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This paper accounts for the experiences of the authors who teach feminist approaches to gender and development practice at a university in India. As a space for discourse and debate on development, the university is consistently shaped by the embodied experiences of students who enter the university from diverse subject positions through affirmative action policies. This practice note shares how the teachers engage with teaching a course titled "Women, Development Practice and Politics". The paper highlights the inadequacies in gender and development (GAD) literature that views gender as a binary and women as a homogenous group, remains silent on the intersectional axis of gender inequalities, and uncritical of the development paradigm. The paper shares how the teachers overcome these deficiencies in the literature by creating a fluid connection with the "field", thereby highlighting the centrality of place-based (time–space-embodied) knowledges and reclaiming the legacy of critique, an attribute which is at the core of the GAD approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sustainable Development Goals, through Goal 5 on Gender Equality, put gender as a focus at the heart of every endeavour. Yet with 2030 looming, across the globe, we have made insufficient progress towards gender equality. Despite a plethora of mentions of the aim to achieve gender equality in regional and international documents, progress is slow (see and ). What can be done? If transformative change is required, then a range of options needs to be explored. Could expanding exposure as to who studies gender be just one tool for building a pipeline of actors who take a gender lens when engaging with key issues, and speeding up progress towards the gender equality goal of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG Goal 5)? How should we rethink the teaching of gender and development? My proposition is that gender should be mainstreamed in every course through a revised curriculum as a practical lever for change and to hasten progress towards Goal 5. The hope is that this paper can encourage conversation both in gender and development circles and the scholarship of teaching and learning, and prompt new lines of research and action towards rethinking the teaching of gender and development, which can then strengthen the knowledge base in the pipeline of political decision-makers and development actors. This paper is a call to action for the repositioning of gender at the heart of all studies – not as an elective or "boutique", but as core to every subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In education theories, threshold concepts are key concepts within a discipline, and students must learn and understand them. Once they have comprehended those threshold concepts, it is argued that students' critical analysis and comprehension will be transformed and enhanced. Intersectionality and participation are among the key threshold concepts in Gender and Development (GAD) theories and practices. However, within the classroom settings, students can find it challenging to understand the two concepts, and how to apply them in the development context from an equitable and inclusive approach. This practice note shares my experience of designing assessments and activities using the threshold concept approach, where students learn about intersectionality and participation through a high-stake roleplay over three weeks, during which I observe the students' interactions with each other, as well as how they apply intersectionality and participation theories in their strategies and negotiations. Based on students' learning experiences over three years, I argue that the use of roleplay is highly effective and creates a safe space for students to navigate troublesome knowledge and embrace GAD threshold concepts through trial and error. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how culture, religion, gender, and the politics of knowledge production were entangled in the mission, policies, and practices of the Asian University for Women (AUW) in Bangladesh. The article contributes to documenting how decolonisation efforts in women's education and empowerment play out in an institution located in the periphery and established with an explicit mission for women's empowerment. The article critically looks at the (sometimes) contradictory discourses, desires, and agencies at the student, community, staff, and institutional levels, along with the power dynamics and reproduction of colonial and postcolonial practices and legacies in the context of operationalising gender and development (GAD), highlighting the paradoxes and challenges that arise from such endeavours. Finally, this case study highlights how pedagogies of community building at the institutional level become integral in responding to such tensions and conflicts and in countering the alienation from culture and religion that global practices of GAD often create. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender and development (GAD) is coming under increasing scrutiny for its entanglements with hegemonic systems of governance, policy, and knowledge. This article argues that GAD programs and/or development studies programs with teaching provision on gender have not sufficiently responded to the imperatives of race and intersectionality most recently intensified by COVID-19 and the decolonising of the curriculum and Black Lives Matter movements. The article explores the ways in which GAD frameworks have resisted rather than embraced paradigmatic critiques. We argue that this resistance to the imperatives of intersectionality has resulted in a GAD impasse which is reproduced and perpetuated through pedagogy and teaching, which shapes teaching and learning spaces in the UK. Despite the potentials for teaching to question dominant paradigms and frameworks, the impasse has hindered the field of GAD from adopting an introspective, intersectional, and transformative approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the growing acknowledgement by development academics and educators of the need to decolonise the study and teaching of development, and to apply an intersectional gender lens to development issues, there has been little discussion and few examples of how this can be achieved in an online undergraduate gender and development (GAD) course. A scan of undergraduate GAD course syllabi from Canadian universities revealed an absence of intersectionality and decolonisation as concepts and approaches, minimal linkages between GAD theory and practice, and an uncritical focus on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this practice note, I share several approaches to centre intersectionality, promote critical and decolonial perspectives, and bridge theory and practice in a newly created online course at the University of the Fraser Valley, BC, Canada. Drawing upon themes that emerged in online discussion posts and course evaluations, I also discuss students' views. