Editing Development communication (section)

==== Gender ====

Development communication efforts, along with other development strategies, have failed to improve the conditions of women on a global scale, and when compared with men, women are disproportionately subject to poverty, illiteracy, domestic violence, discrimination, and barriers to senior professional positions, even in development organizations (Harbour & Twist, 1996). As a group that is marginalized from global, national, and community power structures, Wilkins (1999)<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Wilkins|first=Karin|date=1999|title=Development discourse on gender and communication in strategies for social change|journal=Journal of Communication|volume=49|pages=46–68|doi=10.1111/j.1460-2466.1999.tb02781.x}}</ref> contends that women tend to constitute a target more often than a participant in the production of development communication. Moore (1995)<ref>{{Cite book|title=Debating development discourse: Institutional and popular perspectives|author1=David B. Moore |author2=Gerald J. Schmitz|publisher=St. Martin's Press.|year=1995|location=New York|pages=1–53}}</ref> estimated that "gender" made its "first discursive appearance" in development institutions during the 1960s (p.&nbsp;43). However, it was not until 1975 that women's contributions to the development process were formally acknowledged by the United Nations (UN). The mid-1970s marked a shift in attention to women in development, along with other critical transitions in the field of development communication (Rogers, 1976;<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Rogers|first=Everett|s2cid=143973879|date=1976|title=Communication and development: The passing of the dominant paradigm|journal=Communication Research|volume=3|issue=2|pages=213–240|doi=10.1177/009365027600300207}}</ref> Schramm & Lerner, 1976<ref>{{Cite book|title=Communication and change: The last ten years—and the next|last=Wilbur Schramm|first=and Wilbur Schramm|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|year=1976|location=Honolulu}}</ref>). A WID strategy advocated including women as an explicit focus in order to achieve development goals (Dagenais & Piché, 1994).<ref>{{Cite book|title=Women, feminism and development|last=Huguette Dagenais|first=and Denise Piché|publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press|year=1994|location=Montreal, Canada}}</ref> In 1975, WID was placed on a global agenda when the UN sponsored a conference in Mexico City to launch the Year of Women. This facilitated the designation of the Decade for the Advancement of Women (1976 until 1985). As a discourse, WID served to organize principles for the production of knowledge about women by states, institutions, and communities (Escobar, 1995, p.&nbsp;210).<ref>{{Cite book|title=Encountering development: The making and unmaking of the third world|url=https://archive.org/details/encounteringdeve00esco_929|url-access=registration|last=Escobar|first=Arturo|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1995|location=Princeton, NJ}}</ref> WID construed women as actively contributing to society through their economic production and human reproduction (Staudt, 1985).<ref>{{Cite book|title=Women, foreign assistance and advocacy administration|last=Staudt|first=Kathleen|publisher=Praeger|year=1985|location=New York}}</ref> WID also pointed to a need to improve women's access to education, employment, and political participation (Valdivia, 1996),<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Valdivia|first=Angharad|date=1996|title=Is modern to male as traditional is to female?: Re-visioning gender construction in international communications|journal=Journal of International Communication|volume=3|pages=5–25|doi=10.1080/13216597.1996.9751821}}</ref> conditions considered in earlier models of modernization that tended to privilege male constituents. Throughout the Decade for the Advancement of Women however, several scholars recognized limits to using media to promote social change, such as problematic stereotypes of women in media texts, a lack of women's employment in positions of power in media industries, and poor access to mediated technologies as a source of information, particularly among rural women.
Following the Decade for Women, attention to WID gradually shifted toward a concern with gender and development (GAD). This shift from "women" to "gender" resonates with an understanding of gender as a socially constructed category, rather than essentializing sex as a biological condition (Dagenais & Piché, 1994). GAD attempted to position women as active agents of social change situated within social and structural systems of patriarchy and power (Dagenais & Piché, 1994). Steeves (1993)<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Steeves|first=Leslie|date=1993|title=Creating imagined communities: Development communication and the challenge of feminism|journal=Journal of Communication|volume=43|issue=3|pages=218–229|doi=10.1111/j.1460-2466.1993.tb01295.x}}</ref> drew attention to critical scholarship about the political economy of communication and participatory approaches to development (Freire, 1983)<ref>{{Cite book|title=Pedagogy of the oppressed|last=Freire|first=Paulo|publisher=Continuum|year=1983|location=New York}}</ref> to propose the creation of a global, imagined feminist community that challenges power relations. A "global feminist" approach to development would critique what appears to be defining gender according to reproductive capacity in a way that promotes motherhood as a universal role for women, rather than celebrating diversity in women's intentions, experiences, backgrounds, and capabilities.

