Interrogating ‘Gender’ in Development Policy and Practice

Abstract

International development institutions have adopted ‘gender’ as a fundamental component of any policy, programme or project. However, the meaning of this is often far from the original aims of feminists fighting for a commitment to more equal gendered power relations and social justice. This article offers a detailed study of one particular strand of development funding – tourism-based microenterprises – and outlines the ways in which ‘gender’ is constructed at three different levels: the World Bank, the Honduran government and a tourism development project in Copán. It supplements analysis of policy documents with the interpretations and perspectives of policy-makers and development workers to present a rich empirical picture of the complex and sometimes contradictory ways in which gender is understood at all stages of the development process. It then uses this analysis to demonstrate how these particular interpretations of ‘gender’ influenced the outcomes of the project and why it ultimately failed in its goals of integrating indigenous women into the process of tourism development.