3.2.1 FROM WID TO WAD TO GAD: THUS EMPOWERMENT
Women in Development discourse originated with the work of Danish economist Esther Boserup who wrote an influential text called The Conditions of Agricultural Growth in 1965. Her consequential book Women’s Role in Economic Development (1970) largely critiqued the concept that modernisation would liberate women in the Third World (Peet & Hartwick, 2009). Boserup’s critique led to a new discourse in development work which was termed Women in Development (WID) This term was first used by the Women’s Committee of Washington, DC, a chapter of the Society for International Development, in order to highlight a growing need for attention to be placed on the issues facing women in the Third World (Rathgeber, 1990).
WID theory and practice was later criticised for the view that women should just be brought into the modernisation process, the issue was why had they been left out, as critics argued this actually lead to further impoverishment (Peet & Hartwick, 2009, p. 259). This perspective was termed the Women and Development (WAD), and it drew from dependency theory and neo-Marxist approaches, and thus criticised WID links with modernisation theory and for not being critical enough. Despite some differences, WID and WAD appeared to neglect gendered social relations (Peet & Hartwick, 2009, p. 266). Feminists argued that a shift in focus from women to gender was needed and the Gender and Development (GAD) Framework emerged in the mid- 1980s (McIlwaine & Datta, 2003; Peet & Hartwick, 2009). GAD theory built on Marxist
critiques of WID as a capitalist, highly westernised development theory embedded in liberal modernisation theory. Central to the GAD approach is the focus on gender, as opposed to women, and later the inclusion of men in its approach (Peet & Hartwick, 2009). GAD argues that gender roles are simultaneously constructed and perpetuated, making it difficult to challenge and modify one construct without including the other (Momsen, 2004). GAD theory was critical of the WID approach for treating women as a homogenous group, and emphasised the effect of differences in class, age, marital state, religion, and ethnicity on development outcomes (Momsen, 2004). GAD theory also focused on both rights and the empowerment of women. Women’s empowerment and gender equality became legitimate objectives, in and of themselves (Moghadam, 1998).
3.2.2 UNITED NATIONS DECADE FOR WOMEN (1976-1985)
The United Nations Decade for Women (1976-1985) emerged out of the rise in attention given to women’s issues in developing countries in the early 1970s. This was an important step in legitimising and solidifying the need for women to have a place in development projects (Moser, 1989). For the first time, Third World women received almost unprecedented international attention with the aim of improving education, control over their bodies, and control of violence against women, employment opportunities, and social and political participation on a global scale. The decade was marked by three world conferences, Mexico City (1975), Copenhagen (1980) and Nairobi (1985), each gaining in size as the importance of addressing women’s low status and appalling position in all spheres was given priority. Several actions were sanctioned with the aim of advancing the status of women, including the World Plan of Action (1975), the announcement of an International Development Strategy (1980) and the sanction of the ‘Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women’ (CEDAW) (1979).
The decade saw a large reconfiguration of resourcing and promoted the creation of women’s organisations. The conferences also allowed for an intersection of
differing ideologies, and opened up a space whereby Third World scholars and feminists could challenge the prevailing and dominant view of Western feminists that previously governed (McIlwaine & Datta, 2003). While at the start of the decade women had been viewed as a single homogenous group, with a singular ‘women’s point of view’ that was predetermined by their sex (McIlwaine & Datta, 2003; Porter & Judd, 1999; Young, 2002), with critiques by WAD, and then the emergence of GAD, diversity was acknowledged (Momsen, 2004; Peet & Hartwick, 2009). As such, the Decade for Women was a crucial milestone in the emergence of incorporating and focusing on women in development work and was a building block for further feminist debates.
Ten years after the end of the Decade for Women, Beijing played host to another World Conference for Women. This was the largest conference, and it resulted in the Beijing Platform for Action, an agreement on a relatively clear and transformative plan, (Eyben & Napier-Moore, 2008). The Platform of Action focused on 12 key areas with the aim of achieving equality for women in all of them. They included: health, poverty, education and training, human rights, violence against women and the girl child, armed conflict, the economy, institutional mechanisms, the environment, and power and decision-making (Moghadam & Senftova, 2005). The Platform for Action provided a directive for the United Nations for mainstreaming gender. In this plan, women became, not only the beneficiaries of change, they were also the agents of change (Eyben & Napier-Moore, 2008).
Since then, there have been significant landmarks in the pursuit of gender equality in relation to education. Such milestones include The World Declaration on Education for All (EFA) assessment, which was carried out for the Dakar meeting, followed by the Dakar Framework for Action (2000). In 2003, the EFA monitoring report highlighted the need to understand more about the nature of gender inequalities and equality interventions in curriculum and pedagogy (UNESCO, 2003). Furthermore, in 2000 the UN Millennium Summit resulted in the creation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs emerged as development professionals sought a ‘more rigorous definition of aims and a desire to have clearer approaches when evaluating success’
(Unterhalter, 2005, p. 113). Such desires also brought about the creation of measurement tools such as the Gender Development Index (GDI), the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) and gender budgeting (Moghadam & Senftova, 2005; Unterhalter, 2005). The MDGs set eight international targets to be achieved by 2015, two of which focused on gender and education. Goal two is concerned with achieving universal primary education for all, and goal three is targeted towards the promotion of gender equality and empowering women, with particular respect to reducing gender differences across all levels of education.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that education is a fundamental human right, as is the right to access leisure activities. For individuals, there is a right to have the freedom to engage in leisure activities free from the burden of engaging in the workforce (Donnelly, 2013). This right allows the individual to pursue personal interests and activity within their leisure time. Additionally, an individual has the right to freely participate in the cultural life of the community (Donnelly, 2008; Giulianotti, 2004). For many Pacific Islanders, leisure activities and sport occur simultaneously within the centres of community and church activities. For some women who face hardship and discrimination, the right to leisure time is one that is not afforded them and, as such, is viewed as an impossibility, rather than a right (Donnelly, 2008; Giulianotti, 2004).
3.3 NEW ZEALAND AND THE ‘CONVENTION ON THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS