Engendering Development Theory from the Standpoint of Women

Abstract

The UN Decade for Women has made it impossible for development specialists to ignore the experiences of women. Among development planners and male-centered theorists, however, women are either added into established frameworks or treated as the social ’contexts’ of development projects. The problem is that these approaches treat ’gender’ and ’development’ as inter-related but distinct phenomena. This paper challenges this approach to women and development. It begins by noting that the present ’impasse’ in development theory, which is the subject of current theoretical debate, reflects, in part, this way of working. Drawing on their research with women in Free Trade Zones in Sri Lanka, the authors sketch a methodology which integrates women into development theory. Based on standpoint epistemology, a case study is used to explore the emergence of ’third world’ women as the new proletariat. This exploration becomes the basis for discussing a distinctly feminist political economy of development. In sum, a micro-level research which is grounded in women’s experience is linked to a theoretical analysis of development which takes gender as its primary analytic. In closing, it is maintained that the standpoint of ’third world’ women challenges not only male-centeied development theory, but also Western feminism.