In the 1970s, international development planners began to recognize women's
important roles in their communities. A variety of approaches to include women have
since evolved, and their merits are debated. They have been described in the literature
as "welfare," "Women-in-Development" (WID), and "Gender and Development"
(GAD). The welfare approach focuses on basic needs while strengthening women's
homemaker and reproductive roles. The WID approach is based on increasing women's
incomes as a means toward empowerment. The Gender and Development (GAD)
addresses systemic gender discrimination. There is need for research in development
planning. Development programs track results during the project, but seldom look at
long term impacts and sustainability.
This thesis reports the results of research on a 1991 WID efficiency approach,
women's income generation project in Shaanxi Province, China, by examining the
impact seven years later. My methodology involved interviews with twenty-one
women project participants, eight husbands, village leaders and informal lunch-hour
focus group discussions with villagers. The project involved transition from grain to
orchards. The orchards dramatically increased women's incomes and improved the
quality of village life. The women took full control of orchard management, pushing
men out of the orchards saying that they were "incapable" of the monotonous orchard
tasks. Most husbands found off-farm jobs, diversifying household incomes. Women
gained marketing skills, self-confidence, and financial independence, but remained
vulnerable as primary producers to income fluctuations. Most women stayed outside
village politics, and traditional gender role socialization was maintained. The project
fulfilled women's needs and interests, however, long term results for women are mixed.
The Shaanxi field project was one of sixty-six field projects under the Canada-
China Women-in-Development Project (1990-1995) implemented in partnership by the
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the All-China Women's
Federation. The project had two components: poverty reduction and institutional
strengthening of the Women's Federation. I was the Canadian co-manager of the
Canada-China WID Project, and have since completed more than thirty contracts
(fifteen projects) plus a two-year contract as co-manager of the Canada-China Women's
Law Project (one year of which was full-time in China). My research is intended to
assist and improve my future work in the development field, and to inform those
interested in women's development program planning and gender equality policy.
Good planning was key to the strength of the Canada-China WID Project.
Partners shared a common goal. CIDA's efficiency approach supported the Women's
Federation policy to bring women into production as a means of achieving equality.
Participatory planning and decision-making involved Federation project officers across
China. Delegation in management and clear, commonly set guidelines increased
partners' involvement and accountability. Power in planning gradually, and tacitly,
transferred to the Women's Federation as they assumed ownership and responsibility
for results.
Strong donor/recipient partnership and participatory planning processes
strengthen potential for sustainable results. Suggestions to improve women's
development planning include: increasing gender awareness, strengthening women's
interest and capacity in political participation, developing risk mitigation strategies to
lessen income insecurity, blending WID/GAD projects, and further research on project
impacts. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/13612 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Tyler, Diane |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Format | 10754703 bytes, application/pdf |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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