Gender Equity in South African Education 1994 - 2004 pptx

List of tables and figures v Acknowledgements vi List of abbreviations vii Overview Linda Chisholm and Jean September 1 Keynote address The hidden face of gender inequality in South Afri

Gender Equity

Perspectives from Research, Government and Unions

CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS

Edited by Linda Chisholm & Jean September

This publication has been produced with the assistance of a grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Ottawa, Canada The content of the publication is the sole responsibility of the HSRC and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the IDRC.

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List of tables and figures v

Acknowledgements vi

List of abbreviations vii

Overview Linda Chisholm and Jean September 1

Keynote address The hidden face of gender inequality in South African

education 19

Naledi Pandor

Part 1 New perspectives and theoretical approaches 25

Chapter 1 Gender equity in education: A perspective from

Chapter 3 Between ‘mainstreaming’ and ‘transformation’:

Lessons and challenges for institutional change 55

Catherine Odora-Hoppers

Part 2 Mapping gender inequality 75

Chapter 4 Gender equality and education in South Africa:

Measurements, scores and strategies 77

Chapter 5 Mapping a southern African girlhood in the age

of AIDS 92

Claudia Mitchell

Discussant: Chapters 4 and 5 113

Daisy Makofane

Part 3 Government activism and civil society mobilisation 117

Chapter 6 Reflections on the Gender Equity Task Team 119

Chapter 8 The state of mobilisation of women teachers in the

South African Democratic Teachers’ Union 146

Shermain Mannah

List of contributors and participants 157

List of tables and figures

List of tables

Table 4.1 The four different approaches to understanding the

analyses of gender, equality and education 80Table 4.2 Equality of opportunity: intake ratios by gender 82

Table 4.3 Equality of opportunity: primary school enrolment rates

by gender 82Table 4.4 Equality of opportunity: secondary school enrolment

rates by gender 82Table 4.5 Equality of opportunity: school life expectancy and

percentage of repeaters by gender 83Table 4.6 Equality of outcomes: children out of school, surviving

in primary school and transferring to secondary school 83Table 4.7 Equality of outcomes: Senior Certificate examination

results 84Table 4.8 Equality of outcomes: Senior Certificate results by gender

in selected subjects 84

List of figures

Figure 4.1 The capability approach to the evaluation of education 88Figure 5.1 Enacted rape scene 94

Figure 5.2 Safe and unsafe spaces at school 94

Figure 5.3 More than 30% of girls are raped at school 95

Figure 8.1 The quota system meets the glass ceiling 150

We would like to express our appreciation to the Swedish InternationalDevelopment Cooperation Agency (Sida), the British Council and the HumanSciences Research Council (HSRC) for funding the conference, and to theInternational Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada (IDRC) forfunding this publication

We would also like to thank the people who did the background work:Conxtions for making the conference run smoothly, Thora Jacobs andAnnette Gerber, from the British Council and HSRC respectively, for theirsupport and all the participants who made this conference a success

Thank you to Nadine Hutton for permission to reproduce the photograph on

List of abbreviations

ANC African National Congress

CADRE Centre for Aids Development, Research and Evaluation

CEM Council of Education Ministers

CEPD Centre for Education Policy Development and Management

Cosatu Congress of South African Trade Unions

DoE Department of Education

ECCED Early Childhood Care and Education

EFA Education for All

GDI Gender Development Index

GEAR Growth, Employment and Redistribution strategy

GEM Gender Empowerment Measure

GER Gross enrolment rate

GETT Gender Equity Task Team

GFP Gender Focal Person

GIR Gross intake rate

GPI Gender parity index

HDI Human Development Index

Hedcom Heads of Education Departments Committee

HEI Higher Education Institution

HOD Head of Department

HSRC Human Sciences Research Council

IGO Inter-government organisations

IMF International Monetary Fund

MDG Millennium Development Goals

NGO Non-government organisations

NIR Net intake rate

OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and DevelopmentSACE South African Council of Educators

SADC Southern African Development Community

Sadtu South African Democratic Teachers’ Union

SGB School Governing Body

Sida Swedish International Development Cooperation AgencySMT School Management Team

SRGBV School-related gender-based violence

UDF United Democratic Front

UKZN University of KwaZulu-Natal

UNAIDS Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS

UNDP United Nations Development Programme

Unesco United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural

OrganisationUnicef United Nations Children’s Fund

WTO World Trade Organisation

sig-of Cabinet and 35 per cent sig-of members sig-of parliament; an entire so-called

‘gender machinery’ exists in government to promote gender equity; tradeunions and civil society organisations place gender high on the agenda; socialpolicies promote gender equity; and a discourse of rights which joins gender

to racial and other forms of discrimination and injustice suffuses the new ideologies and practices of both government and civil society organisations.The education sector, too, has seen a similar movement towards gender equity

Contrast this with the situation as late as 1993 when Cabinet consistedentirely of white men The silence on gender equity in government and busi-ness was as deafening as that on racial and class equity Social policies weredesigned to keep intact a system that fixed women and men into relation-ships of inferiority and superiority based on their race and class An over-arching gender ideology was predicated on a profound separation betweenthe roles that men and women were seen as playing in the public and privatespheres Education underpinned this system in multiple ways – from the official curriculum that was taught, to the hidden curriculum that infusedeveryday schooling practices such as who was more likely to do maths andscience, or technical education and domestic science, and who swept andkept classrooms clean

Although structured by race, class and the ‘patchwork of patriarchies’ (Bozzoli1983) that characterises South Africa, the lives and experiences of women inthe apartheid period were not those of passive victims (Walker 1982) This history is the subject of numerous writings In the 1970s and 1980s, a climate

of engaged, grassroots anti-apartheid activism shaped an emergent feministpolitics and research Writing about women and gender occurred both with-

in and outside the academy (see for example Cock 1989; Bozzoli 1983; Driver1985; Mashinini 1989; Qunta 1987) And by the mid-1980s, anti-apartheidorganisations such as the United Democratic Front (UDF), and trade unionssuch as the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), were acknowl-edging the distinct dynamic and importance of gender politics and justice(Lewis 2004a) In the early 1990s, in the context of the transition to democra-

cy, there was also an explosion of significant autobiographies: ‘each writer isconcerned with how, as a woman, she enters the spheres of work, domesticityand anti-apartheid politics, spheres which are consequently shown to bedefined by rigid racial dynamics and gender hierarchies and stereotypes’(Lewis 2004b; see also Kuzwayo 1985; Magona 1990, 1992; Ramphele 1995;Unterhalter 2002)

By 1994, there was a history, legacy and literature of women’s history and role

in the anti-apartheid struggle Although only a minority of women woulddefine themselves as feminist, and a feminist movement is not a feature ofSouth African politics, there were substantial women who played a significantrole in emerging trade unions and civil society organisations that challengeddominant gender relations The same was true of the education sphere, wherewomen were in the forefront of organising in the new teachers’ union move-ment that became the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu).And there was a small literature on gender and education (Chisholm &Unterhalter 1999; Enslin 1993/4; Gaitskell 1983; Morrell 1992; Truscott 1992).But many challenges still existed, given the racial, class and cultural practicesthat still reinforced gender inequality These included the need to identify andmobilise men and women both within and outside government to promoteand support an agenda of change and transformation in gender relations

Gender Equity Task Team

It was in this context that the Department of Education appointed a GenderEquity Task Team (GETT) in 1996 with AnnMarie Wolpe as its chair Its brief

was to advise the Department on the merits of establishing a Gender EquityUnit in the Department of Education (DoE)and what its form and composi-tion should be The GETT went well beyond this brief and when it submittedits report in 1997, provided a comprehensive and searching analysis of thefield of education, the conditions and structural constraints, the role that education in South Africa has played and can play in addressing inequalities

on the basis of gender, as well as education’s link to civil and familial society.Even though it is not yet ten years since the publication of the GETT Report,the occasion of South Africa’s Ten Years of Democracy celebrations invitedreflection on what has been achieved in the sphere of gender equity in educa-tion The Report provides a benchmark as a record of conditions in the field

at the time of transition to democracy, an approach to gender as well as a set

of recommendations, the realisation of which, in practice, can be evaluatedfrom different perspectives

The GETT Report provided path-breaking analyses of gender across the field

of education It analysed practice and charted the need for interventions in:

• Early Childhood Development;

• Schooling;

• Further Education and Training;

• Higher Education and Training;

• Adult Basic Education and Training;

• Gender and educational management;

• Gender and disability; and

• Sex-based violence in schools

The Report, as Wolpe points out in her chapter, recognised that equity did notmean affirmative action that favoured women, and it meant more than theprovision of equal access to educational facilities The Task Team Report(Wolpe, Quinlan & Martinez 1997) defined gender equality as:

Meeting women’s, men’s, girls’ and boys’ needs in order for them

to compete in the formal and informal labour market, to

partici-pate fully in civil society and to fulfil their familial roles adequately

without being discriminated against because of their gender

The Report made recommendations, as AnnMarie Wolpe shows in her ter, on a range of issues: from the establishment of a Gender Equity Unit inthe DoE, to how the links between sexual violence, HIV/AIDS and gender

identity could be addressed in and outside the curriculum, to the training ofteachers and administrators, to how women’s representation in the manage-ment and administration of education could be improved, to where and howresearch should be developed These recommendations had to be backed bylegal means It was also widely recognised then, as it is now, that they required

a strong movement committed to gender equity to ensure that they could beintroduced and sustained

From the perspective of early 2004, it is possible to point to much that haschanged since 1996, and much that has remained the same The immediatepost-apartheid period saw both the assertion of women as equal partners inall spheres and, on the one hand, increasing social and familial violenceagainst women and girls as well as, on the other, continuing high levels ofunemployment and poverty amongst women Ten years after South Africa’sdemocratic elections, research and social action on gender equity in SouthAfrican education is a significant challenge Then, as now, the evidence showsthat girls’ access to education is not the greatest challenge in South Africa Thequality of girls’ participation in schooling and the outcomes are far more significant The impact of HIV/AIDS on the quality of education, as providedand experienced, has become an issue of major concern (Epstein et al 2004;HSRC 2001; Moletsane et al 2002; Morrell et al 2001) And the continuingrole of culture in justifying and legitimising social practices that entrench inequalities has been highlighted by the passage of legislation that effectivelycements women in rural areas into patriarchal relationships in which they canneither inherit nor enjoy equal rights with men (Enslin 2000)

The reciprocal relationship of gender and quality in education are criticallylinked to equity issues but the research that can provide a basis for action isextremely thin Evidence does exist that girls may stay longer in school andperform better than boys overall, as well as outperform boys in highly com-petitive subjects at the top end of the spectrum But the reasons for this arepoorly understood and do not occur across all contexts (Perry 2003) There isalso continuing evidence of significant barriers in higher education and thelabour market (Subotzky 2003) Achievements in school do not appear totranslate into success in higher education or the labour market

Related to these issues is the broader question of a network of researchers,practitioners and campaigners to address the issues in a number of different

ways Without such a network to develop and sustain initiatives, interventionsare unlikely to succeed Indeed, it could be argued that the absence of such anetwork hinders progress in achieving goals of gender equity and quality ineducation in South Africa (Truscott 1992; Chisholm 2003).

Purpose and background of the conference

With these issues in mind, and given the ten years of democracy focusthroughout South Africa, we discussed the possibility of bringing together acombination of feminists in government and civil society to reassess the state

of research on gender equity in South Africa This initiative was the outcome

of an ongoing conversation between ourselves since the 1990s Jean had been

a leading figure in the teachers’ union in the late 1980s and early 1990s andwas acutely aware of how gender issues were undermined despite the lip-service paid to it Linda, as the director of the University of the WitwatersrandEducation Policy Unit in the 1990s, worked closely with the teachers’ union onresearching gender policies and practices, amongst other things

By the late 1990s both of us saw disturbing shifts in the role of women

in the union, with many previously powerful women in it marginalised – relegated either to the inconsequential Gender Desk or other positions withlittle status, or to the lower rungs in the union These shifts were not, we felt,unique to the union, but reflected something broader In a searching analysis

of the impact of the institutionalisation of gender equality in the SouthAfrican state since 1994, Shireen Hassim has argued that the effectiveness ofgender machinery was undermined both by the culture of the bureaucracy, aswell as by the broader fiscal constraints within which redistributive policiesfor women were articulated (Hassim 2003) The significance of these devel-opments in and for education was profound This was underlined for Lindaduring her work on the revision of Curriculum 2005 for the government Andstrengthening the voice of civil society became a central part of Jean’s work

in the British Council It was only in 2003 that we were both in positions(Linda at the HSRC and Jean at the British Council) that enabled us to try tobring the broader issue into focus in the context of a reassessment of genderequity since 1994 Neither of us are any longer directly involved with theunion, but both of us remain convinced of its critical role in shaping the character of education through its members and influence – and the trans-

formation of gender relations in schools is a crucial dimension of this.Likewise the role of research and government is not insignificant.

Others were also involved in the project from the beginning Discussions wereheld with the ‘Gender Education and Development: Beyond Access’ project.Elaine Unterhalter at the Institute of Education in London and Sheila Aikman

of Oxfam co-ordinate this project The ‘Beyond Access’ project aims to achievethe Millennium Development Goal of promoting gender equality and em-powering women by critically examining knowledge about how to achievegender equitable basic education It uses a series of seminars to bring togetherinternational development education policy-makers, practitioners, academicsand campaigners to examine issues concerned with gender equality and qual-ity basic education for children in low and middle-income countries Animportant dimension is linking researchers and policy-makers in order tostimulate new research agendas and hone initiatives in the area These discus-sions informed the nature of the conference and led to the idea of seeing theSouth African conference as part of the process of mobilising awareness inSouth Africa around the Millenium Development Goal of promoting genderequality

Vernet Napo, based at the Centre for Education Policy Development andManagement (CEPD) and a former Gender Focal Person in the GautengDepartment of Education, was keenly interested and involved from the begin-ning, and provided a direct link with the government’s Gender Focal Personnetwork A conversation with Naledi Pandor, before she became Minister ofEducation, ensured the support of the Forum for Women’s Educators ofSouth Africa – as she was the president of the South African chapter of thisorganisation with the intention of taking up the GETT focus

A broad group of women, mainly from outside government, was drawntogether at initial meetings at the HSRC to thrash out the aims and purposesand discuss a programme for the conference They included Daisy Makofanefrom the University of the North, Lomthie Mavimbela from the EducationFoundation, Claudia Mitchell from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, VernetNapo from the CEPD, Hersheela Narsee, a PhD student from the University

of Pretoria and associate of the CEPD, Jenni Schindler from EduSource,Vuyisa Tanga from Pentech, Elaine Unterhalter from the University ofLondon, AnnMarie Wolpe, former chair of the GETT and Carolyn McKinney

from HSRC From these meetings the aims of the conference emerged asbeing to:

• Revive gender activism in education;

• Take stock of ten years of gender equity in education and pay special

attention to issues in rural areas;

• Explore new thinking and fresh perspectives on gender equity and

education;

• Consider comparative and regional research; and

• Design a sustainable strategy and implementation plan

Given that the conference operated on a budget provided by the SwedishInternational Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the British Counciland the HSRC, participation at the conference was limited to about 50 people The main purpose was to invite people working on gender equity

in education in the fields of government, research and civil society The conference programme and papers were organised around these issues The programme was planned with fewer papers to maximise participation and discussion There were papers from government, researchers and members ofcivil society Unfortunately it was not possible to include all the contributionsmade and papers presented Presenters, chairs of sessions and rapporteurs,such as Vivienne Carelse, Vuyisa Tanga, Keith Ruiters, Nazir Carrim, MandySanger, Gertrude Fester and others, all made vivid verbal presentations oncivil society, the gender machinery in government, and the role and relation-ship of masculinity to gender politics and practice, respectively, but these werenot captured on tape Day-to-day pressures subsequent to the conference prevented participants from submitting the more formal papers required forthis volume

Naledi Pandor’s keynote address was the first public presentation she madeafter her appointment as Minister of Education Women in her position oftenbacktrack from their feminist commitments once in public office Her pres-entation was unequivocal about her commitment, during her term of office,

to questions of gender Her chapter addresses the overt and hidden face ofgender inequality The overt face includes an assessment of the mixed progressmade since GETT in three main areas: gender mainstreaming, capacity-building and acting to reduce gender-based violence The hidden face she sees

in the glass ceilings women face, the hidden curriculum, the silencing ofwomen’s voices, and the general absence of attention to gender in mainstream

research The chapter explores the rights women and girls have won and need

to continue to struggle for, and the gendered assumptions that influencebeliefs about men and women which in turn also impact on behaviour It concludes by arguing that ‘women and girls have begun to break down thoseeducation and training barriers, but there is no room for complacency.’

Key issues

This speech set the tone for the discussions that followed As in all ences, common themes and issues emerged both as part of and outside theformal presentations These included the weakness of structures and organi-sations inside and outside government tasked with taking up gender issues,the need for a deeper theoretical understanding of the ways in which culturalassumptions inform gendered practices, the interrelated challenges faced

confer-by researchers and activists, the ongoing critical issue of sexual violence,HIV/AIDS and gendered identities, and the meaning and importance of

‘gender struggle’ in relation to both men and women, and girls and boys.The weakness of structures and individuals working on gender was a criticalissue (for broader analysis see Hassim 2003; Mtintso 2003; Seidman 2003) Atthe conference it emerged that there is a lack of coordination amongst the various organs of the national gender machinery: the Office of the Status ofWomen, the Commission on Gender Equality, the Gender Unit in theDepartment of Education, and Gender Focal Persons in each province Thenational machinery is unable to monitor, evaluate and implement gender programmes effectively – this relates in part to its status The overall experi-ence of people working on gender – whether in government or in unions – isone of marginalisation; ongoing forms of undermining and humiliation arepart of their daily experience There is a major gap between gender policiesand what happens at the classroom level – policies and publications areimpressive but how they are mediated and communicated at school level is aproblem There is also a lack of gender sensitivity amongst departmental officials, coupled with gender rhetoric unmatched by gender-sensitive organ-isational cultures There is a dire need for understanding the link betweenintervention at school level but also at a family and community level in order

to influence the current patterns of socialisation

In discussions on the state of research on gender and education, the conferencesaw a need for different types of research asking a range of different questions A critical question that emerged was, what has happened across allthe areas examined by the GETT Report – what constitutes the changing contexts, research base, the successes and failures, experiences and ongoing challenges across early childhood education, school education (including theformal and hidden curriculum as it operates in the classroom), further andhigher education, teacher education, adult education and technical education?What types of strategies are necessary, especially in rural areas? What are thespecial issues that are faced by learners, teachers and managers as women andmen in educational institutions? How are boys and girls socialised at home, incommunities, and in schools in different contexts? What are the patterns ofaccess, equity, quality and relevance in education as they pertain to gender?What is the role of sexual abuse, violence and HIV/AIDS? What is the relation-ship between gender equity, masculinity and backlash in the form of ongoingviolence against and humiliation of girls and women as well as some boys? How

do we understand the resistances to gender change initiatives in schools?

