DEVELOPMENT AND THE FAMILY: THIRD WORLD WOMEN AND INEQUALITY

Abstract

The traditional capitalist development model with its emphasis upon economic growth has, in the past decade, been severely criticised with respect to its negative effects upon the poor as well as its negative impact upon women. The first and second development decades not only have failed to achieve “economic take off,” but they also have failed to provide that improvement in the status of women which modernisation is reputed to induce. The push for growth and modernisation in the Third World may have led to a deterioration of the economic position of women as well as a deterioration in the absolute economic situation of at least the poorer third of the population. Furthermore evidence suggests that the poorest of the poor are disproportionately women heads of households and their families. One result of this negative impact of the development process has been a refocus of attention in development policy upon the poor as well as a mandate to integrate women in the development process in the “Percy Amendment” to the Foreign Assistance Act of 1973. Nevertheless this new emphasis upon women‐in‐development suffers from a flaw similar to that of the traditional development model. Each treats the family only in a superficial way: the first because of naive assumptions concerning women in the family, the second by treating women independently of the family constellation.