In this chapter, I have attempted to present gender and development programmes in Nigeria from three different historical epochs: pre-colonial, colonial and post colonial eras. Clearly, Nigerians are not socially homogeneous people. Although already having strong sex stratification, the colonial intrusion further enhanced this stratification between women and men. Given the precariousness of this intrusion, it is not hard to see why gender and development programmes were ignored until the middle of the 1980s. Despite the economic enterprise of women in Nigeria both during the pre-colonial and colonial eras, gender and development programmes were merely embedded in the ‘caring society’ character of African societies. The colonial era in particular created constraints on women’s growth particularly by the structure of their education, economic activities and political enactments (see chapter 9) and socially by ideologies of gender ‘inferiority and superiority’, which did not acknowledge women’s perspective or equal status.
Although development planning or projects during the colonial period was gender in- sensitive as a result of the intrusion between the indigenous culture and the inherited patriarchy from colonial administration, the policies were not revised during the subsequent administrations from 1960 to 1985.
Besides, successive administrations have simply folded their arms and looked elsewhere while the women and girls’ situations deteriorate. In fact, gender issues in development received little attention in national planning until the declaration of the United Nations Decade for Women. Although the UN Decade for Women increased awareness about the strategic and practical needs of women, there was little commitment to incorporate these into national and sectorial policies until the mid- 1980s.
Another central issue emerging from the three eras is the extent to which the goals of gender mainstream projects were deficient or simply grafted onto existing projects. As Moser (1993:149) accurately stated, “some policies…are intended to be heard but not acted on”. Certainly most policies or projects initiated since the post-colonial era (especially by military administrations) were not intended to achieve real change but merely to provide “symbolic reassurance” (Moser 1993:149) that something is being done. Echoing a similar description, Ayittey (2005:91) maintains “Africa’s postcolonial development effort may be described as one giant false start”. Even though some of these projects were alleged to improve women’s economic growth, awareness, status and voices, the poverty level has doubled in the last two decades. As the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) perspective states;
On the one hand there are more literate women today than ten years ago and more women can be found in higher positions in political and economic spheres of life. But, on the other hand, according to a UN report many women are poorer than ever before. The number of women living in poverty nearly doubled over the past 20 years, and women today constitute at least 60 per cent of the world's 1 billion poor (2001:2)
The focus on micro-credit schemes in Nigeria has reached such a fervent level that NGOs and GOs have adopted the programmes as a pivotal strategy for gender and development. Nevertheless the overall implementation, planning and goal actualisation have remained vague. Therefore, subsequent chapters in this study will attempt to examine the pros and cons of these gender and development programmes in relation to market and rural women in southern Nigeria. Accordingly
the next chapter will assess theories on gender and development and its relationship to micro-credit and economic empowerment of women.
Chapter Three
Women and Development: Theory and Applications in Nigeria
The real issue is one of representation. Women were long represented as “mute”, as profane, as objects of marital exchange and so on and not as prime actors in the centre of social life. Henrietta Moore (1988) (cited in Barnard 2000).
3.1. Introduction
Not seen as the centre of social life, this representation of ‘muteness’ has over the years reinforced the societal subordination of women. The degree of muteness varies as women all over the world have experienced and continue to experience one form of gender discrimination or another. As Eade (cited in Afshar and Eade 2004: x) wrote:
After three decades of trying to get ‘gender onto the development agenda’, it is now widely recognised that, although the indicators of women’s subordination to men are universal, persistent, and fairly comprehensive1, this does not mean that women constitute a homogeneous group. Nor does it mean their interests or needs are identical across social, economic, cultural, political, and other divides but the indicators of women’s subordination to men are universal,
However, over time, women’s development policies and ideologies have evolved and broadened from a feminist movement in the West to a universal phenomenon. In fact, it is universally acclaimed that any improvement in women’s well-being is a direct evolution of the family and the community. According to a popular saying, “when you educate a man you educate a person, but when you educate a woman you educate a
nation”. One gender analyst, Simeen Mahmud, a member of Bangladesh Research
Institute summed it up like this:
Thus, there came a gradual realization that improvements in women’s well-being were closely connected to women’s capabilities as agents of change and, subsequently, that these capabilities of women must also strongly influence the well-being of other family members, particularly of children but also of the elderly and of adult men (2003:578).
1
The 2003 UNDP’s Gender-related Development Index (GDI) ranks countries according to the life expectancy, adult literacy, education and earnings of women relative to men. Even in Norway, the highest-ranking country on both the Human Development Index (HDI) and the GDI, despite their higher average level of education, women still earn only two-thirds of average male earnings. The Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) looks at women’s representation in public and professional life. High-income Japan, which ranks ninth in the world in terms of human development, drops to thirteenth position on this index: women hold only 10 per cent of parliamentary seats, compared with 30 per cent in South Africa.
The micro-credit scheme is the latest in a line of historical and conceptual frameworks for approaching interrelated development programmes or policies, designed and promoted as instruments of change. Concerns for women’s economic empowerment, voice and gender equality, especially within the household and community have informed the proliferation and implementation of these development schemes by many NGOs and governmental organisations.
Thus, the overall framework of this chapter will constitute two different parts: first it will examine various definitions of ‘development’ and its relevance to gender and development, and secondly, it will evaluate various development approaches and examine their significance to women’s economic empowerment and well-being in a broad spectrum. In essence, the purpose of this chapter is not merely to introduce different developmental approaches to women’s growth but to demonstrate their applications and implications in Nigeria.