nigeria and us women and development :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Women as a group make up an enormous portion of the world’s population. Thus the development of women, the changes implemented that affect them both positively and negatively are integral in study the world. Introduction to the field of women and development can be traced back to the 1950’s post World War II., specifically the period of reconstruction. Due to focus on external issues rather than internal issues, programs like the United States Marshall Plan were created, emphasizing the need to bridge the gap between developing and developed nations. The study of women and development gives an overall perspective of women’s development in comparison to other areas. Women’s development shapes many things including our perspectives and our public policies. I will assess the contributions of the three major theoretical debates applied to the field of women and development and explain how they shaped the field.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The first and perhaps the most dominant perspective, Women in Development (WID) stresses western values and targets individuals as catalysts for social change. The origins of this perspective came about after the release of Esther Boserup’s book entitled Women’s Role in Economic Development. The theory points out that modernization had somehow bypassed women and that some segments actually destabilized the prevailing position of women. The theory argues that legal and administration modifications are needed to facilitate change and integrate women into economic systems. The most notable contribution of WID is that it drew attention to women’s questions in the arena of development theory and practice. While WID emphasizes the productive role of women, it overlooks the direct influence of race, class and culture and it minimizes the reproductive role of women entirely.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Women and Development (WAD) emerged in the 1970’s; its primary basis was critiquing the earlier theory of WID. Essentially, WAD contends that economic growth and the industrialization of the West were based upon the exploitation of nations that were subjected to colonial rule. The theory focuses on the idea that countries are core, semi-peripheral and peripheral. Power–dependency relationships are reflected in an international division of labor that encompasses each of these types. Core nations, including the major powers of Western Europe, the United States, Canada, and Japan dominate globally by virtue of their domestic and international strength. According to conventional world-system arguments, the countries in the periphery of the world-system, the least developed nations in Africa and Asia, such as Bangladesh and Rwanda are relatively weaker than the core nations and to a lesser extent, the semi-periphery nations such as Chile and Libya.