Gender and development | AQA A-Level Sociology
Updated: 5 days ago
For Specification 7192
AQA A-Level Sociology | Free Revision Notes
Estimated study time: 80 minutes
Gender and development A-Level Sociology revision examines how women and men may experience development and underdevelopment differently. AQA explicitly identifies gender as an aspect of development, and gender was the focus of the 2024 Global Development 20-mark essay. Development may increase women's access to education, healthcare and paid employment, but gender inequalities can persist or even be reinforced. This lesson draws together ideas from development and underdevelopment [Development and underdevelopment] and global inequality [Global inequality] to evaluate modernisation, dependency and feminist interpretations.
Learning Objectives 🎯
By the end of this revision page, you should be able to:
Explain why gender is an important aspect of development.
Examine gender inequalities in education, health, employment and decision making.
Explain how development may reduce some gender inequalities.
Explain how development may reproduce gender hierarchies or provoke a patriarchal backlash.
Apply modernisation, dependency and different feminist perspectives to gender and development.
Examine concepts including patriarchy, gender hierarchy, gendered division of labour, global care chains and maternal health.
Evaluate the extent to which development benefits women and men equally.
Revision Notes 📚
Gender and development A-Level Sociology revision: the core issue
AQA requires students to study gender as an aspect of development.
This means development should not be assessed only through economic indicators such as national income or economic growth.
In 2023, AQA explicitly recognised gender equality alongside health, education and sustainability as part of a broader understanding of development.
The central question is therefore:
Do women and men experience the benefits and costs of development equally?
A society might experience economic growth while substantial gender inequalities continue.
Therefore:
economic development ≠ automatically gender-equal development
Gender differences in the experience of development
AQA's 2024 Item L directly states that there are gender differences in the experience of development and underdevelopment.
It identifies three areas where development may provide women with greater opportunities:
education
better health
paid employment
These provide an excellent framework for this lesson.
Gender and development can therefore be examined through:
education
health
employment
power and decision making
the gendered organisation of work and care
the distribution of the benefits of development
Gender equality as development
Gender equality means that opportunities, resources and social outcomes are not unfairly determined by gender.
AQA's 2023 assessment recognised gender equality as a legitimate dimension of development in its own right.
This is important because development might be judged differently depending on the measure used.
For example:
economic measure: national income has risen.
gender measure: women's educational opportunities, health or access to paid employment remain significantly below men's.
A country could therefore experience economic development without equally distributed social development.
Why gender was overlooked by some early theories
AQA's 2024 item states that early theories of development, such as modernisation theory, often regarded gender issues as relatively unimportant.
By contrast, feminist perspectives emphasise that gender is central to both development and underdevelopment.
The 2024 examiner report went further, describing modernisation and dependency theories as often being treated as gender blind in student evaluation.
A gender-blind theory is one that does not adequately examine how women and men may experience the same social process differently.
Gender-blind development
A development strategy might appear successful at national level but affect women and men differently.
For example:
industrialisation → more employment
may be positive overall.
However, sociologists can ask:
Do women obtain the new jobs?
What types of jobs do women and men obtain?
Who receives training?
Does women's unpaid work change?
Who controls the additional income?
This gendered analysis reveals inequalities that a simple national economic measure might conceal.
Gender and education
Education is one of the clearest ways development may alter gender inequality.
AQA's 2020 mark scheme gives education for girls leading to greater employment opportunities as an example of development affecting gender inequality.
AQA's 2023 mark scheme also states that extending girls' education can help reduce global gender inequalities.
The possible development chain is:
greater educational access for girls → knowledge and qualifications → greater employment opportunities → increased economic independence → reduced gender inequality
This connects directly to employment and education [Employment and education].
Education is itself a gender-development outcome
Education should not be valued only because it may lead to employment.
Greater equality in access to education is itself a form of development.
Therefore:
girls gaining equal educational opportunities → gender inequality reduced
even before considering later employment.
This illustrates the broader AQA view that development involves social change as well as economic growth.
Education and opportunities
Education may also increase women's opportunities by developing:
knowledge
skills
qualifications
These may make it easier to enter forms of employment that were previously less accessible.
The important analytical chain is:
education → skills → access to opportunities → possible reduction in gender hierarchy
However, education alone does not guarantee that gender inequality disappears.
Employment structures and patriarchal attitudes may continue to restrict opportunities.
Access versus outcomes
A useful distinction is:
access to education
versus
what education leads to
A society may increase the number of girls attending school.
However, gender inequalities may remain if women subsequently experience:
restricted employment opportunities
unequal decision-making power
continuing expectations to perform unpaid care
Therefore:
educational equality does not automatically produce complete gender equality
Development and paid employment
Paid employment is another major dimension identified directly in AQA's 2024 Item L.
Development may create new economic opportunities through:
industrialisation
globalisation
new industries
TNC activity
Women may therefore gain access to paid employment that was previously less available.
A positive development chain could be:
economic development → new employment opportunities → women enter paid work → income increases → greater economic independence → gender inequality may decline
Paid work and economic independence
Paid employment can alter women's economic position because income may increase their access to economic resources.
This can potentially affect:
life chances
independence
decision making
social status
However, paid employment should not automatically be equated with empowerment.
A sociologist also needs to examine:
wages
job security
occupational position
working conditions
unpaid domestic responsibilities
Gendered division of labour
AQA's 2024 mark scheme explicitly identifies the gendered division of labour as relevant to gender and development.
A gendered division of labour exists where women and men tend to perform different kinds of work.
This may operate through:
different paid occupations
unequal responsibility for unpaid domestic labour
unequal responsibility for care
Development may alter this division, but it does not necessarily remove it.
Paid work plus unpaid work
A woman gaining employment may still remain responsible for significant unpaid domestic or caring work.
The result may be:
paid employment increases
without:
unpaid responsibilities becoming equally shared
This means employment may improve women's economic position while leaving important parts of the gender hierarchy unchanged.
A feminist interpretation therefore looks beyond whether women simply enter the labour market.
Development and gender hierarchy
AQA explicitly identifies gender hierarchy within the indicative content for the 2024 essay.
A gender hierarchy refers to a social arrangement in which genders occupy unequal positions of power, status or opportunity.
Development can affect gender hierarchy in competing ways.
It may weaken hierarchy through:
education
paid employment
improved health
participation in development projects
It may reproduce hierarchy through:
unequal division of labour
marginalisation from decisions
patriarchal institutions
unequal access to the benefits of development
Patriarchy
Patriarchy is another central concept explicitly identified by AQA.
Patriarchy refers to social arrangements in which men have greater power or advantages than women.
Feminist perspectives use patriarchy to explain why development does not necessarily benefit women and men equally.
The important argument is not merely:
"Patriarchy exists."
