ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on various reports from women in developing as well as developed countries to identify key issues in the Beijing proceedings. It explores the ‘gender agenda’ the ‘gender efficiency’ approach consistent with the neoliberal development model pushed by the Group of Seven developed countries, and the liberal feminist ‘empowerment’ approach, consistent with the international agenda of political liberalisation currently pursued by Western governments. The chapter shows that this ‘gender agenda’ raises for Women’s Studies not least the challenges of global dialogue and of renewing the links between women’s activism and feminist debate. ‘Mainstreaming gender issues’ has become the catchphrase of the ‘post-Beijing Order’. This trend gained impetus from the publication in 1995 of the UNDP’s Human Development Report calling for governments to revise their national accounts to include women’s unpaid labour. Women from developing countries have voiced criticisms that the ‘gender agenda’ is an imposition of both the male-dominated International Monetary Fund and UN.