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In November 2020, the first woman Indigenous Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nanaia Mahuta, was appointed in Aotearoa New Zealand. Mahuta has reinforced the message of taking a values-based Indigenous-centred approach to foreign policy and development. She has also recognised the mana of wāhine (the unique spiritual authority of women), "not defined by western feminist thinking, but the values that have long underpinned our culture, histories and traditions". Her appointment reflects the complicated intersections of Indigeneity, colonialism, Western feminist discourse, and foreign policy in a settler-hegemonic state, and the possibilities (and constraints) for reimagined futures. How, then, can the teaching of gender and development (GAD) be attentive to these politics of settler-colonialism in Aotearoa? How can the complexities of the colonial project be reflected in GAD, and how can GAD be responsive to settler-hegemonic and Indigenous spaces? This paper will explore these questions and look at GAD's role in perpetuating or unsettling settler-colonialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

University systems in Indonesia are transforming, with implications for teaching and learning processes. These changes have influenced how gender and women's knowledge production have evolved, especially within development conditions that have affected women and men differently. This research is derived from Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with women lecturers on how they translate gender and women's knowledge production into teaching gender. It aims to analyse the settings and challenges of teaching gender in Indonesia's universities, with the background of inequality and Indonesia's political-socio-cultural context. Methods of teaching and the intellectual activism of women lecturers in promoting, advocating, and sustaining gender equality have provided relevance while minimising the potential of widening the gender gap. The findings make key contributions to the literature on gender and development, signifying that teaching gender is a method of empowering students to achieve education equality, and especially to improve women's participation in development processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how Black women entrepreneurs in Cali, Colombia confront racism and sexism, as they engage in the expanding neoliberal beauty market. We argue that anti-racist entrepreneurial experiences in Cali are shaped by four interconnected processes: First, changes in gender and development policies, aligned with inclusive neoliberal development projects. Second, the limitations of state neoliberal multicultural policies, which has made activists aware of the need to address racism and sexism. Third, activist's appropriation of the intersectional turn, allowing them to recognize articulations between racism, classism and sexism. Fourth, the adoption of anti-neoliberal discourses supporting distributive and solidarity practices. Our analysis suggests that while entrepreneurial anti-racist actions do not generate radical or permanent changes in the beauty industry, they do have material and symbolic effects in Black women's experiences of racial justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, gender-fair language (GFL) has drawn considerable attention in educational settings. The field of English language teaching (ELT) likewise has contributed to this development, with gender issues receiving significant focus. The current study adds to this evolving conversation by investigating ELT practitioners' perspectives on using the third-person singular pronoun they in academic writing (AW). This area has received little attention in the literature on gender diversity in ELT, particularly in restrictive and conservative societies such as the Philippines. Using a survey with 64 English language teachers from Philippine universities, 15 of whom participated in follow-up email interviews, the study explores what these teachers think about using singular they in AW. The study likewise examines the ways these teachers include the use of singular they in their AW teaching practice. The findings demonstrate that the teachers have positive views on using singular they in AW and, in fact, find it necessary for promoting gender inclusivity and equality. However, some teachers also report their own traditional, conservative knowledge and beliefs, and possible resistance from stakeholders as challenges that need to be faced when integrating singular they in AW as a component of GFL practice. Sa nakalipas na mga dekada, ang 'gender-fair language' (GFL) ay nakakuha ng malaking atensyon sa mga espasyo ng pagtuturo. Nakapag-ambag din sa debelopment nito ang larang ng pagtuturo ng wikang Ingles o English language teaching (ELT), kung saan karamihan ay nagtuon sa isyu ng kasarian. Ang kasalukuyang pag-aaral ay paglahok sa nabanggit na yumayabong na talastasan, sa pamamagitan ng pagsiyasat sa perspektiba ng mga praktisyoner ng ELT sa paggamit ng panghalip pang-isahan na nasa ikatlong panauhan na they sa akademikong pagsulat o 'academic writing' (AW). Batay sa mga literatura hinggil sa 'gender diversity' sa ELT, kakaunti pa ang nagsagawa ng pag-aaral sa erya na ito, partikular na sa mga mahihigpit at konserbatibong lipunan tulad ng