Instead:
patriarchal relationships → women gain fewer resources or opportunities from development → gender inequality continues
Development may challenge patriarchy
AQA's 2020 item states that development may create new ways for previously exploited groups to improve their situation.
Applied to gender, this could include:
greater educational opportunities
greater employment opportunities
improved health
greater participation in development projects
The 2020 mark scheme specifically recognises women making progress towards greater equality with men.
Development may therefore challenge established gender hierarchies.
Development and patriarchal backlash
However, AQA's 2020 item also presents the opposite possibility.
Development may cause powerful groups to feel threatened by social change and lead them to reassert traditional attitudes and practices.
The mark scheme describes this as a backlash reasserting patriarchal values.
This gives a powerful evaluation point:
development → women's opportunities increase → established male power threatened → patriarchal backlash → gender inequality reinforced
Progress can provoke resistance
This means change is not necessarily linear.
A simple modernisation model might imply:
more development → more equality
AQA's 2020 assessment suggests a more complicated process:
development → greater opportunities → progress towards equality
but potentially:
progress → resistance by powerful groups → traditional gender relations reasserted
Development can therefore produce both change and counter-change.
Gender and health
Health was another benefit identified directly in AQA's 2024 item.
Development may provide women with better health.
Health is significant because it is itself an aspect of development.
Gender analysis asks whether improvements in healthcare and health outcomes benefit women and men equally.
This connects directly to health and demographic change [Health and demographic change].
Maternal health and mortality
AQA's 2024 mark scheme explicitly identifies:
maternal health
maternal mortality
as relevant concepts in gender and development.
Maternal health concerns health associated with pregnancy and childbirth.
Maternal mortality concerns deaths associated with pregnancy and childbirth.
These concepts demonstrate why apparently general improvements in healthcare may have particularly significant effects for women.
Maternal health as a measure of development
Improvement in maternal health may be evidence that development is benefiting women directly.
A gender-focused assessment might therefore ask:
Do women have access to healthcare?
Are maternal health outcomes improving?
Are women's particular health needs recognised?
This creates a broader definition of development than simply asking whether national income has risen.
Health inequalities can reveal gender inequality
Suppose a society experiences rapid economic growth but maternal health remains poor.
A purely economic measure may suggest successful development.
A feminist interpretation may disagree because women's health outcomes show that the benefits of development are not equally experienced.
This demonstrates why AQA places gender equality and health within wider measures of development.
NGOs and gender development
Non-governmental organisations may play an important role in gender development.
AQA's 2021 Global Development question directly asked how NGOs may influence gender inequalities in developing countries.
The mark scheme recognises that NGOs may:
reduce gender inequality through projects supporting women and girls
increase or reproduce inequality where women's views and needs are ignored
This provides another example of development having contrasting effects.
NGOs and girls' education
NGOs may support education for girls.
AQA explicitly accepts this as an example of NGOs influencing gender inequality.
The development chain is:
NGO support → greater access to education for girls → educational inequality reduced → wider opportunities increase
This connects organisational strategies with gender development.
NGOs and women's healthcare
AQA's 2021 mark scheme also identifies:
reproductive rights
women's healthcare
as relevant to NGO influence on gender inequality.
This demonstrates how gender development can operate through healthcare as well as education and employment.
The broad process is:
NGO development project → women's health needs addressed → gender inequality in health reduced
Women in NGO decision making
AQA also recognises the importance of the role of men and women:
as NGO staff
in NGO decision making
This is an important distinction.
A project may be for women without being designed with women.
Feminist approaches therefore ask whether women have genuine influence over:
priorities
decisions
resources
Marginalisation in development projects
AQA explicitly recognises the marginalisation of women in NGO projects.
This means an organisation intended to encourage development may still reproduce existing gender inequalities.
The possible process is:
existing patriarchal relations → women excluded from decisions → project reflects mainly male priorities → women's needs receive less attention → gender inequality continues
This is a useful example of how development strategies themselves can become gendered.
Grassroots development
Grassroots development appears in both AQA's 2021 NGO material and the 2024 gender-development mark scheme.
Grassroots development places greater emphasis on local participation.
From a feminist perspective, this can be positive if women are genuinely included in:
identifying problems
designing projects
making decisions
However, local communities may themselves contain patriarchal inequalities.
Therefore:
local participation does not automatically equal women's participation
People-centred development and gender
AQA's 2021 NGO mark scheme recognises people-centred development.
Gender analysis strengthens this idea by asking:
Which people are actually at the centre?
If women have less power within a community, a development strategy described as people-centred could still reflect predominantly male priorities.
A feminist approach therefore examines unequal power within communities as well as inequalities between developed and developing societies.
Modernisation theory
AQA's 2024 item specifically identifies modernisation theory as an early approach that often saw gender issues as relatively unimportant.
Modernisation theory generally emphasises economic and social transformation associated with development.
A modernisation interpretation may see development as creating:
education
employment
economic growth
healthcare improvements
These changes may indirectly improve women's position.
Modernisation and women's opportunities
The 2024 item itself provides evidence consistent with an optimistic modernisation interpretation.
Development may provide women with:
education
health improvements
paid employment
The possible modernisation chain is:
economic and social development → expanded opportunities → women's education, health and employment improve → gender inequality declines
This offers a strong argument that development can improve women's lives.
The gender-blind criticism of modernisation
The central feminist criticism is that early modernisation approaches may focus on overall economic transformation while failing to ask whether women and men benefit equally.
For example:
industrialisation increases employment
does not tell us:
whether women gain equal access
whether women receive equal benefits
whether unpaid care changes
whether male control remains
The 2024 examiner report specifically noted evaluation through contrasting gender-blind modernisation and dependency theories with approaches placing gender more centrally.
Modernisation may assume progress is automatic
Another criticism is that modernisation can imply a relatively straightforward movement:
traditional society → modern society → greater equality
AQA's 2020 gender question challenges this assumption because development may trigger a backlash in which powerful groups reassert patriarchal values.
Progress towards gender equality may therefore be contested.
Dependency theory
Dependency theory is explicitly identified by AQA as relevant to evaluating gender and development.
Dependency theory focuses on unequal relationships within the global economy.
It can therefore help explain why the benefits of economic development may be distributed unequally between societies.
However, feminist perspectives ask an additional question:
How are those benefits distributed between women and men within societies?
Gender-blind dependency theory
Dependency theory may criticise inequality between:
developed societies
developing societies
while giving insufficient attention to inequality within developing societies.
For example, reducing economic dependency does not automatically mean that:
women have equal access to employment
women have equal decision-making power
unpaid care is equally distributed
This is why feminist perspectives argue that gender must be central rather than added after economic analysis.
Dependency and women's employment
Global economic integration may create jobs for women.
This could increase women's incomes.
However, dependency and feminist perspectives may ask:
Who owns the businesses?
What type of employment is created?
How secure is the work?