A related question was what it means to mainstream gender, and how thisshould be monitored and evaluated at both national and classroom level

The use of different methodologies was advocated: quantitative researchshould take on board development of indicators that capture not only resour-cist but also capabilities approaches; qualitative research should explore themultiple ways of telling gender stories Scorecards can be developed, in conjunction with provincial departments of education, to provide publiclyaccountable means of assessing and presenting different levels of genderequality The lives of girls and women can also be mapped using a variety ofvisual and narrative techniques

In so far as the meaning of the gender struggle was concerned, and the tionship of women’s issues to the new masculinity movement, the Australianexperience was instructive It pointed, amongst other things, to the successesand consequent backlash of a boys’ movement that saw boys as victims ofgirls’ empowerment This movement took the language of gender reform andapplied it to boys This movement must be distinguished from those for menand approaches to gender and masculinity that are sympathetic to equity forgirls and women The conference saw a need for becoming conscious of how

backlash functions in South Africa, how masculinity is constructed, and whatthe relations are between backlash, violent masculinities and social and economic processes of marginalisation Even as there is a need to constantlyunderstand the conditions of women’s subordination, it is important to stressthat gender relations concern both men and women.

The papers presented at the conference, and included here as chapters, are allsubstantial contributions They cast light, from many angles, on the differentdimensions and needs in research and social action related to gender in education

New perspectives and theoretical approaches

The chapters by Subrahmanian, Kenway and Odora-Hoppers place the SouthAfrican developments and debates within an international context Reflecting

on the state of the debate in the literature on education and development,Subrahmanian points to the ‘parallel march’ of gender rights and equality discourses and contemporary market-led reforms that are sweeping across the

developing world She shows how equality gains – the acceptance in

develop-ment and political discourse of the importance of gender equality – have not

translated into actions that achieve equity gains – the meaningful

redistribu-tion of resources and opportunities and the transformaredistribu-tion of condiredistribu-tionsunder which women make choices Women’s choices remain constrained inthe reproductive and labour market arenas And this is despite the fact thatwomen are mobilised in and through community and bottom-up develop-ment approaches – these are commonly based on normalised assumptions ofwomen’s predispositions towards community and family service and so inten-sifying their burdens

Subrahmanian shows how women are central also to neo-liberal educationdiscourses in so far as ‘their reproductive labour is seen as fundamental to theachievement of development’, and in so far as they remain largely excludedfrom skills and vocational training Her chapter ends with a consideration ofthe importance of the material and social bases of gender inequality: theseunderpin and shape how rights can be drawn on and exercised The lack ofattention to these underlying issues, structures and choices is significant, shemaintains, and results in making little impact on the conditions under whichwomen are being offered ‘rights’ in a market-driven world

If Subrahmanian problematises the rights and gains that have been achieved

by women in a broader developmental context that draws on her knowledgeand experience of India, Jane Kenway’s chapter reflects on the Australianexperience of gender equity in education over several decades Here womenwere successful in gaining access to government, shaped policy, and forcefullyinserted gender equity measures into emerging education policy And yetthese gains are now being rolled back Her chapter engages with the emer-gence of the boys’ movement on the one hand, and masculinity studies, on theother It is a salutary reminder that gains are reversible and that genderrequires ongoing work on many different levels simultaneously

Odora-Hoppers’s chapter traverses a range of issues associated with the lessons and challenges learnt about institutional change: what it is we havelearnt about ‘gender’ and its varied meanings, about the ‘state’, ‘roles’ and

‘needs’ (practical and strategic) and how to measure gender inequality.Interested in the policy process, she probes the neglected area of the tacticaldimension of gender policy implementation and the experience of womenonce they have ‘joined the club.’ She looks into what happens once they havegained access, whether through ‘merit’ or ‘affirmative action’ ‘What was once

a physical/ numerical marginality,’ she argues, ‘becomes a discursive ality in the sense that institutions are not compelled to transform in any fundamental manner the tenets of their policy and practice beyond surfaceresponses to legislative injunctions for affirmative action.’ ‘Integration’ and

margin-‘mainstreaming’ she maintains, need to be revisited Like Subrahmanian, shefeels that in seeking to influence activities in the mainstream, there is a needfor awareness of the ‘dialectic between individual consciousness and structur-

al determinants, and how as individuals we may be unwitting carriers ofprocesses of whose consequences we may not even be aware’ as well as

‘holders of a key to the door of strategic change’

Mapping gender inequality in education in South Africa

The chapters by Unterhalter and Mitchell provide two windows into differentways of approaching gender inequality in education: Elaine Unterhalter fromthe perspective of policy and quantitative assessment of gender inequality andClaudia Mitchell from the perspective of ethnographic, qualitative approach-

es that enable telling the stories of girls in South Africa in the age of AIDS

Both are exemplary methodological essays that show how feminist approachescan challenge both content and method Both approach the subject of assess-ing how far South Africans interested in gender equity in education havecome, tentatively and from a multi-perspective Each shows how it is possible

to do the same thing in different ways Neither paper sets up the one true path

or method; both are open to different possibilities

A common theme in the papers is the need to go ‘beyond access’ Unterhalter’schapter examines four different approaches to understanding gender, equali-

ty and education and how they each yield different ways of measuring andscoring educational success of boys and girls She terms these approachesresourcist, structuralist, post-structuralist and capabilities The resourcistaccount, which is principally concerned with access, seems to show that there

is no real problem in South Africa While there may be some gender disparitywith regard to the gross enrolment ratio for girls at the primary level, the gen-eral trend is one of either gender parity or of gender inequality with regard toboys In other words, ‘girls have equal if not slightly better opportunities than boys with regard to being enrolled in education.’ Using test scores andilliteracy rates, it is also clear that girls achieve equally Structuralist approacheshave developed a Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) that is applied outside of education; there is as yet no such measure for education But thismeasure, which looks amongst other things at women’s role in politics and thelabour market, suggests that ‘the levels of equality are considerably lower thanthe resourcist measures would suggest’

Her own contribution to the debate, which she makes with Harry Brighousewith whom she has worked on this issue, is through the work and capabilityapproach of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum This suggests an alternativeapproach to evaluation, which is based on the freedoms individuals have toengage in what they, and how they, value ‘being’ and ‘doing’ in the world This

is a difficult path to tread, facing opposition and criticism not only from thosewho oppose measurement and scorecards but also in the complexity of thetask that is being set and envisaged But this is innovative work and wouldundoubtedly benefit from further discussion with the DoE and provincialGender Focal Persons who are most likely to use it

