Getting Institutions Right for Women in Development (Paperback)

Although Gender and Development (GAD) or Women in Development (WID) policies have been promoted for almost three decades, their feminist ambitions often fall away as they are processed through the bureaucracies of development institutions. While the policies have helped to improve the immediate material condition of women, they have involved public bureaucracies and NGOs in reproducing the conditions for women's subordination. Outcomes rarely challenge the asymmetrical distribution of resources, while in the world of economic policy-making, feminist perspectives are conspicuous by their absence. This book argues that development organizations must be recognized as structurally deeply gendered, and that strategies for women must aim at institutional transformation. It builds a conceptual framework and applies it to empirical case study material, while reflecting on strategies to make accountability to women a routine part of development practice.