How does it interact with women's unpaid responsibilities?
This connects gender development with the role of transnational corporations [Transnational corporations].
TNCs and gender
AQA explicitly identifies TNCs as relevant to the 2024 gender-development essay.
TNCs may contribute to development through employment.
From a gender perspective, the key question is whether women gain:
paid employment
income
training
economic opportunities
and whether these changes reduce gender inequality.
A TNC should therefore not be evaluated simply through the total number of jobs it creates.
Employment can empower and exploit simultaneously
Development may produce apparently contradictory outcomes.
For example:
women enter paid employment → income and independence increase
while:
women continue to perform unpaid care → total workload remains unequal
The same process may therefore reduce one dimension of gender inequality while leaving another largely unchanged.
This is why feminist analysis often treats development as complex rather than uniformly positive or negative.
Marxist approaches
AQA explicitly identifies Marxism as relevant to gender and development.
A Marxist interpretation directs attention towards:
capitalism
class relations
economic structures
From this perspective, gender inequalities may interact with economic inequalities.
However, feminist approaches may criticise explanations that give class priority over gender.
The central question becomes:
Are women's experiences of underdevelopment explained adequately through capitalism and class alone?
Marxist-feminist possibilities
A gender-focused interpretation can combine concern with:
capitalist economic relationships
patriarchal gender relationships
This avoids treating gender and class as entirely separate.
For example, women's position in a gendered division of labour may reflect both:
economic structures
patriarchal expectations
This provides a more integrated explanation than treating either gender or class as the only source of inequality.
Feminist perspectives
AQA's 2024 mark scheme uses the plural term feminisms.
This is important.
There is not one single feminist explanation of development.
Different feminist perspectives may emphasise different relationships involving:
patriarchy
class
race and ethnicity
environmental inequality
location in the Global South
paid and unpaid labour
A strong answer should therefore avoid writing:
"Feminists believe..."
as if all feminist sociologists make identical arguments.
Feminism places gender at the centre
The common feature is that feminist perspectives take gender inequalities seriously as a central part of development.
The 2024 item states this explicitly:
Feminists have emphasised that gender is central to development and underdevelopment.
This shifts the basic question from:
Has the economy developed?
to:
How have women and men experienced that development?
Patriarchal development
A feminist argument may claim that development strategies can reproduce patriarchy if women:
receive fewer opportunities
remain excluded from decision making
remain responsible for disproportionate unpaid care
do not receive equal benefits from economic change
Economic transformation alone may therefore leave the gender hierarchy substantially intact.
Black feminism
Black feminism is explicitly listed in AQA's 2024 indicative content.
Black feminist approaches emphasise that women's experiences cannot necessarily be understood through gender alone.
Gender may interact with other inequalities such as:
race
ethnicity
class
This is valuable in Global Development because the category women is not socially uniform.
Different groups of women may experience development differently.
Avoid treating all women as one group
A simple gender-development argument might contrast:
men versus women
However, Black feminist approaches challenge the assumption that all women experience the same form of inequality.
For example, women's access to:
education
healthcare
employment
may also vary according to other social inequalities.
This produces a more differentiated understanding of development.
Southern feminism
Southern feminism is also explicitly identified in the 2024 mark scheme.
Southern feminist perspectives are particularly useful for questioning whether feminist ideas developed in richer Western societies can simply be applied to all women's experiences.
The central sociological concern is:
Are women in developing societies being understood through their own social and economic circumstances, or through assumptions developed elsewhere?
This links feminist analysis with critiques of universal models of development.
Southern feminism and local context
A Southern feminist approach may emphasise the importance of:
local social structures
local inequalities
women's own priorities and experiences
This creates a connection with grassroots development.
Rather than assuming that one model of gender equality applies identically everywhere, the approach emphasises the context in which development occurs.
Ecofeminism
Ecofeminism is another perspective explicitly identified by AQA.
Ecofeminism connects concerns about:
gender inequality
environmental relationships
It is useful because development strategies may create environmental costs that affect people's lives and work.
A gender analysis asks whether those costs are experienced differently by women and men.
Ecofeminism and development
A development project might increase:
industrial production
economic output
while also causing environmental damage.
Ecofeminist analysis encourages students to ask:
How does environmental change affect women?
Does women's work depend on environmental resources?
Who bears the costs of environmental degradation?
This links gender development to the environmental debates studied earlier.
Post-development theory
AQA explicitly includes post-development in its 2024 gender mark scheme.
Post-development approaches question conventional assumptions about what development should mean.
Applied to gender, this can involve questioning whether:
one development model fits every society
Western definitions of progress should automatically be applied everywhere
This overlaps with Southern feminist concerns about whose experiences and values define development.
Post-development and gender
A post-development perspective may question the assumption that women's position will necessarily improve simply by making developing societies resemble already industrialised societies.
The important issue becomes:
Who defines what progress for women should look like?
However, this does not mean gender inequalities such as poor maternal health or unequal educational access should simply be treated as cultural differences.
The existence of competing cultural definitions does not remove questions about power and inequality.
Postmodernism
Postmodernism is also listed in AQA's 2024 indicative content.
A postmodern interpretation can emphasise diversity and reject a single universal account of women's experiences.
This challenges broad claims such as:
"Development affects all women in the same way."
Instead, experiences may vary according to:
society
class
ethnicity
employment
cultural context
This can complement Black and Southern feminist critiques.
Gendered development is not uniform
The recognition of:
feminisms
Black feminism
Southern feminism
postmodernism
in the AQA mark scheme supports a central conclusion:
There is no single female experience of development.
Some women may gain significantly from:
education
healthcare
paid work
while others remain disadvantaged or experience new forms of inequality.
Global care chains
AQA explicitly identifies global care chains as relevant to gender and development.
A global care chain involves caring work being connected across societies, often through the international movement of workers.
For example, a woman may migrate to perform paid caring work in another society.
This creates a relationship between:
globalisation
migration
employment
gender
care
Gender and global migration
Globalisation may create employment opportunities for women through migration.
A woman may gain:
income
employment
economic opportunity
through caring work abroad.
However, the movement of carers can create consequences for the family or community they leave behind.
This is where the concept of care deficit becomes relevant.
Care deficit
AQA's 2024 mark scheme explicitly identifies care deficit.
A care deficit occurs where the movement of carers reduces the care available elsewhere, particularly in the households or communities from which workers have migrated.
The analytical chain is:
global employment opportunity → woman migrates to provide care → income opportunity increases → care previously provided at home must be replaced → care deficit may develop
This demonstrates that globalisation can create both opportunities and costs.
Global care chains and unequal development
Global care chains may be interpreted positively because they provide:
employment
income
migration opportunities
However, they also reveal inequalities between societies.
Care workers may move from poorer to wealthier societies to meet demand for care.
The resulting relationship is therefore not only about individual choice.