Pilipinas. Sa pagsasagawa ng sarbey sa 64 na guro ng wikang Ingles mula sa mga unibersidad sa Pilipinas, kung saan 15 sa kanila ay lumahok sa follow-up na interbyu sa email, sinisiyasat ng pag-aaral kung ano ang pagtingin ng mga guro sa paggamit ng pang-isahang they sa AW. Sinusuri din sa pag-aaral ang pamamaraan ng mga guro sa kung paano isinasama sa pagtuturo ng AW ang paggamit ng pang-isahang they. Natuklasan sa pag-aaral na mayroong positibong pananaw ang mga guro sa paggamit ng pang-isahang they sa AW at, sa katunayan, nakita nila ang pangangailangan nito sa pagsusulong ng 'gender inclusivity' at 'equality.' Gayunman, ilan sa mga guro ay ibinahagi rin ang kanilang sariling tradisyonal, konserbatibong kaalaman at mga paniniwala, at ang posibilidad ng resistans mula sa mga stakeholder bilang hamon na kailangan harapin kapag isinama ang pang-isahang they sa AW bilang bahagi ng praktika ng GFL. PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY: Gender-fair language (GFL) has sparked interest in schools during the last few decades, and issues concerning the use of GFL have been emphasized in English language teaching (ELT). This study investigates ELT teachers' perspectives on utilizing the third-person singular pronoun they in academic writing (AW), an area in the literature that has received little attention, particularly in conservative countries such as the Philippines. The current study looks specifically at what these teachers believe about using singular they in AW and how they incorporate it into their AW teaching practice. The findings indicate that the teachers favor the use of singular they in AW to promote gender equality and inclusivity. When introducing singular they in AW as part of GFL practice, however, some teachers identify their own conservative knowledge and values, as well as stakeholder resistance, as barriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The World Bank's International Finance Corporation has produced three research reports on gender equality and ride-hailing, in collaboration with ride-hailing companies. This article examines these reports in light of wider conversations about the growing corporate co-production of development knowledge. Focusing on research claims about the gender and development potential of 'sharing economy' firms like Uber, it argues that the shortage of women drivers has been successfully framed as a gender and development problem, rather than a labour supply problem to be resolved by ride-hailing companies themselves. Multi-stakeholder solutions are proposed, involving licensing actors, charities, government development agencies, banks, and insurance providers. Gender equality research contributes to a new development common sense involving expanding the numbers of indebted 'independent contractors' in the gig economy; reducing 'regulatory burdens' on platforms; and binding nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) ever tighter to corporate interests. This article shows the centrality of gender research to the Bank's broader reorientation towards business-led development, and highlights some distinctive lessons of work on ride-hailing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bangladesh is transitioning into a middle-income country but remains at risk from the negative impacts of climate change. Consequently, development efforts are gradually being replaced by climate change adaptation. In this article, I investigate how 'gender' is understood and conceptualized in climate change adaptation in Bangladesh, and what this means for how gender considerations are included in adaptation efforts. I build on qualitative interviews with representatives of what Kasia Paprocki has coined the 'climate change adaptation regime' in Dhaka, as well as participant observation at conferences, seminars, and meetings on issues relevant to gender and climate change adaptation in Bangladesh. Understanding adaptation to be political and contested, I argue that established representations of women in development and disaster thinking are now re-presented to fit with the politically negotiated consensus of what adaptation in Bangladesh should look like, and that gender mainstreaming initiatives which go beyond the understanding of adaptation as negotiated by this consensus are excluded. This may lead to increased responsibilities for women, feminizing the responsibility to adapt to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the gender equality barriers among maritime students in the Philippines, focusing on the influence of ethnicity and age on perceptions of these barriers. Utilizing a descriptive correlational method, the research involved 554 student respondents from the Merchant Marine Academy of Caraga, Inc. (MMACI). The study employed a questionnaire adapted from Fidan et al. (2020) to assess perceptions of structural and social barriers. The findings reveal significant gender disparities in the maritime education sector, with males dominating both BS Marine Engineering (BSMarE) and BS Marine Transportation (BSMT) programs. The study also highlights the interconnected nature of structural and social barriers, emphasizing the need for comprehensive interventions to promote inclusivity and equity. Additionally, the research identifies variations in perceptions of gender equality barriers based on ethnicity, particularly among BSMarE students. The study concludes by proposing an action plan to promote gender and development programs in the College of Maritime Education, emphasizing awareness, policy revisions, training, mentorship, and industry collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explains how the face of political leadership in contemporary Timor-Leste is predominantly male, revealing the logics behind the preference for men. While an overwhelming majority of our survey respondents and focus group participants believed that women and men are equal and that feto bele, "women can" become political leaders, reservations about women's attributes and capabilities were common. While women were generally perceived to have most of the important innate characteristics necessary for political leadership, such as intelligence and honesty, survey respondents and