WUNRN
WOMEN’S ECONOMIC ROLES & THE DEVELOPMENT PARADIGM
Link to Full 18-Page 2014 Document: http://genderaction.org/docs/Tinker_Zuckerman_Womens_%20Roles_Chapter.pdf
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“The story of women and international development is a story of women organizing to challenge the development paradigm. Over fifty years, women have influenced development agencies to include women’s concerns, and formed a global social movement that has altered gender relations throughout the world. Today women are seeking political power to advance their claims for equity. To envisage the years to come, an historical perspective refreshingly underlines that tremendous progress has been attained for women’s rights and gender justice (although massive work remains to achieve full women’s empowerment). In developed countries a century ago, women could not vote and rarely worked beyond the home. Now they do both although globally gender gaps persist in earnings, household responsibilities, asset ownership and decision making. Going forward, countries most resistant to women filling citizen and economic roles will certainly continue to experience an erosion of traditional cultural and religious barriers to women’s empowerment in response to citizens’ bottom up organizing and government reforms.”