It can also be analysed through:
global inequality
gendered labour
dependency
Care work demonstrates the gendered global economy
Global care chains show that economic globalisation is gendered.
Economic relationships between societies do not involve only:
factories
trade
TNCs
They can also involve the international movement of care labour.
This connects gender development with globalisation, political and economic relationships [Globalisation, political and economic relationships].
Paid care and unpaid care
Gendered care work can be both:
paid
unpaid
A woman may perform paid care work in one household while unpaid caring responsibilities continue in her own family.
This complicates claims that entering paid employment necessarily ends women's unequal caring role.
The gendered division of labour may change form rather than disappear.
Development and the care deficit
The care-deficit concept therefore provides an excellent evaluation of global employment.
A development process may generate:
income and employment for migrant women
while simultaneously:
reducing care resources in their household or community of origin
The same economic opportunity may therefore create benefits and costs in different places.
Globalisation and gender equality
Globalisation can affect gender inequality in several ways.
Potential positive effects include:
spread of ideas about gender equality
greater employment opportunities
international development projects
increased educational opportunities
AQA's 2023 education material recognises that girls' education can help reduce global gender inequality.
However, globalisation may also reproduce inequalities through:
gendered labour markets
global care chains
unequal economic relationships
Gender and development organisations
Gender inequalities can also be influenced by development organisations.
The 2021 NGO material shows this particularly clearly.
NGOs may:
support women and girls → inequality reduced
or:
ignore women's needs and voices → inequality maintained or increased
This means organisations should be evaluated according to what they actually do rather than simply assumed to be progressive.
Gender and decision making
Decision making is particularly important.
If women benefit from a development programme but remain excluded from deciding how the programme operates, gender inequality in power may continue.
Therefore, distinguish:
receiving benefits
from
having power over development
A feminist analysis considers both.
Economic resources versus political power
Similarly, greater income may improve women's economic position without necessarily giving women equal influence within:
households
communities
development organisations
Development can therefore reduce one form of inequality while leaving another intact.
This is why gender is best understood as multidimensional.
Development may produce contradictory outcomes
One of the strongest ideas for evaluation is that development can simultaneously reduce and reproduce gender inequality.
For example:
industrialisation → women gain paid jobs → economic opportunities improve
but:
gendered division of labour continues → women retain unpaid care responsibilities
Or:
education expands → girls gain qualifications
but:
patriarchal employment structures restrict opportunities
Development should therefore be evaluated by looking at the whole pattern rather than one isolated improvement.
Gender as more than an economic issue
AQA's 2024 question encourages students to consider:
education
health
paid employment
and its mark scheme adds:
maternal health
gender hierarchy
care
patriarchy
different feminist approaches
Gender development therefore concerns:
economic + social + health + power relationships
rather than income alone.
Gender and measures of development
Gender also affects how development should be measured.
A country may appear highly developed according to economic output while showing inequalities in:
educational access
maternal health
employment
decision making
A gender-sensitive approach therefore asks whether aggregate measures hide unequal experiences within a population.
Gender equality and wider development
Reducing gender inequalities may also have connections with other development outcomes.
For example:
girls' education → wider employment opportunities
as recognised by AQA in 2020.
This means gender equality is not necessarily separate from economic development.
The two may interact.
Development can reduce gender inequality
The source material supports several possible positive effects.
Development may increase women's:
educational opportunities
health
paid employment
participation in development projects
AQA's 2024 item explicitly identifies the first three.
AQA's 2021 NGO material supports the fourth.
These provide strong evidence against an argument that development never benefits women.
Development can reproduce gender inequality
However, the sources also support several critical effects.
Gender inequality may continue through:
patriarchy
gender hierarchy
gendered division of labour
exclusion from decision making
marginalisation within development projects
care deficits
backlash against women's increasing equality
The effect of development is therefore conditional.
Backlash is especially important
The 2020 item provides one of the clearest evaluation mechanisms.
Development may threaten existing powerful groups.
If women's opportunities increase, those benefiting from traditional gender arrangements may attempt to restore them.
The process is:
development → women gain opportunities → traditional hierarchy challenged → powerful groups react → patriarchal attitudes reasserted
This means progress itself can produce resistance.
Gender and power
The underlying theme connecting these issues is power.
Ask:
Who controls development resources?
Who decides development priorities?
Who performs paid labour?
Who performs unpaid care?
Who benefits from education?
Who gains access to healthcare?
Who controls economic income?
Gender inequality concerns not simply different outcomes but differences in power.
A gender-sensitive analysis of employment
A weak development statement is:
"A new industry creates 10,000 jobs."
A gender-sensitive analysis asks:
How many jobs are available to women?
What kind of jobs do women obtain?
Do women gain training?
What happens to unpaid care?
Do women control their income?
This demonstrates the difference between general development analysis and gender-development analysis.
A gender-sensitive analysis of education
A weak statement is:
"School enrolment has increased."
A gender-sensitive analysis asks:
Has girls' enrolment increased?
Are girls and boys equally able to continue education?
What employment opportunities follow?
Has the gender hierarchy changed?
Again, the key is distribution.
A gender-sensitive analysis of health
A weak statement is:
"Health has improved."
A gender-sensitive analysis asks:
Has maternal health improved?
Has maternal mortality fallen?
Do women have access to healthcare?
Are women's particular health needs being met?
This converts a general development claim into a gendered one.
Modernisation versus feminism
The central theoretical contrast can be summarised as:
Modernisation approach | Feminist critique |
Development transforms societies economically and socially. | Transformation may affect women and men differently. |
Education and employment can expand as societies modernise. | Access to opportunities may remain gendered. |
Economic development may indirectly improve women's position. | Economic growth does not automatically challenge patriarchy. |
Development tends towards social change. | Progress may provoke patriarchal backlash. |
National-level transformation is central. | Gender inequalities within societies must also be examined. |
Dependency versus feminism
A similar comparison can be made with dependency theory.
Dependency approach | Feminist critique |
Focuses on inequalities between richer and poorer societies. | Also examines inequalities between women and men within societies. |
Emphasises global economic power. | Examines how global economic power may operate through gendered labour. |
Criticises dependency on powerful economies. | May add global care chains and gendered employment to this analysis. |
Focuses strongly on economic structures. | Adds unpaid care, health and gender hierarchy. |
Different feminisms compared
AQA does not require students to treat feminism as a single perspective.
The 2024 mark scheme explicitly recognises several feminist approaches.
Perspective | Main focus in gender and development |
Feminism generally | Gender must be treated as central to development rather than ignored. |
Black feminism | Gender interacts with other inequalities such as race, ethnicity and class. |
Southern feminism | Women's experiences in developing societies should not simply be interpreted through Western assumptions. |
Ecofeminism | Gender inequality can interact with environmental inequality and environmental damage. |
These distinctions can add depth to a 20-mark answer.
