Publisher's Synopsis
In the first UN Development Decade women were viewed largely from the perpective of family welfare and were virtually invisible in development planning. In the second Development Decade, the Women in Development (WID) movement expanded rapidly - women, not relations between women and men, were the main focus of analysis. The recognition of women's economic contribution, particularly in the poorest sectors of society and their needs as economic actors, came to the forefront in the basic needs approach. The accusation that women are invisible to development planners resulted in much acitivity designed to generate disaggregated statistical data.;The 1980s saw the further consolidation of WID. Funding emphasis shifted from poverty and meeting basic needs to efficiency - utilizing women more effectively by improving their productive capacity within the framework of the market system. This leads to the conclusion that throughout the whole period, perceptions and solutions to the women in development question have, in the main, gone with the grain of mainstream development thinking.;This volume is an account of the appearance and growth of concern with women and development over the past three decades, and includes suggestions as to how development planning could be adapted to support and enhance women's participation and empowerment, establishing the case for a close examination of social and economic relations between men and women. Many of the chapters are based on materials that were prepared for use during courses on gender and development at the Institute for Development Studies, University of Sussex.