Hooda and Singh (2012) note that the most significant and longest social movement continuing is the movement for the emancipation of women. However, the primary goal for women empowerment is to improve the quality of life of women, but also has deep ramifications in social, economic and political scenario of body polity. It is such contentions that stressing the need to recognize power dimensions within women's domestic, professional, and social contexts, GAD proponents would advocate interventions designed to change structures or norms.

Development communication activity embodies models of social change that are implemented across political and cultural boundaries wherein, issues of gender, communication, and development are grounded in global structures and processes of power, which condition access to and acquisition of economic and social resources. Watkins (1999) notes that in as much as critical scholars have described the global domination of media systems by Western and corporate agencies, gender also factors into this equation, as the extensive documentation of the tendency of media industries to trivialize women's roles and concerns has been historically demonstrated (van Zoonen, 1994). Early scholars of development communication did not explicitly address the role of gender in their discussions of media and modernity (Watkins, 1999, p.&nbsp;48). However, an examination of their work illustrates implicit assumptions made about men's and women's roles in the development process.  There is thus a need to understand the dynamics contributing to the institutional construction of gender within development communication strategies designed to alleviate social problems. Watkins (1999) cites Steeves (1993) whose summary of feminist scholarship concluded that, among other areas, research is needed "on women's roles and representations in Third World development communication activities, including funding agency projects" (p.&nbsp;120). Along with integrating regional, national, and/or organizational perspectives, one specific tool for policymakers is ensuring that gender perspective is incorporated into policies. Regardless whether gender plays a central role in a development communication policy, the policy-making process has to be taken in a deliberate way to address concerns of both women and men. When views of different groups of women and men in policy formation and delivery are taken accordingly, misjudging of the different effects on each group, and the systems and organizations that support them can be avoided.<ref name="Sutcliff&Court">{{cite book|last1=Sutcliffe|first1=Sophie|last2=Court|first2=Julius|title=A Toolkit for Progressive Policymakers in Developing Countries|date=2006|publisher=Overseas Development Institute|isbn=0-85003-786-7|url=http://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/190.pdf|access-date=2 December 2015|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304192247/http://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/190.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In a quest to ensure that the overall legal and policy framework is promoting gender equality, more than just adopting laws that explicitly provide for gender equality can be done. Thus it is essential that all laws and policies reflect gender equality considerations, through a process called [[gender mainstreaming]]. [[Gender mainstreaming]] is the mechanism to ensure a gender-sensitive approach to policy making.<ref name=OECD>{{cite book|last1=OECD, CAWTAR|title=Women in Public Life Gender, Law and Policy in the Middle East and North Africa|date=2014|publisher=OECD Publishing, Paris|isbn=978-92-64-22463-6|url=http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/governance/women-in-public-life_9789264224636-en}}</ref>

[[Gender mainstreaming]], according to the [[United Nations]], is a globally accepted strategy for promoting gender equality. Mainstreaming is not an end in itself but a strategy, an approach, a means to achieve the goal of gender equality. Mainstreaming involves ensuring that gender perspectives and attention to the goal of gender equality are central to all activities—policy development, research, advocacy/ dialogue, legislation, resource allocation, and planning, implementation and monitoring of programmes and projects. A strong, continued commitment to gender mainstreaming is one of the most effective means for the [[United Nations]] to support promotion of gender equality at all levels—in research, legislation, policy development and in activities on the ground, and to ensure that women as well as men can influence, participate in and benefit from development efforts.<ref name=UN>{{cite web|last1=United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women|title=Gender Mainstreaming|url=https://www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/gendermainstreaming.htm|website=un.org/}}</ref>

United Nations Children's Fund or [[UNICEF]] also promotes gender sensitivity in its policies. [[UNICEF]] gender review ensures that gender is mainstreamed in all [[UNICEF]]'s projects and programs as well as in its work with partners. [[UNICEF]] also ensures that the monitoring and evaluation tools are gender sensitive and that every staff is aware of the UN Code of conduct. UNICEF also uses the Harmonized Gender and Development Guidelines (HGAD) as a tool to promote gender equality and women's empowerment in the development and implementation of projects.<ref name=UNICEF>{{cite web|last1=UNICEF Philippines|title=Gender Mainstreaming|url=http://www.unicef.org/philippines/aboutus_13424.html|website=unicef.org/|access-date=2 December 2015|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304084636/http://www.unicef.org/philippines/aboutus_13424.html}}</ref>

The communication approach embedded within empowerment models combines the use of appropriate media. This means using a variety of channels ranging from indigenous media, local and international media systems. (Einsiedel 1996).