Gender mainstreaming and women empowerment in South Asian context: A Political Ecology with enhanced emphasis on Sustainable Development in Bangladesh

1. GENDER MAINSTREAMING AND
WOMEN EMPOWERMENT IN SOUTH
ASIAN CONTEXT: A POLITICAL
ECOLOGY
MD. SAHED KHAN
Lecturer
Department of Rural Development
Faculty of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development
EXIM Bank Agricultural University Bangladesh
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2. OUTLINE
 Background of Gender Studies
 Prospects of Gender Study
 Sustainable Development
 Mainstreaming Gender
 Conceptualizing the Term Women
Empowerment
 Political Ecology
 Political Ecology Framework
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3. BACKGROUND OF GENDER
STUDIES
 Rural Gender Studies - A history of about 45 years -
Inspired by the
Women’s Movement
Development of Feminist Science
 Three stages of development in Non-western
countries
I. The Women In Development (WID) Approach
II. The Women And Development (WAD) Approach
III.The Gender And Development (GAD) Approach
 Scientists criticized the WID Approach
 for ignoring the socio-economic factors and also the
concepts of development and modernization
 In 1990s, the concept of ‘Gender’ was introduced to re-
conceptualize the unequal relations between the sexes
and the Empowerment of women became a vital
objective in the developing nations – called GAD
Approach
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4. PROSPECTS OF GENDER
STUDY
 This long way journey contributed to the
design of new theoretical concepts and
frameworks and the development of new
research methodologies
 Unsolved dilemmas like
 ‘Gender, Environment and Natural Resource
Management’
 ‘Consequences of Globalization for Women’
 Future challenge will be how these issues
interrelate with the definitions of different
identities, not only in terms of gender but
also ethnicity, class, age and sexuality
 Finally, ‘the genderedness of rural politics’
is a vital on-going issue of research
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5. SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT
 Sustainable development has been defined in
many ways, but the most frequently
quoted definition is from Our Common Future,
known as Brundtland Report:
◦ "Sustainable development is development that
meets the needs of the present without compromising
the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs."
 Sustainable development is the organizing
principle for meeting human development goals
while at the same time sustaining the ability of
natural systems to provide the natural resources
and ecosystem services upon which the economy
and society depend.
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6. MAINSTREAMING GENDER
 How do we understand it?
 Is it only about “women”?
 The World Health Organization states,
 "'[s]ex' refers to the biological and physiological characteristics
that define men and women," whereas "'gender' refers to the
socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes
that a given society considers appropriate for men and women.“
 Understanding the term “Gender” requires to go beyond
academia and grasp the process of assigning culturally
constructed roles and attitudes for men and women
 How gender identities and performances are
constructed, contested and reinvented and how
discursive power is bound up in social and cultural
constructs
 Women’s subjection is not a result of natural, but
biological differences
 Besides ‘gender’, other structural characteristics must be
taken into consideration
 class, ethnicity, race, age, religion and sexuality
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7. CONCEPTUALIZING THE TERM
WOMEN EMPOWERMENT
 In literature, one will find infinite number of definitions of
women empowerment, defined by numerous actors &
stakeholders using different perspectives
 Yet, there is no uniform definition that can explain the term in
its real sense because women empowerment isn’t a static
but dynamic concept
 In South Asian context, one woman is said to be empowered
when she is able enough to make life choices – not by force
– but by her own will
 As women empowerment is a dynamic concept, it is less
favorable to assess it using quantitative research methods
 Women Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI)
 As a well-favored measurement of women empowerment,
qualitative research methods are always recommended
 Thematic Analysis
 Framework Analysis i.e., Political Ecology Framework
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8. POLITICAL ECOLOGY
 Intend to
◦ Understand the complex relations between nature
and society through a careful analysis of. . .access
and control over resources and their implications for
environmental health and sustainable livelihoods’
◦ Elucidate environmental conflict especially in terms of
struggles over ‘knowledge, power and practice’ and
‘politics, justice and governance’’ (Watts, 2000, p.
257).
 Its strength lies in its capacity to direct attention
towards many of the important questions of our
age:
 Poverty
 Social justice
 The politics of environmental degradation and 8

9. POLITICAL ECOLOGY
FRAMEWORKDimensions Access to Productive
Resources
Access to Knowledge
and Rights
Access to Organization
and networking
Household Nature of accessibility by
people of different layers
within household, i.e.,
Husband and wife
Young and Old-age group
Widowed member
Right to get involved directly
in economic transaction and
profit
Husband and wife
Young and Old-age group
Widowed member
Membership criteria
Behavior towards each
member
Husband and wife
Young and Old-age group
Widowed member
Community
Availability, Adequacy,
Accessibility by people of
different layers within
community, like
Men and women
Rich and poor
Moderate and Extreme
poor
Farmers and Non-farmers
Perspectives on poverty
dynamics and gender
relations by people of
different layers within
community, i.e.,
Men and women
Rich and Poor
Extreme and Moderate
Poor
Perspectives on and
performance of organizations
towards the well-being of
people of different layers within
community, i.e.,
Men and women
Rich and Poor
Extreme and Moderate Poor
Farmers and Non-farmers
Market Mechanisms to bring
stability
Information accessibility
Pricing technique
Trading initiatives
Business and trading skills of
respective segments
Peoples’ awareness
Rational trading
Profitability maintenance
Promoting agriculture by
engaging with the development
organizations
Credit accessibility
Farmers’ cooperative
State Policies and strategies
integrating the pro-poor
Gender basedaccessibility
Equality in resource
ownership
Policies and strategies
promoting awareness
Self-worth and self-reliance
Reducing inequality
Poverty reduction
Policies and
strategiesupholding
development
Involvement with IGAs
Entrepreneurship for all
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10. THANK YOU ALL
FOR
YOUR KIND
ATTENTION
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