Test Bank Chapter 6 Gender, Development, Global Commitments

Chapter 6

Gender and Development: Theoretical Insights and International Commitments

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When was the First World Conference on Women held?
   1. Britain
   2. France
   3. Nigeria
   4. Delhi
   5. China
2. Which of the following is a common problem for strategies to promote gender equality in international development?
   1. Lip service without demonstrable or quantifiable progress
   2. Charitable models which essentialize women and girls
   3. Well intentioned policies which undermine gender status in practice
   4. The recognition of positionality and privilege inherent in development policies
   5. Complete disregard for objective gender issues
3. Which early contribution to the feminist literature in development studies resonated with modernization theory?
   1. Welfare approach
   2. Women in development
   3. Women and development
   4. First-wave feminism
   5. Suffragette movement
4. How was the issue of overpopulation addressed as a “development” problem?
   1. To use tax incentives for smaller families
   2. To draft legislation such as China’s two child policy
   3. To link small family size as a paternal issue
   4. To include family planning campaigns in the public school system
   5. To treat women as the focus of social control of fertility
5. What did the women in development model question?
   1. That gender inequality in political office leads to lower GDP
   2. That female education would create pushback from traditional sources of authority
   3. That women would automatically benefit from modernization policies
   4. That gender equality should be a mandatory evaluation for development projects
   5. That women could utilize foreign interest to overcome patriarchy
6. Which of the following was an important contribution of the women in development model?
   1. The demand for gender equity in all internationally funded development projects
   2. The call for quantifiable data on women’s access to resources, training, and political influence
   3. The search for objective and gender neutral policy processes
   4. The recognition that gender issues concern both men and women in development projects
   5. The questioning of motivation in global institutions concerning development objectives
7. What does it mean that women have been treated as “walking wombs?”
   1. The importance of the increased ratio of births in developing countries
   2. Contemporary approaches to development that address women’s health see women mainly in relation to their biological reproductive function
   3. Renewed government policy to prevent ovarian cancer
   4. Incentives for smaller families to reproduce
   5. Decreased stigmatization of women due to unwanted pregnancies
8. How did radical feminist critiques influence some women in development theorists?
   1. They proposed women-only development projects.
   2. They sought funding to increase gender parity in developing states.
   3. They established safe zones for women in developing countries.
   4. They linked adverse development outcomes to the patriarchal nature of traditional societies.
   5. They sought grassroots solutions to gender problems.
9. Which of the following was a core concern of the women and development approach?
   1. A concern for population control
   2. A search for inclusivity in development proposals
   3. A focus on women’s knowledge, work, goals, and responsibilities
   4. A recognition that patriarchy is more prevalent in developing societies
   5. A call to reflect on quantifiable measurements for gender questions
10. What approach to development emerged in the 1980s to bring a gendered approach to the social, economic, and political realities of development?
    1. Welfare approach
    2. Women in development
    3. Women and development
    4. Gender and development
    5. Gender mainstreaming
11. What drove the change from a focus on women to one on gender in development programming?
    1. The fulfillment of earlier, albeit limited, feminist objectives
    2. The need to empower men in feminist projects
    3. The limited success in improving women’s economic, political, and social positions
    4. To counter the opposition of donor states to limited development objectives
    5. To encourage more grassroots activism
12. Why has the gender and development approach been critiqued as too “Western”?
    1. Its neoliberal bias
    2. Its overly technical and bureaucratic processes
    3. Its insistence on quantitative data
    4. Its top-down approach to defining gender
    5. Its focus on voting rights
13. Which is a core concern of post-colonial feminism?
    1. Deconstructing patriarchies in the Global South
    2. Tracing the role of institutional knowledge in the gender practices
    3. Recovering lost practices of all genders
    4. Establishing an ecology of knowledges
    5. Using NGOs to shelter local feminist movements
14. What is fundamental problem associated with the position of a “Global Sisterhood”?
    1. It lacks awareness of global positioning on feminist issues
    2. It reinforces the dominant position of Western feminism
    3. It gives preference to recipient organizations in priority setting
    4. It is too intersectional and accepting of transversal theorizing
    5. It is not a sustainable platform of action
15. Exemplified by Gita Sen and Caren Grown, what was the initial purpose of “empowerment” in development?
    1. To transform society
    2. To balance gender roles
    3. To deconstruct knowledge
    4. To reveal structural inequality
    5. To privilege gender questions
16. What are three goals of the gender mainstreaming theory of development?
    1. Gender awareness, opportunity, and balancing
    2. Gender neutrality, objectiveness, and knowledge
    3. Gender privilege, intersectionality, and positionality
    4. Gender equality, empowerment, and transformation
    5. Gender subjectivity, modernization, and alignment
17. What event adopted the gender mainstreaming theory of development as the central mechanism for ensuring gender equality?
    1. UN Decade of Women in Mexico City, 1980
    2. UN Conference on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women in Lagos, 1985
    3. UN Conference on Women in Beijing, 1995
    4. UN Millennium Development Goals in New York, 2000
    5. UN Global Compact in New Delhi, 2005
18. What is a deeper issue facing men and boys that may subvert the gender mainstreaming theory of development?
    1. Masculine norms of “success” and the obstacles of achieving them in a globalized world
