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Department of Development Studies

Issues in gender and development

Course Code:
151010021
Unit value:
0.5
Year of study:
Year 3
Taught in:
Term 2

The purpose of this course is to familiarise students with the main analytic debates in the field of gender and development. Four institutional domains (households, family and kinship, the market, the community and the state) through which gender relations are both defined and transformed receive separate attention. An introductory survey of conceptual approaches to gender is followed by a treatment of central topics which include: the move from WID (women in development) to GAD (gender and development) as critical perspectives in development studies, conceptual approaches to households, men and masculinities in development, globalisation and women’s employment, gender, state and governance, women’s movements and state-civil society relations, gender, conflict and post-conflict, and finally an appraisal of prospects for gender-aware planning and empowerment.

Gender roles and gender relations will be examined in the fields of:

  • agrarian transformation; 
  • gender and environment; 
  • industrialisation; 
  • development policies, 
  • state and institutions; 
  • education;
  • health; 
  • gender planning, 
  • and finally gender consciousness and struggle for change.

Objectives and learning outcomes of the course

By the end of this course students should be able to demonstrate:

  • familiarity with key analytic debates in the field of gender and development
  • an ability to relate these debates to development theory, policy and practice
  • an ability to comprehend and manipulate complex analytical arguments
  • an ability to evaluate the impact of development interventions (policies, projects and institutional reform) on issues of gender equity and empowerment.

Workload

Teaching will take the form of a one-hour lecture and a one-hour seminar per week.

Method of assessment

One two hour written examination which will constitute 70% of the final mark, with the remaining 30% consisting of marks from an assessed essay. Each student will be expected to submit one essay of no more than 3000 words. Resubmission of coursework regulations apply to this course.

Suggested reading

A note of bibliographic advice:
The resources for gender and development have expanded a great deal and all relevant UN agencies have websites. Some of you may wish to access UN and other documents. Here are some useful Internet addresses: There are four edited collections, which may be useful to share/acquire since they include many key texts for the course:
  • Jackson, C. and Pearson, R. (eds) (1998) Feminist Visions of Development (Routledge).
  • McDowell, L. and Sharp, J.P. (eds) (1997) Space, Gender and Knowledge (Arnold).
  • Visvanathan, N. et al (1997) The Women, Gender and Development Reader (Zed Books).
  • Sparr, P. (ed.) Mortgaging Women’s Lives: Feminist Critiques of Structural Adjustment (Zed)