Tests, measurements and scorecards are one way of assessing how far we havecome since 1994 And there are different ways of doing this Telling the stories

of girls and boys is another Telling it within the age of AIDS, Mitchell’s chapter provides a striking overview of literatures and methodologies by look-ing at what the starting points for telling the story might be – when it is toldvisually, through statistics or oral narratives of girls, a review of the literature

or one’s own experience She provides an account of her own attempts as part

of a group of women, to map and ‘fully understand the biological, social,economic and educational vulnerabilities of girls in the age of AIDS’ and todevelop a ‘feminist mapping project, which would place at the centre the idea

of interdisciplinarity in studying girlhood’ Such a project would form part of

a burgeoning literature on girlhood, and would require disaggregating hood itself, a girl-audit, interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary alliances – allthis within a careful examination of the space that exists within the activistand academic communities for synthesising the kind of work discussed in the chapter

girl-Government activism and civil society mobilisation

Together, the chapters by Unterhalter and Mitchell give us a perspective

on different possibilities within and across quantitative and qualitativemethodologies for assessing gender equity in 2004 Reflecting on develop-ments within government and Sadtu, the chapters by Wolpe, Ramagoshi andMannah highlight the gains that have been made and the challenges thatremain within government and the largest teachers’ union, Sadtu There isremarkable unanimity in their assessment that, despite achievements at a discursive and programmatic level, the conditions under which gender issuescan be taken up effectively are remarkably constrained All three papers high-light the cultural and ideological belief systems that underpin, on the onehand, difficulties of women in leadership in government and unions and, onthe other, sex-based violence linked to HIV/AIDS

Four things are of central concern in AnnMarie Wolpe’s chapter The first isthe limited take-up by the DoE of the recommendations of the GETT Report.The second is the actual content of GETT and what it tried to achieve Thethird is the importance of an adequate theoretical knowledge and under-standing amongst departmental officials, teachers and others working inschools, of the ‘processes whereby ideas of appropriate gender behaviour thatare entrenched in our cultural patterns have become an everyday part of our

lives’ And the fourth is the linkage between sexual violence, HIV/AIDS andgender identities.

Mmabatho Ramagoshi addresses the conditions under which gender is beingtackled in the DoE She points out that despite the fact that ‘there are clearmarching orders from government’, recognition and resources remain a con-stant source of struggle She highlights the department’s programmes in thearea of gender, which include programmes dealing principally with sexualabuse and violence at different levels of the system These also promote a GirlsEducation Movement and Boys Empowerment Programme In 2003, shenotes, the Department targeted 100 boys per province for workshops on gender, masculinity, responsible sexuality and HIV/AIDS Her observationabout what came out of these workshops reinforces Wolpe’s concerns.Ramagoshi draws attention to ‘how the socio-cultural belief systems areengraved in the minds of these young people and unless the departmentdevelops school-based programmes that target these young men and women,there will be a problem’

Shermain Mannah’s chapter is concerned with how teachers’ unions havemobilised around the interests of women given the high levels of rape, physicalviolence, poverty and HIV/AIDS She shows that the union has made significant gains, including the establishment of gender desks, achieving parity in salaries between men and women, intervening in curriculum develop-ment to ensure that a human rights framework is central, and taking up a zerotolerance policy on sexual harassment Sadtu, she says, ‘was the first teachers’union to break the silence by acknowledging that our teachers are dying ofAIDS Since then the union has mobilised both in prevention (through ongoingeducation) as well as treatment (through the Treatment Action Campaign)’.However, the main challenges remain around equity at leadership level and inthe patriarchal cultural of the union: ‘The paradox facing trade unions is thatwhile they seek influence over labour, economic and political matters for theirconstituency, they continue to function within a male-dominated ethos andcontinue to remain powerful patriarchal organisations.’ This is maintainedthrough institutional sexism that takes both a formal and informal form –

on the one hand women continue to be subject to rape and harassment within the union, and on the other, the informal organisational rules of theorganisation place pressures on women that are not placed on men and

constrain their activism Like the departmental Gender Focal Persons, and its counterparts in other Cosatu affiliates, the Gender Desk in the union ‘islargely marginalised from the core work of the union and therefore suffers aparalysis in terms of implementation’ The way forward, she argues, concur-ring with Wolpe and Ramagoshi, must include ‘tackling the ideology thatkeeps women in oppression’ and linking with and learning from other womenand women’s organisations.

The contribution by Janine Moolman also emphasises the role of patriarchy:

it ‘is insidious, catches us off guard, disguised as “progressive policy” or

“programmes for women” It works towards maintaining the status quo,paralysing efforts to bring about true equality’ Focusing on the responsesfrom civil society, she is concerned with how co-operation is ensured whilemaintaining the integrity of research, the work of civil society and govern-ment She notes a shift in how organisation in civil society has occurred overthe last decade – towards much more sectoral and specific interventions.Although there is a great deal of research and intellectual activity in these sectors, there is little interaction between various groups at a critical level.She highlights three main areas of activism around gender and education:violence against women and girls, increasing girls’ access to education,supporting women in leadership, and developing materials and support forteachers to deal with gendered, cultural and other biases Her chapter endswith a call for ‘dialogue and partnerships between the academy, civil societystructures and governments.’

Aftermath: postscript

The conference outcome was energising The clear lack of debate and sion about gender equity in education and the lack of keeping apace with current international or national perspectives gave us an opportunity toreview and reflect on what we are doing This was the first workshop or seminar in a number of years to take stock of where we are, but more impor-tantly, to also begin to re-envision the gender debates in the education sector

discus-in South Africa discus-in the current context In order to move forward with theagenda of the conference, the participants proposed that a steering committee

be established to take these issues forward to the Minister of Education Themain items to draw to her attention included:

• The need to revisit, revitalise and re-envision the GETT Report at both apractical and an empirical level; and

• The need to provide support to the Gender Equity Unit and GenderFocal Persons

The steering committee, brought into being by the Conference, met with theminister in mid-2004 to communicate these concerns In October 2004 sheappointed a Ministerial Committee under the leadership of Sheila Tyeku toreview and assess the extent to which gender equity has been implementedthroughout the education system and to make recommendations on how itcould be fast-tracked The Committee will report in 2005

The conference, of which this collection is an outcome, thus also resulted inthe establishment of the Ministerial Committee, an unprecedented step in thehistory of South African education, with potentially significant consequencesfor the system as a whole However, it is important also to note the criticalrecognition by conference participants of linking a sense of agency andchange not only to intervention by government, but also to locating suchagency firmly in independent action In this regard, the need for a broad net-work of gender activists in education working across theory and practice stillremains

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Keynote address

The hidden face of gender inequality

in South African education

Naledi Pandor

We must address gender inequality in our education system

We have not lacked seminars and conferences on this important subject

I wish to refer to a speech that I gave to a similarly entitled conference fiveyears ago (29 September 1999):

There are clear indications that South African educators and

policy-makers hold the view that there is no gender equity

challenge confronting girls and women in the education sector

A number of indicators confirm this rather pessimistic viewpoint

Firstly, there is not a single policy in education directed at

affirm-ing the access of girls and women Secondly, despite the recent

direct focus on education transformation, the focus seems to be

on school resources, teacher behaviour and performance; little or

no attention has been given to sexual harassment, to active

changes in the gendered nature of the curriculum, to the

imple-mentation of the Gender Equity Task Team (GETT) Report and to

a range of concerns arising from the absence of gender equity in

our policy focus

Even educators are neglected in this area Stories abound of the

sexual harassment that women staff and teachers face from male

teachers, male pupils, and male principals The education

depart-ments in provinces and nationally are staffed by males at senior

level and seemingly convey the view that education is the domain

of male expertise and competence

Sounds familiar? Has any progress been made over the past five years?

