The Chimera of Success

This article examines the evidence for the claim that gender has been so successfully mainstreamed into development policy that there is now little need for women's projects and programmes, as the job of creating "gender awareness" is done. It argues that despite a widespread recognition in development agencies that "gender matters", this all too often translates into the token, partial and selective incorporation of gender awareness into public/international policy, so evident in anti-poverty programmes. Reflecting on how to assess the impact of the Beijing process, the article concludes that if gender analysis is to be more than another policy tool, it needs to be accompamed by some strategy for achieving gender justice as part of a broader commitment to greater social and economic equality. This is unlikely to happen without the political will, vision and strategy provided by collective action

Social Transfers: Strengthening Girls and Women's Potential as Protagonists in Development

This policy brief for UNDP considers whether cash transfer programmes can serve as vehicle to deliver, or connect with, other services that enhance girls and women's capabilities

Gender Justice, Citizenship and Difference in Latin America

This article surveys feminist citizenship practices and scholarship on gender, justice, citizenship and rights in Latin America. Feminism’s critique of patriarchal privilege expressed a modern desire for greater individual freedom and collective recognition, a combination that produced tensions and some inconsistencies in regard to the «difference» question, notably in its encounter with indigenous populations. However, central to feminism’s project was the pursuit of both recognition and redistribution, which achieved greater success in the realm of law and politics than in the distribution of public and private goods. A review of Latin American feminism’s achievements reveals a history of substantial advances but a striking persistence of gender inequality, which provides a rich agenda for further investigation.Este artículo hace un recorrido por las prácticas feministas ciudadanas y los estudios sobre género, justicia, ciudadanía y derechos en América Latina. La crítica al privilegio patriarcal realizada desde el feminismo expresa un deseo moderno de mayor libertad individual y reconocimiento colectivo. Unas peticiones que han producido tensiones y algunas contradicciones en relación a la cuestión de la «diferencia», especialmente en el encuentro con los pueblos indígenas. No obstante, el feminismo siempre se ha dedicado a lograr tanto el reconocimiento como la redistribución; si bien, ha alcanzado más éxito en los terrenos legales y políticos que en la redistribución de recursos públicos y privados. El análisis de los logros del feminismo en América Latina revela una historia de éxitos significativos, pero parciales; y una serie de desafíos para futuras investigaciones al respecto

Movilización sin emancipación? Los intereses de la mujer, estado y revolución en Nicaragua

Estudia la forma cómo los intereses femeninos se articulan en el contexto de las revoluciones socialistas. Examina en detalle la forma como las mujeres son afectadas por las políticas gubernamentales que son implementadas, una vez que se ha obtenido el control del estado, mediante un proceso masivo en el cual las mujeres participaron activamente. Se presentan algunas preguntas teóricas que son formuladas en el contexto de este debate, haciendo una detallada caracterización sobre lo que se ha definido dentro de la conceptualización amplia, los intereses de la mujer": Se plantean tres concepciones diferentes de interés de la mujer que son frecuentemente manejados como si fuera uno solo: los intereses de "la mujer" propiamente dichos, los intereses estratégicos de género y los intereses prácticos de género. Es claro que a pesar de las presiones crecientes de tipo político, económico y militar los sandinistas han avanzado de manera significativa en el reconocimiento de los intereses prácticos y estratégicos de la mujer y han logrado mejoramientos sustanciales en la vida de un gran número de personas pertenecientes a los sectores más deprimidos. Plantea, sin embargo, la necesidad de calificar la relación entre el socialismo y el feminismo teniendo en cuenta tres aspectos. Primero, los intereses estratégicos de género aunque son reconocidos en la teoría y en los programas orientados a la emancipación de la mujer, están definidos de manera muy estrecha, porque están basados en criterios económicos que son los que se privilegian. Segundo, debe examinarse la naturaleza del vínculo que se establece entre los programas de emancipación de la mujer y el logro de objetivos sociales más amplios ¿Deben estar los intereses de género articulados con estos programas?, o por el contrario ¿deben subordinarse a ellos irremediablemente?. Finalmente, se plantea que los intereses de género y sus medios de representación, no pueden resolverse en ausencia de una discusión en torno a qué intereses van a estar representados en el estado"movilización, mujer, Nicaragua

Two Cheers for CCTs

Conditional cash transfers such as PROGRESA/Oportunidades are being widely adopted in developing countries as an effective means of combating poverty and promoting human development. These programmes provide a cash subsidy to the mothers of school-age children conditional on their fulfilling certain requirements. This article argues that in reinforcing a maternal model of care, they not only deepen gender divisions but also establish a trade-off between children's and women's needs for long-term security. In assuming that women are exclusively responsible for fulfilling the requirements of the programme and are available to carry out the duties prescribed, they ignore women's economic vulnerability and can even contribute to it if women's involvement in, and need for, income-generating work is undermined, Programme design could be improved by encouraging a more dynamic model of gender and generational cooperation which has the potential to generate more positive outcomes for all household members, including fathers who are otherwise marginalised from the responsibilities of care. © Institute of Development Studies

Three year follow-up of an early childhood intervention : is movement skill sustained?

