Development Discourse, Modernization Theory, and Gender

Scientific Essay from the year 2013 in the subject Sociology - Relationships and Family, , language: English, abstract: The contemporary world has experienced a focus on development as a core influenceon social, economic, and political spheres. Equating the preoccupation with development to adiscourse, Escobar (86-91) notes the interpretation of societal development as a technicalproblem requiring rational decisionmaking and management entrusted to a group of people. How such people conceptualize development has an impact on various groups in society. Inthis case, a male-dominated outlook on development poses various effects on women,explorable through exploring the various theoretical foundations on development (Lindio-MacGovern and Isidor 35). Several important theories conceptualized over the past half acentury form the main ideas surrounding development, one of which is the modernizationtheory. Through taking the perspective of gendered development in which developmentaffects men and women differently, the present study analyzes impacts of development basedon the modernization theory and global capitalism on women. The study relies on scholarly works covering development, gendered development,modernization theory, and global capitalism. The approach to the discussion entails anoverview of development and modernization theory with a focus on the first world-thirdworld divide. This discussion of development frameworks then ushers in an analysis of howsuch development impacts women. The main theme under investigation is gendereddevelopment dwelling on the fate of women, with the central argument being thatdevelopment and paradigmatic development theories create opportunities and hindrances forthe development of women. [...]