Gender and Development

In this article titled, Gender bias 'increases poverty' the BBC discusses the not too surprising conclusions of a just released report from the UN agency Unicef.

Children of women-headed households eat better food, Unicef says

Inequality at home between men and women leads to poorer health for the children and greater poverty for the family, says a new study.

The report itself, "State of the World's Children 2007 - Women and Children", is available as a PDF file from Unicef directly or the BBC.

In my part of the world, "In Ivory Coast and Ghana, it was discovered that when women's income increased for whatever reason, they spent the extra on more food for the family, whereas an increase in men's income made no significant difference", Unicef said in the BBC coverage.

While in Rome when meeting together as we did discuss this apparent fact of development efforts, and how to not to automatically exclude men in order to help ensure they support efforts focused on women and children who are most in need. However, in some studies men in stable families were shown to be more likely to spend extra income on farm supplies, equipment, or other investments. I am not saying this is the rule, nor am disputing the conclusions of the the report. I picked out the example from two countries where I have lived and worked, because I can see all kinds of evidence from my experience to support their conclusions. This will continue to be an important issue throughout our development careers and our lives, but the critical impact of the outcome of this discussion are the women and children who participate the least and are least empowered to impact the debate. We need to seek an understanding of development that accounts for the underlying complexity of human relationships and family and well as the role of culture and economy.

Professor Marilyn Martone of St John's spoke to us briefly in Rome with regard to Gaudium et Spes , UN reports, and the treatment of women and children. I suspect she will continue this theme in her course with us, but there is no reason we should hold our discussion until then. What do you think is the proper gender balance in development efforts? And how do you decide? How do should we account for cultural and religious differences on this point?