    2. Traditional systems of patriarchy and the structural constraints placed on male leaders
    3. Western norms being adopted by male leaders and their coercive influence on society
    4. Toxic femininity and its undermining of traditional prerogatives
    5. The privileging of economic norms over traditional sources of authority
19. Why is Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security such an important document?
    1. It allowed the International Criminal Court to investigate systemic cases of rape
    2. It provided funding for the combat of domestic violence
    3. It recognized sexual and gender-based violence as a human rights issue
    4. It obligated states to report on the incidence of violence against women
    5. It established the legal framework for cultural refugees
20. Why is it difficult to change assumptions about what kinds of men and women should wield power?
    1. The positionality of Western policy makers makes it difficult to identify alternatives
    2. There are strong networks between donors and recipients that resist change
    3. The problem of cultural relativism undermines efforts to implement meritocracy
    4. The gender bias in the Global North is replicated in the Global South
    5. Those who benefit from such systems are rarely willing to step aside for a more equitable system
21. What does CEDAW stand for?
    1. The Conference on Domestic Violence Against Women
    2. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
    3. The Center for Research on the Disadvantages Applied to Women
    4. The Conference on Economic Development and Women
    5. The Convention on Ecology, Development, and Women
22. What are some examples of Gender Lens Investing strategies?
    1. Investing loans in family business proposals
    2. Making capital more available to women
    3. Working with female factory workers to improve their skills
    4. Creating corporate social responsibilities
    5. Inviting scholars to improve women’s working conditions
23. What was an important outcome for gender issues at the 1995 Fourth UN Women’s Conference in Beijing?
    1. The Rights of the Child
    2. Power now!
    3. Because I am a Girl
    4. Platform for Action
    5. Education is Transformation
24. What have been key concepts to understanding gender inequality and development?
    1. Implementing targeted policies to empower gender equality
    2. Supporting female education
    3. Reflecting critically on the systemic inequalities that disproportionately affect women and girls
    4. Analyzing institutions, norms, and processes
    5. All of the above
25. What has been the impact of feminist theory and gender analytical frameworks in the last decades?
    1. Women’s liberation movements worldwide
    2. The abolition of women’s slavery
    3. The ban of early marriage practices
    4. A list of critiques from the Global South
    5. A list of commitments to gender equality
26. What is one example of feminist foreign policies adopted by different countries
    1. Promundo
    2. UNFP
    3. The UN
    4. Security Council Resolution 1325
    5. UNICEF
27. How are women and girls still essentialized?
    1. When portrayed through stereotypes and generalizations
    2. When they attend peace talks conferences
    3. By being equalized to men
    4. By limiting their rights
    5. None of the above
28. How is the relationship between gender equality and women’s economic empowerment justified?
    1. Through economic growth programs
    2. Through macroeconomic growth
    3. With the commitment of international agreements
    4. Through the abolition of racialized laws
    5. With the celebration of different commemorative days
29. How can gender inequality and economic inequality be tackled?
    1. By commitments with regional scopes
    2. By signing new development programs for women
    3. By commitments to address the structural and social causes of economic inequality
    4. By not including toxic masculinities
    5. By a severe critique from Latin America and the Global South
30. What are the dangers of the exclusive focus on women and girls’ economic empowerment?
    1. Machismo culture and its impact on sexual violence
    2. It essentializes women and girls
    3. It focuses on the destructive patterns that encourage and legitimate gender-based violence
    4. Ineffective development programs
    5. It ignores other important gender equality concerns
31. How does a lack of a historical and linear analysis of gender and development studies affect gender and development progress?
    1. The adoption of a gender and development (GAD) framework
    2. It fails to reflect the progressive work of feminist and gender and development scholars
    3. A deeper analyses of gender inequality and masculinities
    4. The oppression of marginalized communities
    5. None of the above
32. In what sense does the WID approach challenge the assumption that women would automatically gain from modernization/development policies and projects?
    1. By calling attention to women as development actors
    2. By treating women as the focus of social control of fertility
    3. By a national policy for rural and remote communities in favour of the use of contraceptives
    4. By developing theories of modernization and economic growth
    5. By authoritarian state structures and coercion
33. How effective has WID policies and projects been?
    1. Highly effective in solving inequality between women and men
    2. Not highly effective and inequality between women and men persists
    3. Poorly effective and inequality between women and men has disappeared
    4. Highly effective but inequality between women and men persists
    5. Highly effective and inequality between women and men has disappeared
34. What is the role of local grassroots organization in WAD approaches?
    1. None
    2. They help women defend their rights
    3. They have pressured countries to sign international commitments
    4. They developed women-only projects intended to shelter women from the worst effects of capitalist development
    5. All of the above, except A
35. What have the limitations of both WID and WAD approaches induced?
    1. The use of the world feminicidio
    2. Concerns about the lack of support by governments
    3. Disputes between the Global North and the Global South
    4. A growing concern with gendered practices, relations, and hierarchies and their impact on gender equality
    5. Deeper inequalities between men and women
36. What do the main critiques to neoliberal women-centred development programs come from?
    1. Latin America
    2. The Global South
    3. Africa
    4. Developed counties
    5. Governments

