Abstract
Gender and development (GAD) has become a transnational discourse and has, as a result, generated its own elite elements. This elitism has tended to be attributed to a Northern hegemony in how feminism has been articulated and then subsequently professionalised and bureaucratised. What has received less attention, and what this paper highlights empirically, is how Southern-based feminisms might themselves be sites of discursive exclusion. The paper interrogates these concerns through an analysis of how professionalisation is evidenced in feminist engagement among civil society organisations working on gender in New Delhi. The analysis suggests that efforts to create spaces for subaltern voices are constrained not only by the disciplining effects of neoliberal frameworks but also – and in tandem – by Southern elite feminist priorities. The implications of these findings are significant: processes of professionalisation and the elitism they engender may have the effect of potentially precluding the engagement of those people on the margins whose voices are so sought after as part of efforts to facilitate inclusive development.
Highlights
Gender and development (GAD), initially a subversive response to the gender-blindness of mainstream development, has itself become a transnational discourse and has, as a result, generated its own elite elements.[1]
What has received less attention, and the concern this paper highlights empirically, is the extent to which the discursive spaces of Southern feminisms – understood as distinct sets of feminist ideas that derive from their own indigenous/local/regional historical contexts – might themselves be sites of exclusion. This paper interrogates these concerns through a theoretical and empirical analysis of how the professionalisation of ideas – interrogated here in relation to how dominant ideas emerge and are subsequently and variously framed, articulated and shared – is evidenced in feminist engagement amongst civil society organisations working in the area of GAD in New Delhi, India
The analysis suggests that efforts to create spaces for subaltern voices are constrained due to the disciplining effects of professionalised global/neoliberal as well as Southern, local elite feminist priorities for gender and/or feminist development discourse and practice
Summary
Gender and development (GAD), initially a subversive response to the gender-blindness of mainstream development, has itself become a transnational discourse and has, as a result, generated its own elite elements.[1]. The empirical analysis reveals that rather than neoliberal paradigms supplanting Indian feminist concerns as we might expect given the dominance of development knowledge systems, these ideas operate alongside one another, effectively invisibilising the marginalised or subaltern women even further from the dialogues wherein feminisms in development are meant to emerge
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