A little background is required to remind us of the context within which myearlier comments were made:

The first Minister of Education, Professor Bhengu, appointed a Gender EquityTask Team (GETT) in 1996 The task team’s main aim was to advise on theestablishment of a permanent Gender Equity Unit in the Department ofEducation (DoE) But it was also required to do the following:

• Identify means of correcting gender imbalances in enrolments,

dropouts, subject choice, career paths and performance;

• Advise on the educational and social desirability and legal implications

• Propose a strategy to counter and eliminate sexism, sexual harassmentand gender violence throughout the education system

The GETT Report made recommendations on all these issues As a result

of the report, but also as a response to our constitutional mandate to ensuregender equity, the DoE adopted three principles (DoE 2003):

• First, we agreed to mainstream gender in all educational functions, asopposed to treating gender equity, as well as other equity concerns, asadd-on functions;

• Second, we agreed to build capacity among all stakeholders to ment gender equity policy and programmes; and

imple-• Third, we agreed to act swiftly and sharply to reduce the incidence ofgender-based violence and harassment in the education system as awhole

It is useful to consider whether we have been successful in putting these ciples into practice and in overcoming the legacy of gender inequality in oureducation system

prin-Firstly, as far as gender mainstreaming is concerned, the DoE set up a NationalGender Co-ordinating Committee composed of Gender Focal Persons fromprovincial education departments This committee monitors gender main-streaming in the provinces

Although it meets quarterly, the committee is not functioning as well as itshould Its objective is to engage senior managers about their transformationagendas and gender equity strategies Yet it appears that in some provincessenior managers are not taking gender equity as seriously as they should.

Secondly, as far as building capacity is concerned, the gender unit has a mandate to ensure that gender equity is promoted within the education sector Suffice it to say, there is room for much improvement

For example, staff at our gender equity directorate told me about a womanwho applied for a job as a principal She was invited for an interview, only to

be told when she arrived that they had thought she was a man … judging byher name (Her name ‘Ayanda’ can be used for both males and females.) She

was turned away That is something that should not happen and will not

happen in future

And, thirdly, the issue of sexual violence has been addressed through the opment of appropriate policies These policies have begun to have an impact.What about the hidden face of gender inequality? So much work has beendone over the past 30 years, in a variety of disciplines, to uncover this hiddenface that it takes a moment to recall what remains hidden

devel-The violence against girl learners has both an open and a hidden face: it is open

in the sexual abuse of girls in public places and it has a shameful private,hidden face It is worrying that this problem is so prevalent in our schools.These are the places where behaviour is shaped and where positive valuesshould be inculcated Curriculum 2005 implies that a new set of values can betaught in schools We must ensure that it will be implemented with such a focus

We have passed laws to ensure equality in employment practices, but we allknow about the hidden glass ceiling that leads to the unequal distribution ofmen and women in leadership positions within education

But there is another sense in which gender inequality is ‘hidden’ Ivan Illichcoined the concept of a ‘hidden curriculum’ It has become a well-knownphrase in the study of education What it means is that the overt curriculum

of schools and other establishments where formal education takes place ismuch less important, in the long run, than the covert process of subtle repres-sion, which is their real curriculum

One of the ways in which that subtle repression manifests itself is in how seldom women’s voices are heard in our society A recent study of the mediashowed that black women are the source of less than 5 per cent of the storiesprinted or reported over the past year (SAPA 2003).

It is also reflected in the way in which gender is not so much hidden as absent.For example, the HSRC has just published a large volume on human resourcedevelopment, large in size and in the subject covered (Kraak and Perold 2003).The HSRC also went to the trouble of publishing an executive summary of thework as a small book in itself (Kraak 2003) I looked there in vain for an analy-sis of gender in our education system I found out about age and race and theyouth in our schools, higher education institutions, and our labour market,but nothing about the peculiar problems that girls and women face in oureducation system

This lack of attention to gender flies in the face of the third MillenniumDevelopment Goal: to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment.That goal is not achievable if we only focus on eliminating gender disparities

in primary and secondary education We need to capture the difficulties related

to girls’ performance at school The underlying general assumption is that

a sustained gender ratio in school attendance indicates satisfactory tional performance However, we know that sexual harassment of schoolgirlsseriously affects their performance and future opportunities – even when theyperform well enough to stay in the school system

educa-We need to reinforce respect for women’s rights in relation to education,control of reproductive rights, and freedom from violence Where women andgirls experience extreme and disproportionate vulnerability as a result ofgender-based violence and discrimination, we must be prepared to fight forwomen’s rights

Gendered assumptions are built into language, culture, and into the structures

of knowledge We have to unravel how gender biases affect what is recognised

as ‘truth’ We need to understand how beliefs about men and women affect theway men and women are seen and treated For example, one DoE discussiondocument says the following:

Gender intersects with race in very complex ways in our

schools Education is both a producer and a product of gender

discrimination The depiction of white boys as driven and

ambitious, white girls as sex objects, black boys as aggressive and

violent and black girls as inconsequential are pervasive in our

education system These stereotypes deny boys and girls access to

equal opportunities and therefore create different life chances

(CEM 2004)

There is one final sense in which gender inequality is hidden: in numbers

There are more women than men in South Africa’s demographic profile Weknow that there are more girls than boys in our schools And we know thatthere are more girls than boys in our tertiary institutions

Why is this the case? We do not know for certain Part of the answer lies in thegrowth of female-headed households – they have eroded female complicitywith patriarchy Where women control household resources, a greater share isdevoted to the education of girl children Studies show that there is a strongcorrelation between educational achievement of women and child survival.But there must be other explanations as well

