Critically discuss women in development and development approaches. Which of these are most useful in the SA context?

By the 1970's it had become very clear that women were being left out of development. They were not benefiting significantly from it and in some instances their existing status and position in society was actually being made worse by development. The Women In Development approach saw the problem as the exclusion of women from development programmes and approaches.  As a result, the solution was seen as integrating women into such programmes. WID saw women as a group being treated as lacking opportunity to participate in development. The main task, therefore, was to improve women's access to resources and their participation in development. Although  the WID concentrated narrowly on the inequalities between men and women and ignored the social, cultural, legal and economic factors that give rise to those inequalities in society. WID tended to focus on women almost exclusively and assumed that women were outside the mainstream of development.

The main argument of the WAD was that women had always been part of the development processes. Women and Development asserts that women have always been important economic actors. The work they do both inside and outside the household is critical to the maintenance of society. The main focus of WAD is on the interaction between women and development processes rather than purely on strategies to integrate women into development. WAD saw both women and men as not benefiting from the global economic structures because of disadvantages due to class and the way wealth is distributed. It saw global inequalities as the main problem facing poor countries and, therefore the citizens of those countries.

The GAD represents the coming together of many feminist ideas, it sort to bring together both the lessons learned from and the limitations of the WID and WAD approaches. It seeks to ensure that both women and men participate in and benefit equally from development and so emphasis equality of benefit and control. GAD focuses on the social or gender relations between men and women  in society and seeks to address issues of access and control over resources and power. The GAD approach has also helped us understand that the gender division of labor gives triple roles to women in society. GAD goes further than other approaches in emphasising both the reproductive and productive role of women and argues that it is the states responsibility to support the social reproduction role mostly played by women of caring and nurturing of children.

Postmodern feminism is a new branch of feminism that strives for equality for women within the category of women. While along so, they take into account the difference among the women on the basis of class and race. PAD theorists emphasised on differences suggesting that the requirements of women across the world vary regionally. They argued a space for the marginalized third world women should be provided in development rather than regarding women of the south as undifferentiated other. They favored an approach that accepts and understands difference and fosters open consultative dialogue that can empower women in the south to articulate their needs and agendas.

The two approaches that will be most useful in the SA context is the GAD and  WAD.