Unfolding Women's Engagement with Development and the UN: Pointers for the Future

Abstract

This article reveals how the engagement of women with development ideas and approaches within the orbit of the United Nations challenged mainstream views and programmes, and reclaimed agency—that is, the power to define the agenda. Through description and analysis of six decades of this engagement, it comes to the conclusion that all three groups of actors—that is, women as represented by the international women's movement; those involved in development as currently articulated through the liberal economics paradigm; and the UN, weakened by the entry of financial and corporate global players—need to rethink their basic ideas and approaches.