The importance of intersection
Although AQA's 2024 Global Development indicative list names Black feminism rather than explicitly listing intersectionality, its inclusion encourages recognition that gender is not the only inequality shaping women's experiences.
A woman may simultaneously experience inequalities linked to:
gender
class
race or ethnicity
global economic position
Therefore, gender-development analysis should avoid assuming that all women have identical life chances.
Women are not a single homogeneous group
This is one of the strongest criticisms of broad gender-development claims.
Statements such as:
"Development benefits women."
or:
"Women are exploited by development."
are too general.
A better question is:
Which women, in which social position, through which development process?
Black, Southern and postmodern perspectives all strengthen this kind of analysis.
Local and global inequality interact
Gender development operates simultaneously at different levels.
Global level
There are inequalities between societies.
National level
There may be gender inequalities within a society.
Community level
Women may have unequal participation in local decisions.
Household level
Paid and unpaid work may be distributed unequally.
Development may improve one level without eliminating inequality at another.
Gender and grassroots approaches
Grassroots development may be attractive because it focuses on local participation.
However, the 2021 NGO mark scheme shows that women can still be marginalised in local development projects.
Therefore:
grassroots ≠ automatically gender equal
The critical question is whether women genuinely have voice and power.
Women's participation versus women's empowerment
These should be distinguished.
Participation means women are involved.
Empowerment implies women gain greater ability to influence decisions and control resources.
A project might involve women in activities while important decisions remain dominated by men.
This is why AQA's reference to women in NGO decision making is especially useful.
Gender and care
Care is central to understanding gender development because AQA's 2024 mark scheme specifically recognises:
gendered division of labour
global care chains
care deficit
This shows that development is not only about producing goods.
It also depends on the work involved in:
caring for children
supporting households
caring for dependent people
Much of this work can be gendered.
Why unpaid work matters
Economic measures may overlook work that is not paid.
If women perform substantial unpaid care, their contribution may not be fully captured by measures focused on formal economic activity.
A feminist analysis therefore questions whether conventional measures of development make women's labour sufficiently visible.
This reinforces the argument that economic measures alone provide an incomplete picture.
Paid work does not replace unpaid work automatically
Development may increase women's labour-market participation while the gendered division of care persists.
This can produce:
paid work + unpaid work
rather than:
paid work replacing unpaid work
A simple employment statistic may therefore exaggerate the extent to which gender relations have become equal.
Global care chains link households across societies
Global care chains demonstrate how gender relationships can become globalised.
For example:
woman migrates from developing society → provides paid care in another society → employment income increases
but:
care responsibilities remain in household of origin → other family members must provide care
Development opportunities in one place can therefore create care pressures elsewhere.
Development and gender are reciprocal
Gender affects development just as development affects gender.
Development affects gender through:
education
healthcare
employment
economic and cultural change
Gender affects development because:
unequal education limits opportunities
unequal employment restricts use of human capital
poor maternal health represents underdevelopment
exclusion of women from development decisions may limit participation
The relationship therefore operates in both directions.
Gender inequality may restrict development
If half a population has restricted access to:
education
employment
health
decision making
then available human and social resources are not being used equally.
This provides an argument that reducing gender inequality may itself contribute to wider development.
However, avoid presenting gender equality only as useful because it promotes economic growth.
AQA also treats gender equality as a development outcome in its own right.
Development may improve women's lives without eliminating patriarchy
This is an important middle position.
Evidence of:
better education
better health
paid employment
shows genuine improvement.
However, gender inequalities may continue through:
decision making
unpaid care
gender hierarchy
patriarchal attitudes
The most realistic sociological judgement may therefore be:
Development often changes gender inequality rather than simply eliminating it.
Economic growth versus gender development
Consider two outcomes.
Outcome A
National income rises rapidly.
Outcome B
Girls' education expands, maternal health improves and women's employment opportunities increase.
A conventional economic approach may emphasise A.
A gender-sensitive development approach gives greater weight to B.
Ideally, successful development would involve both.
Development for whom?
This is perhaps the most useful evaluative question for the whole topic.
When a policy is described as promoting development, ask:
Development for whom?
A project may increase:
economic growth
exports
employment
but these benefits may be distributed unequally.
Gender analysis reveals differences hidden by national averages.
Who controls development?
A second useful question is:
Who controls development?
Consider:
governments
TNCs
NGOs
local male elites
women within communities
A development project may claim to help women while women remain excluded from deciding its priorities.
Who performs the work?
A third useful question is:
Who performs the work required by development?
Consider both:
paid employment
unpaid care
A gendered division of labour may mean women experience a greater total burden even when economic opportunities increase.
Who experiences the costs?
A fourth question is:
Who experiences the costs of development?
Ecofeminism can draw attention to environmental costs.
Global-care analysis can draw attention to care deficits.
Dependency approaches can draw attention to unequal global economic costs.
Different perspectives therefore highlight different dimensions of inequality.
Development can have direct and indirect gender effects
Direct effects
A project specifically targets:
girls' education
women's healthcare
women's employment
Indirect effects
A broader development process such as:
industrialisation
globalisation
migration
changes gender inequalities even though gender was not its explicit target.
Both forms can be examined sociologically.
Short-term versus long-term gender development
A project may produce an immediate improvement, such as:
women's employment increasing
but the long-term effect depends on whether:
skills develop
jobs remain available
decision-making power changes
gender attitudes change
unpaid work becomes less unequal
Development should therefore be evaluated over time.
The importance of social context
The same development process may have different gender effects in different societies.
AQA's inclusion of:
Black feminism
Southern feminism
postmodernism
supports the idea that social context matters.
Avoid assuming one universal pattern of gender development.
Is modernisation gender blind?
The 2024 item clearly supports this criticism.
Early modernisation theory tended to treat gender as less important than broader economic and social transformation.
A good essay can therefore argue:
modernisation identifies real gains from development
but:
feminism exposes differences in who receives those gains
This creates genuine evaluation rather than simply stating that the theories disagree.
Is dependency theory gender blind?
The examiner report indicates that students successfully evaluated the 2024 essay by contrasting the gender-blind elements of both modernisation and dependency approaches with perspectives placing gender more centrally.
Dependency theory may explain inequalities between societies but still fail to explain adequately why women and men within the same developing society experience underdevelopment differently.
Feminist analysis therefore adds an additional level.
Feminism does not mean development is always negative
Another common mistake is to assume feminism must argue that development harms women.
The AQA material clearly recognises positive changes for women through:
education
health
employment
NGO projects
Feminist analysis asks whether development is gender equal, not whether every development process must be harmful.
Feminism can evaluate successes as well as failures
For example, a feminist could regard:
increased girls' education
as genuine progress.
But then ask:
Does it lead to employment?
Are patriarchal restrictions reduced?