focus group participants consistently perceived that women do not have the skills, abilities, or experience to lead. These perceptions conformed to cultural gender stereotypes, creating an unconscious bias or "incongruent prejudice" against women leaders. Better appreciated were the structural barriers that women face, such as their substantial domestic burden, lesser access to financial resources, and cultural expectations. Women leaders face near-impossible expectations to also be the primary family caregivers and to run households, while male leaders do not. Furthermore, women leaders are expected to remain "feminine" – humble, calm, and caring – within an aggressively masculine political environment. To overcome these barriers to leadership, transformative change led by local actors is required, including increased awareness of gender stereotypes, structural and unconscious bias, and the harmful consequences for democracy of lack of diversity, along with some practical changes to electoral processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the study is to examine the gender issues in physical education instruction at several state colleges and university schools in the Philippines. Utilizing descriptive research, data revealed that physical education teachers need to work on delivering subject matter, planning lessons, and developing didactics in a way that is more gender sensitive. More information demonstrated that physical education teachers lacked the education required to discuss gender concepts, regulations, and standards as well as development approaches in instructing physical education. It is advised that gender equality tools, learning resources, and knowledge products be produced and made accessible for usage in the classroom and coaching context in order to increase gender sensitivity in the teaching of physical education. Physical education instructors are also invited to take part in gender and development training to increase their understanding of gender issues and their capacity to give instruction that is gender sensitive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context There are no reported data from prospective long-term studies on the relation of androgen levels in young women with development of metabolic syndrome (MetS) before menopause. Objective We investigated associations of androgens and SHBG with incident MetS during 23 years of follow-up. Methods We included 366 White and 375 Black women ages 20 to 32 years participating in the CARDIA study and CARDIA Women's study, free of MetS at baseline examination (1987-1988), and premenopausal 23 years later. Androgens and SHBG were categorized into quartiles. MetS was defined according to the American Heart Association/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute 2009 Joint Scientific Statement. Cox proportional hazards models were used. Results By year 23, 30% of women developed MetS. Adjusting for baseline age, race, and education, hazard ratios (95% CI) of developing MetS were 1.46 (1.02-2.10) and 2.22 (1.53-3.21) for women in the highest vs lowest total testosterone (T) and free T quartile, respectively. The hazards of developing MetS were 47%, 59%, and 53% lower for women with SHBG in the second, third, and fourth quartiles (vs lowest quartile), respectively. Associations were attenuated for total T with further adjustments for smoking, physical activity, menstrual status, oral contraceptive/hormone (OCHM) use, insulin level, oligomenorrhea, and age at menarche, but remained statistically significant for free T and SHBG. Associations were similar for both Blacks and Whites, and OCHM nonusers, but not for OCHM users. Conclusion High androgenicity in young premenopausal women is associated with higher risk of future MetS, suggesting that early assessment of androgens may contribute to prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Diversitas Journal is the property of Diversitas Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista de Economía (Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán) is the property of Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan, Facultad de Economia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Internacional de Cooperación y Desarrollo is the property of Universidad de San Buenaventura and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Understanding the coloniality of gendered lives, family dynamics, social arrangements, and political structures in Indigenous communities begins with confronting and interrogating a history written largely by and for men in positions of power. The archives are limited in terms of what can be gleaned about gender equality and what existed before the proliferation of European patriarchy. Indigenous Wixárika people tread a delicate balance between a lifeworld that is organised around a ritual–agricultural cycle, and the accelerating incorporation of the imperial mode of living and the coloniality of being, into their communities and culture. The 'coloniality of gender' explains how Indigenous women and men have been drawn into and shaped through contact zones, these sites of imperial intervention that have brought social, cultural, and structural changes to gender. Problematically, this concept assumes a one-way process of domination, whereby modern European power structures were imposed on Indigenous people. A critical exploration reveals how gender dynamics and equality were influenced by a much messier process, entangled with Wixárika's cultural and religious systems as well as the leveraging of political collateral. This paper will draw on findings from a historical and ethnographic study of the coloniality of gender in Indigenous Wixárika communities. We will critically examine archival evidence alongside oral histories to suggest how social, development, and political interventions from the late 20th century challenge the idea of the 'coloniality of gender', and discuss how past and present actants collide and dialogue to bring about social change and greater gender equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many countries across the globe, including the Philippines, have implemented Gender and Development (GAD) policies to reduce