Too often in development projects, women become casualties rather than success stories, because the project design does not support them as producers and parents. Women are whole people, who need both their productive and reproductive inter-connections with others in order to survive and thrive. They work to get the food, clothing and shelter they need, they create families, they parent the next generation, they learn, they teach, they create expressions of their culture. Within this larger pattern parenting a child and creating goods for income both have value. When a program seeks to improve a woman's life, it needs to strengthen her within the context of her whole life.
Children are a reality in women's lives .
For the great majority of the women in the world, childrearing is a centerpiece of their lives. For this reason women are often precluded from income-generating activities because they cannot find ways to simultaneously work outside the home and care for their children. Child care responsibilities begin at a young age. However, this does not mean that caring for children and obligations to the family must be considered liabilities. In order for a development program to successfully help a woman, it must find ways to help her address the responsibilities and needs she brings with her, including her interdependency with children.