Do women gain decision-making power?
This produces a more demanding measure of successful development.
Measuring gender development
A gender-sensitive assessment should consider several dimensions together.
Dimension | Question |
Education | Do girls and women have meaningful educational opportunities? |
Health | Are women's health and maternal health improving? |
Employment | Do women gain access to paid, secure and meaningful work? |
Care | Is unpaid caring work distributed unequally? |
Power | Do women participate in decision making? |
Resources | Do women control or benefit from development resources? |
Environment | Are environmental costs experienced unequally? |
No single indicator captures the whole relationship.
AQA's key concepts for this lesson
The 2024 mark scheme identifies a particularly rich range of concepts relevant to gender and development:
development
underdevelopment
dependency theory
modernisation theory
feminisms
Marxism
post-development
postmodernism
grassroots development
patriarchy
gender hierarchy
gendered division of labour
global care chains
care deficit
maternal health and mortality
TNCs
ecofeminism
Black feminism
Southern feminism
These provide the clearest guide to the conceptual range students can use in an extended answer.
Do not use every concept in one essay
AQA's general examiner guidance warns against trying to include everything students know.
The 2024 report states that successful evaluation involves weighing strengths and limitations and reaching a reasoned judgement.
For a gender-development essay, it is usually stronger to develop a few connected debates clearly than to mention every feminist perspective once.
A strong theoretical structure
A useful essay structure might be:
1. Modernisation
Development expands education, health and employment.
2. Feminist criticism
Benefits may be distributed unequally and patriarchy may remain.
3. Dependency
Global inequality and external economic power shape development.
4. Feminist criticism of dependency
This may still overlook gender hierarchy within developing societies.
5. Different feminisms
Black, Southern and ecofeminist perspectives show women's experiences are diverse.
6. Evidence of change and backlash
Development may create progress but also provoke resistance.
7. Conclusion
Judge whether development reduces gender inequality and under what conditions.
Building analytical chains
For education:
development → girls gain greater educational access → qualifications and skills increase → employment opportunities improve → gender inequality may decline
For employment:
economic development → paid work expands → women gain income → financial independence increases → gender hierarchy may weaken
For health:
development → healthcare improves → maternal health improves → women's health inequality reduced
For backlash:
women gain opportunities → existing power threatened → patriarchal values reasserted → gender inequality may increase
For NGOs:
development project → women involved in decisions → women's needs represented → project may reduce gender inequality
or:
women marginalised → male priorities dominate → project reproduces inequality
For global care chains:
global employment opportunity → woman migrates for care work → income increases → care responsibilities transferred elsewhere → care deficit may develop
Turning description into analysis
Weak:
Development gives women jobs.
Better:
Development may expand paid employment, giving women greater access to income.
Stronger:
Greater income may increase women's economic independence and reduce part of the gender hierarchy. However, if women continue to perform most unpaid care work, paid employment may reduce economic inequality without removing the gendered division of labour.
Another example: education
Weak:
Girls get more education.
Better:
Development may increase girls' access to education, reducing gender inequality in educational opportunity.
Stronger:
AQA's 2020 material also links girls' education with greater employment opportunities. However, patriarchal labour-market structures may mean qualifications do not produce equal outcomes automatically.
Another example: backlash
Weak:
Men might not like equality.
Better:
Development may threaten groups that benefit from traditional gender arrangements.
Stronger:
AQA's 2020 item suggests that powerful groups may respond to social change by reasserting traditional attitudes and practices. Progress towards gender equality may therefore generate a patriarchal backlash, showing that development is not a simple linear movement towards equality.
Exam focus: 2020
AQA directly tested:
Applying material from Item K, analyse two ways in which development can affect gender inequalities.
The two item hooks were:
new ways for previously exploited groups to improve their situation
powerful groups feeling threatened and reasserting traditional attitudes
This is an excellent model for understanding both:
progress
and
backlash
Exam focus: 2021
AQA then tested:
Outline and explain two ways in which gender inequalities in developing countries may be influenced by NGOs.
This required students to understand that development organisations may:
reduce inequality
reproduce inequality
depending on how their projects operate.
Exam focus: 2023
Gender was indirectly examined through education.
AQA recognised that:
education for girls can help reduce global gender inequalities.
This demonstrates the importance of being able to connect gender to other specification areas rather than revising it as an isolated topic.
Exam focus: 2024
Gender became the full 20-mark Global Development essay:
Evaluate sociological views of gender differences in the experience of development and underdevelopment.
This makes Lesson 14 a particularly important synoptic lesson because it can draw on almost every earlier area of Global Development.
Gender is a synoptic development topic
Gender can be connected to:
education
health
employment
globalisation
TNCs
NGOs
environmental development
inequality
This means strong answers can combine earlier knowledge while remaining focused on gender.
The critical phrase is:
How is this development process experienced differently according to gender?
Comparing positive and critical interpretations
Development may reduce gender inequality | Development may reproduce gender inequality |
Girls gain more education. | Educational opportunities may not lead to equal outcomes. |
Women gain paid employment. | Gendered division of labour may persist. |
Women's health improves. | Maternal health inequalities may remain. |
NGOs may support women and girls. | Women may be marginalised in NGO decision making. |
Economic opportunities may increase independence. | Patriarchal hierarchies may continue. |
Global employment may provide income. | Global care chains may create care deficits. |
Development may challenge traditional gender relations. | Powerful groups may respond with patriarchal backlash. |
Comparing sociological interpretations
Perspective | Interpretation of gender and development | Evaluation |
Modernisation theory | Economic and social development can expand women's education, health and employment opportunities. | May be gender blind and assume progress follows automatically from modernisation. |
Dependency theory | Unequal global economic relationships can create underdevelopment. | May focus on inequality between countries while overlooking gender inequalities within them. |
Marxism | Gender inequalities may be connected to capitalist economic relationships and class structures. | Feminists may argue that patriarchy cannot be reduced to class. |
Feminisms | Gender is central to understanding development and underdevelopment. | Different feminisms disagree over which inequalities and experiences should receive greatest emphasis. |
Black feminism | Women's experiences are shaped by intersecting inequalities rather than gender alone. | Challenges overgeneralisation about "women" as one group. |
Southern feminism | Development should reflect the experiences and priorities of women in developing societies rather than assuming Western models are universal. | Highlights context but still needs to address material inequalities and power. |
Ecofeminism | Gender inequality can interact with environmental exploitation and development. | Useful where environmental consequences are important, but does not explain every form of gender inequality. |
Post-development | Questions universal assumptions about what development and progress should mean. | Challenges one-size-fits-all development but must still address inequalities in health, education and power. |
Evaluating the extent of change
A useful judgement is to distinguish three possibilities.
