ABSTRACT
Development is an inherently differentiating process, frequently resulting in gendered changes. Various, often Northern, approaches, have conceptualized gender and development, and commonly focused on women only. Others emphasize capitalist inequality in shaping gendered differences. Their combined influence has proved politically limited, often excluding work from feminists outside the ‘metropole’. Recent approaches work to overcome this. Meanwhile, empirically verifiable gendered inequalities for women persist, particularly in relation to work, political influence and violence. Gender has risen as a critical category in most governance structures, with mainstreaming alongside institutional interventions becoming increasingly evident, although the outcomes are often contradictory.