True or False Questions

The United Nations is the only significant force in motivating women/gender studies in development.

The essentialization of women and girls are often used to portray them as stereotypes and generalizations.

Gender issues are not central to development outcomes, plans, or processes.

The women in development approach calls for specific attention to women as development actors.

The Sustainable Development Goals commits to achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls.

The women and development (WAD) approach is concerned with variance in women’s culture between the Global North and Global South.

Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) network launched critiques of neoliberal approaches to women’s issues and development goals.

The gender and development model sought to demonstrate that unequal gender relations hinder development and female participation in economic and political arenas.

The shift from a focus on women to one on gender was driven by the phenomenal success of two decades of development programs aimed at improving women’s economic, political, and social positions.

A common critique of feminist development scholars from the Global South is that Western development “experts” measured gender progress with Western lenses.

An important issue addressed by post-colonial feminist scholarship is the need for “othering” in development programs.

Decolonial feminists argue the continuing power of colonial knowledge about Latin American women is due to its internalization by feminists in the region.

Post-colonial and decolonial feminists question whether it is possible to create alliances among women from different parts of the Global North and South.

Transnational feminism challenges the idea of intersectional and transversal theorizing of women’s differences.

Contemporary feminist theorists challenge the development industry’s tendency to assume a heterosexual model which is based on Western practices and assumptions.

Male empowerment is regarded as a key tool for challenging and transforming unequal political, economic, and social structures.