Development transforms gender relations
Women gain greater equality in:
education
health
employment
power
Development partially changes gender relations
Some opportunities improve but:
unpaid care remains unequal
patriarchal power persists
women remain excluded from some decisions
Development reproduces or intensifies inequality
Benefits are distributed unequally or development provokes a patriarchal backlash.
Most sociological evidence in the AQA materials supports treating the outcome as conditional rather than universal.
How to evaluate gender development effectively
A strong evaluation repeatedly asks:
Which aspect of development has changed?
How does it affect women and men differently?
Does it reduce gender inequality?
What gender inequalities remain?
Who controls the process?
Do different groups of women experience it differently?
This keeps every paragraph focused on the actual topic.
Overall sociological judgement
Gender is a central aspect of development because women and men may experience the same economic and social transformations differently. AQA's own 2024 item identifies genuine gains for women through education, improved health and paid employment, while earlier assessment material shows that girls' education and well-designed NGO projects may reduce gender inequalities.
However, development does not automatically remove patriarchy. Gender hierarchies and gendered divisions of labour may continue, women may be excluded from development decisions, global care chains may generate care deficits and progress may provoke a backlash that reasserts traditional patriarchal values.
The strongest conclusion is therefore that development can create important opportunities for greater gender equality, but whether those opportunities lead to lasting change depends on power, participation, the distribution of paid and unpaid work, and the particular experiences of different groups of women. Gender equality should therefore be treated as a measure of successful development, not simply as an automatic consequence of economic growth.
Key Words 🔑
Key word | Student-friendly definition | How it may be used in an exam |
Gender equality | A situation in which opportunities, resources and outcomes are not unfairly determined by gender. | Explain why gender is an aspect and measure of development. |
Patriarchy | Social arrangements in which men tend to hold greater power or advantages than women. | Explain why development may not benefit women and men equally. |
Gender hierarchy | Unequal ranking of genders in terms of power, status or opportunity. | Analyse whether development changes women's social position. |
Gendered division of labour | A pattern in which women and men tend to perform different paid or unpaid forms of work. | Evaluate women's employment and unpaid caring responsibilities. |
Maternal mortality | Death associated with pregnancy or childbirth. | Use maternal health to evaluate whether development is improving women's lives. |
Global care chain | A cross-national chain of caring work created when people migrate to provide care in another society. | Analyse gender, migration, globalisation and employment together. |
Care deficit | A shortage or gap in care that may result when carers move elsewhere for employment. | Evaluate the costs as well as benefits of global care employment. |
Gender-blind theory | An explanation that gives insufficient attention to differences between women's and men's experiences. | Evaluate early modernisation and dependency approaches. |
Black feminism | A feminist perspective emphasising that gender interacts with inequalities such as race, ethnicity and class. | Challenge the assumption that all women experience development identically. |
Southern feminism | A perspective emphasising women's experiences and priorities in developing societies rather than assuming Western feminist experiences are universal. | Evaluate universal accounts of women and development. |
Hints from the Examiner Reports 💡
Examiner hint: Gender and development was the 2024 20-mark Global Development question. Students generally showed good knowledge, so the main issue was not lack of content but how well that content was connected to development and underdevelopment.
Examiner hint: AQA specifically warns against drifting into generic feminist material about patriarchy or male dominance. Less effective 2024 responses discussed feminism but failed to link it to development and underdevelopment.
Examiner hint: Use theory to explain a gender-development relationship. For example, do not simply write a paragraph describing dependency theory. Explain why dependency theory might overlook gender inequalities within developing societies or how global economic relationships may affect women's experiences.
Examiner hint: The 2024 report notes that evaluation often worked through contrasting the gender-blind elements of modernisation and dependency theory with approaches and examples that place gender more centrally.
Examiner hint: For 20-mark answers, AQA advises selecting a limited number of relevant ideas and developing them in depth rather than trying to use every possible perspective.
Examiner hint: Evaluation should weigh strengths and limitations and reach a reasoned judgement. Merely saying "feminists disagree with modernisation" is juxtaposition rather than developed evaluation.
Examiner hint: In a 10-mark analyse question, use both item hooks explicitly. The 2020 gender question was designed around progress towards equality and backlash against change. Develop each as a separate mechanism.
Common Mistakes ⚠️
Mistake: Writing a generic essay about feminism
Why this is incorrect:The 2024 examiner report specifically identified drift into general discussion of male dominance and patriarchy.
How to improve:Link every feminist concept to development or underdevelopment.
Mistake: Assuming economic development automatically reduces gender inequality
Why this is incorrect:National economic growth does not show whether women gain equal access to education, health, employment or power.
How to improve:Ask how development benefits are distributed between women and men.
Mistake: Assuming all women experience development in the same way
Why this is incorrect:AQA explicitly recognises Black feminism, Southern feminism and postmodernism.
How to improve:Consider how gender may interact with other inequalities and social contexts.
Mistake: Treating paid employment as complete gender equality
Why this is incorrect:AQA also identifies the gendered division of labour and global care chains.
How to improve:Consider women's paid employment alongside unpaid domestic and caring work.
Mistake: Ignoring health
Why this is incorrect:AQA's 2024 item explicitly identifies improved health as one way development may benefit women, while the mark scheme identifies maternal health and mortality.
How to improve:Use women's health as a distinct dimension of gender development.
Mistake: Assuming development always weakens patriarchy
Why this is incorrect:AQA's 2020 assessment recognises a possible backlash in which traditional patriarchal values are reasserted.
How to improve:Explain why increasing equality may threaten powerful groups and provoke resistance.
Mistake: Saying NGOs automatically empower women
Why this is incorrect:AQA recognises both positive NGO projects and the marginalisation of women within NGO activity.
How to improve:Ask whether women participate in decision making and whether projects reflect their needs.
Mistake: Describing dependency theory without gender
Why this is incorrect:A theory can explain global economic inequality while remaining gender blind.
How to improve:Ask whether dependency theory explains why women and men within the same society experience underdevelopment differently.
Mistake: Treating global care chains as simply migration
Why this is incorrect:The specifically gendered issue is the international movement of care work and the possible care deficit created elsewhere.
How to improve:Explain both the employment benefit and the consequences for caring responsibilities.
Mistake: Using every feminist perspective in one paragraph
Why this is incorrect:This produces a list rather than developed evaluation.
How to improve:Select perspectives that genuinely help answer the question and compare them in depth.
Exam-Style Questions ✍️
Question 1
What is meant by patriarchy? (1 mark)
Question 2
Explain one way in which education may reduce gender inequalities in a developing society. (4 marks)
Question 3
Explain two ways in which paid employment may affect women's experience of development. (6 marks)
Question 4
Outline and explain two ways in which development may reduce gender inequalities. (10 marks)
Question 5
Outline and explain two ways in which development may reproduce gender inequalities. (10 marks)
Question 6
Read Item A and answer the question that follows.