The numerical dominance of female learners and women students is not

unique to South Africa The Guardian recently (18 May 2004) published a

story, ‘Where have all the young men gone?’, which pointed out that this dominance also occurred in the UK, the US, Canada, Germany, France andTrinidad Not only do girls and women dominate in terms of numbers, theyalso have a different attitude to learning to boys and men They appear to bemore flexible, equipped to cope with different modes of teaching and assess-ment Yet although girls do better at school in previously male-dominatedsubjects, such as science and maths, proportionately fewer of them take these

up to degree level In other words, the gender gap is perpetuated at anotherlevel

The challenge of female illiteracy still confronts many adult women in SouthAfrica The right to education will not be realised if mothers cannot appreci-ate the benefits of education In this regard, we have begun to appreciate theimportance of parent participation in transforming education It is difficult toimagine parents being convinced of this possibility if they view education assomething distant and mysterious

South African women are being drawn more and more into work Many ofthem are household heads or the main breadwinner Women need educationand training They require access to non-traditional skills and opportunities.They should be trained for work; they should learn new technologies; andacquire problem-solving skills In the field of higher education there needs to

be a comprehensive effort at improving women’s access to non-traditionalskills More women need to enter the fields of engineering, medicine, law andcommerce Technology education is also a field of knowledge that womenshould access in greater numbers

In conclusion, it is important to repeat that women and girls have begun tobreak down those education and training barriers but there is no room forcomplacency

Our population statistics indicate that the majority in South Africa is female.During the 2004 elections two million more women than men registered tovote We cannot afford to neglect a majority again

The social progress of South Africa requires that we should nurture all our talent However, the fact that the majority of those who are poor and un-educated are female demands targeted attention to the education of girls andwomen

References

CEM (Council of Education Ministers) (2004) Racism in education: Strategy for racial

integration Discussion document

DoE (Department of Education, South Africa) (2003) Gender equality in education.

Pretoria: DoE policy document

Kraak A (2003) An overview of South African human resources development.

Cape Town: HSRC Press

Kraak A & Perold H (eds.) (2003) Human resources development review 2003:

Education, employment and skills in South Africa Cape Town: HSRC Press

SAPA (South African Press Agency) 7 August 2003

Chapter 1

Gender equity in education:

A perspective from development

Ramya Subrahmanian

Introduction

This paper focuses on some current gender equity issues in education, ing on a broad and generalised picture of issues that are confronting genderjustice approaches, in particular, and development, in general The main concern is to locate issues in education within the broader context of recentshifts in development paradigms and thinking, and in particular, to identifytrends that have implications for advancing gender equality in development,and in education

draw-Setting the context

If there is one word that helps to capture the prevailing mood in development,then it would be at best ‘ambivalence’ (Molyneux & Razavi 2002) Thisambivalence stems from prevailing trends in global development – on the onehand, the march of market-led development, on the other, the demand forgreater rights and democratisation among diverse and post-colonial societies.The parallel development of these two broad discourses and approaches hasgiven rise to many tensions and challenges On the one hand, the emphasis

on the individual and the ‘freedom of contract’ in neo-liberal constructions

of the goals of policy has enabled women’s rights advocates to place the discourses of gender equality on the agenda within a rights framework; on theother, the discourse of market-led efficient development has served to con-stantly undermine the rights of the most disadvantaged social and economicgroups reproducing inequality Thus ‘rights’ are increasingly being conflatedwith ‘choice’ – assertions of rights are often interpreted in terms of the actions

of ‘consumers’ rather than ‘citizens’ (Cornwall & Gaventa 2001) In education,

these trends are seen in the rise of privatisation and marketisation of tion systems and institutions The right to education is determined in such anenvironment by assessing the individual’s ‘willingness and ability to pay’ onthe one hand, and the existence of ‘exit’ and ‘voice’ options based on servicecompetition and purchasing power, on the other.

educa-Neo-liberal economic discourse is increasingly shaping the way in which icy approaches are evolving in other spheres, for example that of social policyand governance systems (Molyneux & Razavi 2002) Education has alwaysbeen particularly prone to this form of ideological capture, given the privatenature of the returns arising from it While the case for public investment ineducation has been fought for and made central to education policy (see, forexample, Colclough 1997), particularly in the face of the human resourcecrises in many countries, these developments have taken place in contradicto-

pol-ry political and institutional environments The case for universal educationhas been made simultaneous with an assault on the state and its capacities, forexample through structural adjustment policies For many countries in Africa,the assault on education systems (caused by underinvestment, the transfer ofcosts from the state to households, and the decimation of teacher morale) hasresulted in the need for substantial reconstruction and rebuilding during theEducation For All (EFA)-era, that is post-1990s

Thus while EFA and Millennium Development Goals (MDG) discourses maytalk the language of equality and empowerment – and while struggles fordemocratisation may open up spaces for the recognition of greater rights, par-ticularly socio-economic rights – the places where these rights can be claimedare also changing in form and shape A review of these spaces and places revealambiguities in the assessment of their promise (Cornwall 2004) Processes ofcommunity participation often place a burden on communities (and implic-itly on the poorest) to contribute to the resourcing of education, rather thanencourage their participation in decision-making (see for example, Rose2003) Increasing levels of income inequality can restrict the ability of thepoor to participate, and often reduces their choices to poor-quality govern-ment services as better-off groups vacate poor-quality government educationinstitutions (see, for example, Jha & Jhingran 2002, on India) This is a centraland contested point of debate, but one that has significant implications forwomen’s rights

What has the parallel march of markets and rights achieved for women in thepast decades? Much of the ambivalence arises from the tension between what

I will characterise as gains that are normative (in terms of setting standards and to some extent shaping agendas), and those that are redistributive (in

terms of transforming choices and the conditions under which choices aremade) This distinction between normative and redistributive I further extend

by differentiating between equality gains and equity gains By equality ‘gains’,

I particularly refer to the acceptance in development and political discourse of the importance of gender equality; by equity ‘gains’, I mean actions to trans-

late the standard of equality into meaningful redistribution of resources and

opportunities, and the transformation of the conditions in which women are

being encouraged to make choices Progress in both arenas has taken place,but I would argue, more in terms of establishing an equality discourse, andconsiderably less in terms of redistributive actions

Quantitative indicators of progress suggest that gender gaps in access to avariety of public goods are closing This is broadly true of schooling as well,particularly primary schooling The global policy discourse accepts genderequality as part of its lexicon Feminists spent much of the last few decades,but particularly the 1990s, making an effective case for universalist approaches

to human development and social justice, and arguing for the recognition ofgender equality as premised on inequitably valued difference This theninvolved making arguments for recognising family and the body as sites ofpolitics and equality, and arguing for the recognition of sexual choice, as well as violence within the home, to be considered matters for the develop-ment agenda

