use of the “elites” (a small