gender biases and promote equality. However, mainstreaming efforts have been challenging due to the scarce availability of learning resources in the local context. This study is an initiative to provide the GAD Focal Point System (GFPS) in the Department of Education – City of Mati with a primary reference in training their GAD Focal Persons on Gender Sensitivity, GAD Planning, and Budgeting (GPB). The coverage is based on their learning needs and gaps determined through participatory strategies involving the school administrators, teachers, students, and parents. Also, the results of the gender audit using the Gender Mainstreaming Evaluation Framework (GMEF) are used as a baseline in module development. The framework presents strategic directions that agencies need to follow to advance across stages. It was found that Mati's primary and secondary schools are in the initial stages of gender mainstreaming. As such, GAD's basic concepts and definitions are introduced, along with various forms of gender-based violence and the appropriate mechanisms to address them aptly. The essential steps in planning and budgeting are also detailed, providing an active experience among the participants. It is imperative to sustain GAD capacity-building initiatives to catalyze a more directed and engaged policy framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developed organizations have increasingly garnered numerous indicators to measure gender and development outcomes. Yet, measurements themselves reflect a logic of the arenas where development occurs and can be captured, and therefore reflect where women are imagined to predominantly exist. Based on the analysis of 1,298 indicators across 15 major development databases covering African countries, this article argues that mainstream development organizations predominantly understand gender in terms of institutional sites. Sometimes these were sites for intervention, or a place for institutional 'betterment' (a hospital, a work place, and a school). Other times, these sites were conceptualized as natural places where women would be (the family and the nation state). We identify the spatial logics underpinning these development indicators, and link them to larger historical gendered and racialized colonial logics organizing diverse social, economic, and cultural lives, where economic and institutional sites are promoted, a more nuanced and relational one is displaced. Ultimately, these spatial imaginings extend to the larger context of where debates about peace and security are situated—namely in largely individual, state-driven, and institutional-centric ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the multiple temporalities of gender and development work through the experiences of gender experts in international institutions of governance. It delineates the immediate encounters between different actors involved in negotiating international conventions and the short-term accountabilities built into development projects and humanitarian assistance. It then maps them onto narratives of the future to show how they produce the appearance of a linear connection between the present and the future, and generate hopes for a long-run future while blurring the fact that the latter never seems to arrive. What holds this multiplicity together is a politics of hope and waiting, which reveals and sustains the power dynamics in these organizations and give clues about the ambivalent relationship between gender and development planning, and large-scale progress toward gender equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender and development are among the two most important components of any economy to sustain its perpetual and sustainable economic growth in both the long as well as short run. The role of women in parliament and the interrelationship between gender and development is critically analysed. Women's representation in parliament is the dependent variable and the predictor variables considered are gender development index, female access to assets, female labour force, and country GDP per capita. Data were collected from the UNDP human development report for the period 2015 to 2021–2022 and World Bank for 188 countries of which finally 159 were considered to develop the model based on data availability. We have used the theoretical lens of social stratification theory and gender role theory to frame the hypothesis. A random effects model-based panel regression analysis of the data indicated a strong positive relationship between gender development index and the dependent variable, but no relationship between female labour force, and access to assets. The study addresses a critical gap in policy and development of the literature on gender, politics, and development using a global data set, establishing the importance of indicators such as gender development index, and laying down the path for future research on the subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2018, a global media scandal erupted, in which Oxfam, one of the largest and most respected international development non-government organizations, was accused of covering up incidents of its staff engaging sex workers in Haiti following the country's devastating 2010 earthquake. The scandal sparked widespread public condemnation of the development and humanitarian sectors for their complicity in the sexual exploitation and abuse of Haitian sex workers. In the aftermath of the scandal, the sector scrambled to restore its damaged reputation, in part by positioning its care for vulnerable women as central to its work. In its responses, however, the sector did not position Haitian sex workers as active subjects of the controversy, but as figures of suffering through whom development organizations might atone for their alleged transgressions. This article reflects on how development and humanitarian representations of Haitian sex workers, and sex work in general, as expressed in Oxfam's responses to the scandal, exposed the sector's colonial and racialized approaches to gender, sexuality, and sex work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an important tension at the heart of feminist discussions of individualism in