Gender and Citizenship
GENDER AND CITIZENSHIP ARE IMPORTANT FOR DEVELOPMENT, DISCUSS.
Good governance is recognised as being essential to poverty reduction efforts and respect for human rights, conflict prevention, growth and environmental protection. From a restricted point of view, governance should be focused on sound economic management while a more expansive view embraces political liberalization, addressing problems of social inequality.
Governance refers to decision-making by a range of interested people including those in formal positions of power and ordinary citizens. These decisions have a huge impact on the ways men and women lead their lives. It also shapes how public resources are allocated and whether services take account of both men’s and women’s needs and interests. The inequalities between men and women is often determined by two key elements, their levels of participation in politics and decision making and their contributions to the economy (paid and unpaid). Electoral reforms have helped to increase the number of women in government over the years but other aspects of political culture should be changed to ensure their full participation in the decision making process, for instance women often have less money than men and thus cannot draw on social networks easily, also, they usually have less time due to activities in the private realm including reproductive and child care activities.
A mere increase in the number of women in politics while crucial for development is not simply enough. Once in power women need to become effective political actors so that they can transform political spaces and be held accountable alongside men for gender equity and social justice. In view of this, many development workers have argued that gendered citizenship is a powerful tool for working in development programmes that seek to bring about gender equality through focusing on people and how they interact with institutions.
Gender refers to the specific set of characteristics
Good governance is recognised as being essential to poverty reduction efforts and respect for human rights, conflict prevention, growth and environmental protection. From a restricted point of view, governance should be focused on sound economic management while a more expansive view embraces political liberalization, addressing problems of social inequality.
Governance refers to decision-making by a range of interested people including those in formal positions of power and ordinary citizens. These decisions have a huge impact on the ways men and women lead their lives. It also shapes how public resources are allocated and whether services take account of both men’s and women’s needs and interests. The inequalities between men and women is often determined by two key elements, their levels of participation in politics and decision making and their contributions to the economy (paid and unpaid). Electoral reforms have helped to increase the number of women in government over the years but other aspects of political culture should be changed to ensure their full participation in the decision making process, for instance women often have less money than men and thus cannot draw on social networks easily, also, they usually have less time due to activities in the private realm including reproductive and child care activities.
A mere increase in the number of women in politics while crucial for development is not simply enough. Once in power women need to become effective political actors so that they can transform political spaces and be held accountable alongside men for gender equity and social justice. In view of this, many development workers have argued that gendered citizenship is a powerful tool for working in development programmes that seek to bring about gender equality through focusing on people and how they interact with institutions.
Gender refers to the specific set of characteristics
References: Macdonald,M.,2003”Gender Equaliy and Mainstreaming in International Development” a briefing from the UK Gender and Development (GAD) Network, London: GAD Network Shabbir Cheema, G., 2000, Preface, Women’s Political Participation and Good Governace:21st Century Challenges’, New York: UNDP Sen, G. Grown C. 1985. Development Crisis and Alternative Visions: Third World Women’s Perspectives, New York: Monthly Review Press United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 2000, ‘Women’s Political Participation and Good Governance: 21st Century Challenges’, repot, new York: UNDP World Bank Gender and Development Group, 2003,’ Gender Equality and the Millenium Development Goals’, repot Washington: World Bank. Oxfam GB (2003) “Global Citizenship” www.oxfam. Org.uk/coolplanet/teachers Marshaall T.H. (1950) citizenship and Social Class, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Lister, R.,2003a, ‘Justice Equality and Dependency: a critical social policy perspective’, paper presented at Symposium on Nancy Fraser’s work, Warwick, 22 March.