Gender and Development

Abstract

This chapter outlines the various feminist interventions in the debates on development over time.¹ It suggests that: (1) these debates broadened our understanding of the practical and strategic needs of women and men in different contexts; and (2) the feminist engagements with theoretical debates and development policy-making structures secured a valuable and critical space for women within development projects. I suggest, however, that these interventions were and largely continue to work within the liberal framework, and that this makes certain strategies of empowerment of women feasible, while at the same time closing off other alternative spaces. The conclusion is that a focus on power relations within any socio-economic system would need to address not only issues of empowerment for women but also the power relations within which both men and women work and live.