ABSTRACT
Gender issues were put on the agenda of development agencies as a result of the international women’s movement which emerged in the early 1970s. This chapter examines women in development (WID) policy in three development agencies: the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank, and the Ford Foundation. WID issues were evaluated for consistency with the goals and procedures of each agency on the basis of extensive interviews with staff members, as well as examination of internal agency documents. The aim of any social movement, like the international women’s movement, is to enter the political realm and change the “rules of the game” in a way that takes the interests of its participants into account. Policy outcomes are best seen as the result of an interaction between individual choice and structural conditions. In the World Bank, WID has been considered in some sectors and some country economic studies rather than across the board.