development studies, one that arises from philosophical questions about the relationship between feminism and individualism. On the one hand, feminists criticize development policies for assuming that women can overcome structural barriers and for prioritizing individual success over systemic change. On the other, feminists criticize development policies for treating women as vehicles for the well-being of children and households and for assuming that women are altruists. I argue that these seemingly contradictory views about individualism can be reconciled by remembering that feminism's central value is opposition to oppression, not respect for individual personhood. Feminists are not worried about women's inability to count as separate for its own sake; we are worried about its connection to the subordination of women as a group. Recognizing this allows us to embrace postcolonial feminist and care ethical critiques of egoism without thereby suggesting that it is acceptable to elide women's interests with those of families and households. I contrast my view about how to reconcile feminist tensions around individualism with two others, one that claims we should keep normative individualism and jettison methodological individualism and one that claims we should reject independence individualism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite decades of controversy, microcredit initiatives continue to be championed by government aid agencies as a 'win-win' for both international development and women's empowerment, bolstered by ideas of 'smart economics.' Most scholarship critiques these programs from a Marxist or poststructuralist perspective. This article instead investigates microcredit programming through the lens of feminist dignity and demonstrates the use of a framework founded on this idea. By using this framework to interrogate evidence from in-depth qualitative field research in West Bengal, India, this article argues that a focus on feminist dignity can improve women's agency and wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of 'gender and development' is still marginalised and misunderstood. After the armed conflict (2005–2009) and floods (2010) which struck the Swat Valley, Pakistan there was an influx of development organisations into the area. These organisations introduced projects focusing on both men and women, with the intention of assisting them according to their needs and pursuing the higher goal of gender equality. This study, carried out from 2016–2018, used qualitative methods to understand how these development organisations understood the concept of gender and development, and how they implemented it. Data was collected from two villages and two NGOs working in selected villages in the Swat Valley. Analysis reveals that the term 'gender' was often misinterpreted by local NGOs, making it difficult for them to see how their projects could contribute to improved well-being of both women and men, in the light of the diversity and dynamics of local gendered norms and relations. Instead of being included from the start as stakeholders, women were often involved as 'additions' to projects. Furthermore, NGO workers were not sufficiently trained in how to consider gender in the implementation of projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of REMAH Journal is the property of Research & Development of Human Recourses Center (REMAH) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article analyzes the challenges faced by women scientists in Mexico to participate in innovation activities during 1980-2015. Specifically, this article seeks to: i) describe the evolution and nature of inventive activity with female participation; ii) identify which factors influence the propensity of women to be inventors; and iii) contribute policy proposals to foster women's equitable inclusion in the knowledge and innovation economy. Findings from the empirical study suggest that the following factors promote women's propensity to become inventors: stock of technological knowledge, inventor team size, company or institutional patents, technological category, and presence of foreign inventors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Colombiana de Ciencias Sociales is the property of Fondo Editorial Fundacion Universitaria Luis Amigo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of REMAH Journal is the property of Research & Development of Human Recourses Center (REMAH) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study is a multi-level assessment of community-based Violence Against Women (VAW) desks status: (1) VAW system (policies and legislation); (2) entity (VAW desk setup), and (3) individual (VAW desk officers) levels' capacities in Calamba City, Laguna, Philippines. Data were gathered through a survey of 105 VAW desk officers and key informant interviews of five local officials. In addition, document reviews of national and local policies and reports on VAW were also employed in this study. Findings suggested that policies on establishing barangay-level VAW desks were properly enforced in Calamba City. However, the research results also showed a lack of equipment and resources to address VAW cases properly. In addition, VAW desk officers' age and educational background limit their capacity to implement their responsibilities effectively, for there are no clear qualifications needed to be a desk officer. There is also no clear local system on the orientation of roles and responsibilities of the desk officers. Thus, the following recommendations: (1) national or local policy amendment to include the basic qualifications of desk officers; (2) maximize the role of the local group of desk officers in capacity-building and advocacy while partnering with civil society; (3) proper fund allocation of the city to ensure full functionality of VAW desks; and (4) strengthen feedback system and enforcement of rewards and penalties to motivate proper functioning of the desk offices. The paper contributes to local governance perspectives, specifically on multi-level coordination, to effectively address VAW and provide gender and development (GAD) support services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]