Abstract
This article analyzes the construction of gender in development discourse. As development projects are designed and implemented by Third World men and women, local symbolic constructions of gender, class, and race permeate development discourse. The result is a multilayered discourse of development that negotiates Western discourse of modernity with local discourses of race, class, and gender. This analysis examines the intersection of development discourse and local patriarchal discourse in a World Bank project implemented in the agricultural frontier in Colombia. Through textual analysis of project documents and a consultant's field diary, the analysis sheds light on the rhetorical formulas, metaphors, and iconic signifiers that articulate women as ahistorical, static, and passive subjects. Despite its bottom—up, participatory approach to development, this World Bank project keeps marginalizing women, assuming that only men play crucial roles in processes of community and nation building and considering only male community members in processes of empowerment. In conclusion, the article explains how this type of development discourse maintains and reinforces patriarchal cultural codes that exclude women from active participation in development projects.
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