The sustainability of these gains is still a matter of concern The reversalsnoted in countries of the former Soviet Union and Central and EasternEurope following the demise of socialist governance, strikes a note of alarm(Magno et al 2003) Many of women’s gains have unravelled there, particu-larly in education and health, and curriculum analysis reveals disturbingstereotypes of the roles that men and women are expected to play in society.Success in moulding the international development discourse towards gender equality has been tempered with the subsequent contestation of thesegains This was evident during the debates at the Beijing conference and inthe numerous countries that have placed reservations on some of the corearticles of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of

Discrimination against Women The MDGs have also been criticised bydevelopment feminists for overriding (and reducing) the more elaboratearticulation of gender equality goals in the Beijing Platform for Action.Similarly, the EFA goals and documents do not make any reference to themore sophisticated delineations of gender equality and equity that are found

in a range of international instruments, both rights based as well as ment oriented (see Unesco 2003: 278–283) Yet, on the whole, if we take contestation as a positive sign of greater public debate around issues thatwere hitherto invisible and not even registered as meriting public concern,then there has been much advancement

develop-So although feminists have helped to transform some of the formal normativeareas around gender equality, we can argue that in terms of redistribution orequity, the picture is more mixed While women may arguably have morerights, particularly the right to equality, in reality there is a fundamental neglect of the basic needs that many women have, along particular axes ofsocio-economic disadvantage, relating to responsibility they bear within thehome While the emphasis on positive freedoms in the work of Amartya Sen(1999) has been useful in arguing for the rights of women, these freedomshave not been supported by sufficient redistribution to allow the development

of conditions under which these freedoms can become useful for women.What are the material conditions that prevent these freedoms from beingrealised? For most women it is the lack of labour resources within the homethat continues to be a fundamental and unaddressed problem

While social policy is becoming an increasingly important aspect of globalpolicy, linking production and reproduction and bringing together economicand social dimensions of development, the ‘normalisation’ of women’sresponsibilities within these spheres continues Policy debates have tended toneglect issues such as women’s unpaid work within the home, and have notmade a serious attempt to address the consequences of policies aimed atwomen’s reproductive and care burdens, thus tending generally to exacerbatethem The neo-liberal policy paradigm pushes financial burdens onto thehousehold without attending to the existing burdens borne by women, theirrelative lack of power or ability to renegotiate these responsibilities, and theimpact this has on their ability to participate in schooling, health, work andother development ‘priorities’ Attending to the importance of care work for the sustenance and reproduction of households and families, without

entrenching gender ideologies that see these as women’s ‘natural’ ities continues to be an intractable policy issue As Madeleine Bunting asks in

responsibil-a recent responsibil-article (‘Let’s tresponsibil-alk responsibil-about sex’) in the British Guresponsibil-ardiresponsibil-an newspresponsibil-aper, ‘How

[do] you reward and support carers without institutionalising gender roles?’(May 29, 2004: 21)

In terms of production, gains for women need to be contextualised within thewider trend towards an informal labour market, which involves the clustering

of women in forms of labour that continue to be devalued and remunerated (Razavi 2003) Though women today are working outside thehome more than ever before, in some cases the increase in female employ-ment comes at the expense of male employment Some analyses suggest thatthis can be partially explained by better methods of computing informal,seasonal, unpaid and casual labour However, the data also point to some realchanges: nowadays more women need to work to ensure their own survivaland that of their families to compensate for cutbacks made to public services.However, as Razavi (2003) argues, greater workforce participation has alsooccurred during a time when labour conditions deteriorated in many sectors,resulting in insecure conditions and the neglect of workers’ rights.Furthermore, cutbacks in welfare expenditure have pushed women’s concernwith their bodies and sexuality, and issues of care, into the background, result-ing in ‘silences’ in mainstream social policy research

under-The other arena in which there has been much change – but which remainssomewhat contested in terms of gains experienced by women – is the issue ofchanges in family size and structure The demographic transition in evidenceacross the world is hypothesised to liberate women from burdens, thusenabling them to participate unencumbered in public life (McNay 2003;Unesco 2003) This is an example of the ways in which choices for women arecontinually constructed on the assumption of particular domestic and repro-ductive responsibilities for women Education and demographic change areconsidered to be closely linked, although the causal relationship works bothways While in many contexts this may be true, it is not invariable that smaller families mean greater equality or empowerment options for women

In some cases, poverty and HIV/AIDS may result in a decline in fertility Inothers, a reduction in family size can exacerbate son-preference and biasagainst females Care for the elderly may also substitute care for children Andfinally, one-child policies may put more pressure on women to invest heavily

in the reproduction of their only child by increasing peer pressure, as evidencefrom Korea suggests (McNay 2003) Thus gains can only be measured mean-ingfully if they include the perspectives and standpoints of women themselves.The above trends appear to promote the expansion of women’s choice with-out fundamentally transforming the unequal care burden that women bear inmost societies This ‘choice’ is not about women and men’s gender conscious-ness alone, but also about the incentives that exist to allow these choices tobecome real Where labour market opportunities still remain a struggle,particularly in terms of access to well-paid employment, a woman’s ‘choice’ tostay at home has to be carefully understood This becomes particularly appar-ent when we look at education, to which I will turn shortly Market develop-ment, as a driver of economic change, has remained staunchly gender-blind.

As an extension of their unpaid work in the home, women’s engagement withdevelopment is seen in terms of the community, which economists have nowturned into a base for the extraction of ‘capital’ By ‘talking up social capital’,those with a neo-liberal agenda have extended their discursive base to co-optthe community into their market model

The focus on community and bottom-up development has coincided withmany other global developments, namely the fall of communism; ongoingdebates about democratisation, rights and citizenship; the human rightsmovement, and the assault on the state by the neo-liberal agenda (Molyneux2002) The presence of gender within this discourse is based on the generalassumption that women are predisposed to community and family serviceeither because of their essential nature as carers and selfless actors, or, morematerially, because they are more embedded in the social reproductionprocess Several examples can be provided of how women have beenmobilised in crisis situations to provide collectively for people’s basic needs.Women are used in large numbers for voluntary work, although the socialcosts of being an unpaid volunteer for poverty-alleviation initiatives are oftenvery high Rose’s (2003) account of community participation projects in edu-cation in sub-Saharan Africa shows how women’s contributions are taken forgranted, while men are remunerated for their contributions Furthermore, theunequal bargaining power of women and men within the social networks theyinhabit and the kinds of leverage they obtain are rarely considered It isimportant to bear in mind the distinction between men’s and women’s networks in terms of the resources they can mobilise – men: cash, and women: