SOC 0851 Chapter 3: Global Perspective II
31 May 2018
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▪ Loss of men’s contributions to the upkeep of the
household was shown to increase women’s work burden
in many countries in the global South; with their husbands
and male relatives gone doing wage work, women were
left to do even more of the share of maintaining a
household
▪ Resources that were redirected toward development also
made the lives of women in the developing world more
difficult
• Women spent large parts of their day gathering the
basic supplies to maintain a household such as
firewood and water
• Cutting down forests to plant commodity crops
often increased the distances women had to travel
for firewood
• The water demands of intensive agriculture made
access to firewood more difficult
• Women’s days were consumed with the simple tasks
of providing fuel and water for their families
o Realization about neglect of women’s roles in development and
the adverse effects of development led to a new perspective –
Women in Development – WID
▪ 1975 – UN First World Conference on Women in Mexico
City – proclaimed the next decade the decade of women
▪ Government agencies as well as NGOs began to speak of
integrating gender into their preexisting notions of
development
▪ 1979 – UN passed the Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) –
