Gender and Development - Anne Marie Goetz
Channel: GSDRC
Date: 2015-06-30

This video accompanies the GSDRC Professional Development Reading pack on Acceptance, available at: http://www.gsdrc.org/professional-dev/gender-in-development/

Gender inequality matters to development for two reasons. First, it is a justice problem. Ideologies of women’s inferiority are used to justify serious human rights abuses including female infanticide, child marriage, female genital mutilation, sexual violence, and deprivation of equal access to health care, education, property, employment and pay. Second, gender inequality is developmentally inefficient. Women’s limited access to and control of material resources and limited decision-making power within the household can produce high fertility rates, under-investment in aspects of family welfare such as child nutrition and education, and sub-optimal allocations of human capital in the economy. Constraints on women’s and girls’ education, access to health care (especially in relation to pregnancy and childbirth), independent livelihoods, and control of property and income contribute to underdevelopment and state fragility.

Professor Anne Marie Goetz is a political scientist who specializes in research on development policies in fragile states to promote the interests of marginalized social groups, particularly poor women. She also researches conditions for democratization and good governance in South Asia and East Africa. She is the author of eight books on gender, politics, policy, and accountability reforms. Dr Goetz is currently Clinical Professor at New York University and has previously served as Chief Advisor on Women, Peace and Security for UN Women, as Chief Advisor on Governance, Peace and Security for UNIFEM, and as Professor of Political Science at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex.