ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the shifts in theoretical understanding and practice of various macro-level development strategies and programs over the last hundred years as concerted efforts by development “experts” and aid donors have recognized correlations between gender-based inequality and higher instances of poverty among specific population groups. Over this century, development theorists, policy makers, and practitioners have increasingly paid attention to feminist theories and gender equality advocates who seek to transform development ethics from an earlier focus on expanding capitalist economies to affirming and sustaining all life on the planet and to promoting gender justice. Gender equality advocates have also increasingly acknowledged that gender is only one determinant of an individual’s relative power and life opportunities. Although for most of the past hundred years the designing and implementing of gender and development initiatives have proceeded in a top-down direction, qualitative studies are building knowledge and proving that progressive change occurs when local populations define their own gender and development needs and determine locally driven processes to achieve gender equity outcomes.