Mainstream institutions envision empowerment as a means for enhancing efficiency and productivity within the status quo.

Empowerment requires greater attention to the impact of cultural differences, economic and political power, colonial histories, and gendered practices and relations.

Gender mainstreaming has become a central pillar of development discourse, policy, and practice, supported by mainstream as well as more alternative development institutions.

Gender approaches to development recognized very early the need to examine issues around toxic masculinity.

A global economic crisis in the twenty-first century has undermined many traditionally male-dominated sources of employment such as construction, manufacturing, and investment.

All forms of gender-based violence, including male-on-male rape, violence directed at LGBTQIA2S+ communities, and femicide have been recognized in international law.

Institutional agreements, at the UN for example, provide a powerful vehicle for later development initiatives.

We have a complex set of tools to tackle gender issues in development. All we need is the will to implement them.

The shift from women to gender was driven by the success of two decades of development programs in women’s issues.

Scholars and activists from the Global South have not been able to challenge the Western bias in most gender and development policies and programs.

Ecology of knowledges is aimed to deconstruct hierarchies between different knowledges and forms of knowing.

Mainstream development agencies began to adopt the term “patriarchy” to illustrate the language of participation, partnership, and empowerment.

Placing empowerment at the centre of efforts to achieve gender equality required self-understanding about gender inequalities in the home and the community.

Kabeer’s critique on empowerment projects is based on the assumption that it could predict the nature and direction that change was going to take.

Gender mainstreaming is central for ensuring gender equality according to the Platform for Action.

Programs designed to combat violence have not been able to integrate toxic masculinities and patriarchal authority as key issues.

The #metoo movement is an example of the need to challenge toxic masculine practices.

Young men’s difficulties to live up to expected roles has decreased men’s participation in illegal activities such as drug trade and smuggling of persons.

Compared to women and girls as key development issues, toxic patriarchal power and gender inequality has only emerged as an important developmental issue recently.

The CEDAW has stopped serving as an important international bill of rights for women.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why is essentializing women and girls an issue in international development?
2. Why and how do projects that focus on population control essentialize women?
3. Why was the women in development approach a significant improvement over previous approaches?
4. How does the women and development approach differ from women in development?
5. What are the two goals of the gender and development approach?
6. How have the Sustainable Development Goals sought to promote gender equality?
7. Why do some post-colonial theorists argue the very concept of “Latin America” is a Western creation?
8. Why do some scholars question whether it is even possible to create development alliances among women from different parts of the Global North and South?
9. Why has the concept of “empowerment” become so controversial in the field of gender and development?
10. What is gender mainstreaming and how does it differ from other approaches to gender and development?
11. What role does masculinity play in understanding the role of gender and development?
12. What does the Gender Lens Investing program entail?
13. How has the changing dynamic of migration affected women in the Global South?
14. Why is Security Council Resolution 1325 significant?
15. How has gender-based violence been addressed in the development field?
16. Why is the 1979 CEDAW a foundational document for recognizing that women’s rights are human rights?
17. What are the objectives of the international campaigns to stop rape and gender violence in conflict?
18. Why have international organizations argued that it is important to end early and forced marriages, and what has been gained from this?
19. Why is it important to move beyond simplified targeted solutions for issues related to gender and development to broader systemic commitments?
20. What was significant about the Fourth World Conference on Women organized by the United Nations?
21. What is the implication of the use of the term feminicidio for the fight in Latin America against the killing of women?
22. How has gender equality been integrated into the Sustainable Development Goals?
23. Why is the adoption of Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security considered a monumental achievement?
24. How do NGOs contribute to the role of socialization to battle gender inequality?

Essay Questions

1. What has been the UN’s role in the fight for women’s rights?
2. How has approaches to development changed in relation to gender from the welfare approach to gender and development?
3. How has the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) been influential in terms of gender and development?
4. What are the main contributions of the Global South critique of women’s development scholarship and programs?
5. How has the concept of empowerment changed over time in relation to women development approaches and gender equality scholarship?