Item A
Economic and social development may create greater educational and employment opportunities for women. However, these changes may threaten groups that benefit from traditional gender arrangements.
Applying material from Item A, analyse two ways in which development may affect gender inequalities. (10 marks)
Question 7
Read Item B and answer the question that follows.
Item B
Some women migrate internationally to take paid jobs providing care for other families. This can increase their income and employment opportunities. However, caring responsibilities in their own families still have to be carried out.
Applying material from Item B, analyse two ways in which global care chains may affect gender and development. (10 marks)
Question 8
Read Item C and answer the question that follows.
Item C
Development can provide women with greater access to education, healthcare and paid employment. Modernisation approaches may see these changes as part of wider social and economic progress.
Feminist sociologists argue that gender must be placed at the centre of development. They point to continuing patriarchal relationships, gendered divisions of labour and differences between women's experiences.
Applying material from Item C and your knowledge, evaluate sociological explanations of gender differences in the experience of development and underdevelopment. (20 marks)
Answers and mark scheme
Question 1
Answer: A social arrangement in which men tend to hold greater power or advantages than women. (1 mark)
Award one mark for an accurate definition.
Question 2
Up to 4 marks for one developed explanation.
A strong answer could explain that greater educational opportunities allow girls to gain knowledge, skills and qualifications. These may increase later employment opportunities and economic independence, reducing gender inequality.
AQA's 2020 mark scheme specifically recognises education for girls leading to greater employment opportunities.
Question 3
Award marks for two developed ways.
Possible answers include:
Economic independence
Paid work can provide women with income, potentially increasing economic independence and reducing part of the gender hierarchy.
Changing gendered division of labour
Paid employment may change women's economic role, but women may continue to perform disproportionate unpaid caring work. Development may therefore improve employment opportunities without completely removing gender inequality.
Other relevant answers may include:
skills
career opportunities
social status
global-care employment
Question 4
A high-level answer should develop two clear ways.
Possible content includes:
Education
Development may increase girls' access to education. Education provides knowledge and qualifications that may create wider employment opportunities and reduce gender inequalities.
Health
Development may improve women's healthcare, including maternal health, producing more equal health outcomes.
Other valid points include:
paid employment
NGO projects supporting women
women's participation in development decisions
Each answer should explain the mechanism linking development to reduced gender inequality.
Question 5
Possible high-level answers include:
Gendered division of labour
Women may gain paid employment but remain responsible for disproportionate unpaid domestic and caring work. Development may therefore change women's economic role without removing gender inequality.
Marginalisation from decision making
Development programmes may be designed without sufficient input from women. Women's particular needs may receive less attention, reproducing patriarchal power.
Other relevant answers include:
patriarchal backlash
gender hierarchy
global care deficits
unequal employment benefits
Two points should be developed rather than simply identified.
Question 6
A strong response should use both item hooks.
Possible way 1: greater opportunities
The item refers to greater educational and employment opportunities. Education may give women skills and qualifications, while employment provides income. These can increase women's economic opportunities and contribute to progress towards greater gender equality.
Possible way 2: patriarchal backlash
The item states that these changes may threaten groups benefiting from traditional gender arrangements. AQA's 2020 material recognises that development may lead powerful groups to reassert patriarchal values. Greater opportunities for women may therefore provoke resistance and partially reproduce gender inequality.
The strongest answers will explicitly contrast progress and backlash.
Question 7
A high-level answer should develop both elements of Item B.
Possible way 1: employment and income
The item states that women obtain paid care work abroad. This may provide income and greater economic opportunities, potentially improving the woman's experience of development.
Possible way 2: care deficit
The item notes that caring responsibilities in the household of origin still have to be fulfilled. Migration may therefore create a care deficit, with other relatives taking over care. This shows that global employment may create economic opportunities while redistributing rather than eliminating gendered caring work.
A stronger response may connect this to:
global inequality
gendered division of labour
globalisation
Question 8
A strong 20-mark response should directly evaluate sociological explanations of gender differences in development and underdevelopment.
Arguments that development improves women's position may include:
greater educational opportunities
girls' education
improved employment opportunities
paid employment
greater economic independence
improved women's health
improved maternal health
NGO projects supporting women and girls
greater participation in development
Modernisation theory may argue that:
economic and social transformation creates wider opportunities
education expands
health improves
industrial and paid employment increases
these changes can reduce traditional inequalities
Evaluation of modernisation may include:
early modernisation approaches were gender blind
economic growth does not show whether women and men benefit equally
paid employment may coexist with unequal unpaid care
patriarchal relationships may remain
progress may provoke backlash
Dependency theory may argue that:
development and underdevelopment occur within unequal global economic relationships
TNCs and global economic relationships affect employment and opportunities
global inequality shapes the resources available to developing societies
Feminist evaluation of dependency may argue that:
inequality between societies is not the whole issue
women and men within the same society may experience underdevelopment differently
dependency theory may therefore remain gender blind
Feminist perspectives may focus on:
patriarchy
gender hierarchy
gendered division of labour
women's exclusion from decision making
maternal health
unpaid care
unequal employment opportunities
Different feminist perspectives may deepen evaluation through:
Black feminism, emphasising interaction between gender and other inequalities
Southern feminism, questioning whether Western feminist assumptions adequately reflect women in developing societies
ecofeminism, connecting environmental and gender inequality
Globalisation may be evaluated through:
women's international employment
global care chains
care deficits
TNC employment
changing economic opportunities
NGOs may be used to show that development organisations can have contrasting effects:
projects supporting women and girls can reduce inequality
women may be marginalised where their needs and views are ignored
women's participation in decision making matters
The 2020 backlash argument may be used to show that:
development can create new opportunities
these may threaten traditional power
patriarchal attitudes and practices may then be reasserted
Post-development and Southern feminist approaches may argue that:
one universal model of development should not be imposed on every society
women's own experiences and local priorities need greater attention
Students should also evaluate whether all women experience development identically.
Differences may exist according to:
class
race or ethnicity
economic position
social context
participation in paid and unpaid work
For the highest marks, avoid treating the essay as simply:
modernisation = goodfeminism = bad for modernisation
Instead, make the perspectives engage with the same evidence.
For example:
Development may expand women's access to paid employment, supporting a modernisation argument that economic transformation improves opportunities. However, feminists argue that employment statistics alone are insufficient because women may continue to carry disproportionate unpaid caring responsibilities. Development may therefore weaken one aspect of gender inequality while reproducing another.
A well-supported conclusion might argue that development has the potential to produce substantial improvements in women's education, health and employment. However, these gains do not automatically eliminate gender hierarchy. Feminist perspectives improve earlier development theories by examining the distribution of resources, unpaid labour and power within societies. The effect of development on gender inequality is therefore best understood as uneven and contested, with the greatest progress occurring where women gain not only access to development opportunities but also meaningful control over resources and decision making.
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