BackgroundMovement skill competence (e.g. the ability to throw, run and kick) is a potentially important physical activity determinant. However, little is known about the long-term impact of interventions to improve movement skills in early childhood. This study aimed to determine whether intervention preschool children were still more skill proficient than controls three years after a 10 month movement skill focused intervention: &lsquo;Tooty Fruity Vegie in Preschools&rsquo;.MethodsChildren from 18 intervention and 13 control preschools in NSW, Australia were assessed at ages four (Time1), five (T2) and eight years (T3) for locomotor (run, gallop, hop, leap, horizontal jump, slide) and object control proficiency (strike, bounce, catch, kick, overhand throw, underhand roll) using the Test of Gross Motor Development-2. Multi-level object control and locomotor regression models were fitted with variables time, intervention (yes/no) and a time*intervention interaction. Both models added sex of child and retained if significant, in which case interactions of sex of child with other variables were modelled and retained. SPSS (Version 17.0) was used.ResultsOverall follow-up rate was 29% (163/560). Of the 137 students used in the regression models, 53% were female (n = 73). Intervention girls maintained their object control skill advantage in comparison to controls at T3 (p = .002), but intervention boys did not (p = .591). At T3, there were no longer intervention/control differences in locomotor skill (p = .801).ConclusionEarly childhood settings should implement movement skill interventions and more intensively target girls and object control skills.<br /

Caste, Kinship, and Life Course: Rethinking Women's Work and Agency in Rural South India

This paper reexamines the linkages between women's work, agency, and well-being based on a household survey and in-depth interviews conducted in rural Tamil Nadu in 2009 and questions the prioritization of workforce participation as a path to gender equality. It emphasizes the need to unpack the nature of work performed by and available to women and its social valuation, as well as women's agency, particularly its implications for decision making around financial and nonfinancial household resources in contexts of socioeconomic change. The effects of work participation on agency are mediated by factors like age and stage in the life cycle, reproductive success, and social location – especially of caste – from which women enter the workforce

Women bargaining with patriarchy in coastal Kenya:contradictions, creative agency and food provisioning

Gender analysts have long recognised that challenging existing patriarchal structures involves risks for women, who may lose both long-term support and protection from kin. However, understanding the specific ways in which they ‘bargain with patriarchy’ in particular contexts is relatively poorly understood. We focus on a Mijikenda fishing community in coastal Kenya to explore contradictions in gendered power relations and how women deploy these to reinterpret gendered practices without directly challenging local patriarchal structures. We argue that a more complex understanding of women’s creative agency can reveal both the value to women of culturally-specific gendered roles and responsibilities and the importance of subtle changes that they are able to negotiate in these. With reference to food provisioning, the analysis contributes to more nuanced understandings of gendered household food security and women’s creative approaches to maintaining long-term security in their lives

Political masculinities, crisis tendencies, and social transition: Toward an understanding of change

This introduction to the special issue on “Political Masculinities and Social Transition” rethinks the notion of “crisis in masculinity” and points to its weaknesses, such as cyclical patterns and chronicity. Rather than viewing key moments in history as points of rupture, we understand social change as encompassing ongoing transitions marked by a “fluid nature” (Montecinos 2017, 2). In line with this, the contributions examine how political masculinities are implicated within a wide range of social transitions, such as nation building after war, the founding of a new political party in response to an economic crisis, an “authoritarian relapse” of a democracy, attempts at changing society through terrorism, rapid industrialization as well as peace building in conflict areas. Building on Starck and Sauer’s definition of “political masculinities” we suggest applying the concept to instances in which power is explicitly either being (re)produced or challenged. We distinguish between political masculinities that are more readily identified as such (e.g., professional politicians) and less readily identified political masculinities (e.g., citizens), emphasizing how these interact with each other. We ask whether there is a discernible trajectory in the characteristics of political masculinities brought about by social transition that can be confirmed across cultures. The contributors’ findings indicate that these political masculinities can contribute to different kinds of change that either maintain the status quo, are progressive, retrogressive, or a mixture of these. Revolutionary transitions, it seems, often promote the adherence to traditional forms of political masculinity, whereas more reformatory transition leaves discursive spaces for argument

Empoderamiento y feminismo comunitario en la conservación del maíz en México

Articulo científico para revista indizada.El objetivo es analizar, desde una perspectiva basada en el feminismo comunitario, el proceso de empoderamiento de las mujeres que conforman un grupo de ocho integrantes matlatzincas de la comunidad de San Francisco Oxtotilpan, México, a través de prácticas productivas, alimentarias y culturales en torno al maíz nativo. Los datos fueron recogidos durante 2014 y 2015 con técnicas etnográficas que incluyen: observación participante, historias de vida, grupos focales, entrevistas semiestructuradas y a profundidad. Son mujeres que muestran cinco dimensiones de poder (social, corporal, material, simbólico y cognitivo) que repercuten en la preservación del maíz nativo, al generar la masa crítica necesaria para incorporar a otras mujeres en acciones favorables para la soberanía alimentaria