Men, male bias, patriarchy, masculinity, gender relations: What is the barrier to engendering development

Abstract

THE field of women-in-development (henceforth, w-i-d) is an evolving one. Its journey – which began in 1970 – has embraced a diversity of ideas that has come from practitioners, scholars and activists in both the countries of the South and the North. As a result, the analysis of women’s experiences has also evolved over this time. At the heart of the field is the premise that women have experienced development differently – if not discriminately – from men. The source and effect of the ‘difference’, however, is contested; the literature of the field is strewn with possibilities of how discrimination comes about. Are ‘men’ responsible, and if yes, which men? Or is the source of women’s oppression a more general ‘male bias’? How is that different from patriarchy? What is masculinity? And how does that contribute to women’s discrimination?