Women in Development to Gender- Responsive Agriculture: Evolution of Perspectives

This chapter traces the historical evolution of gender thinking in agricultural and rural development. It begins by discussing the limitations of early modernisation approaches, which largely considered men as farmers and women as dependents, household workers or welfare beneficiaries. The chapter then explains the emergence of the Women in Development approach, which brought women’s economic roles into development planning but often treated them as an additional target group rather than addressing structural inequality. It further examines Women and Development and Gender and Development perspectives, which shifted attention from women alone to gendered power relations within households, institutions, markets and communities. Gender mainstreaming, empowerment-oriented development, rights-based approaches, intersectionality and gender-transformative agriculture are presented as successive advances in conceptual and institutional thinking. The chapter stresses that current agricultural programmes often repeat old errors by reporting women’s attendance while ignoring control over land, income, machinery, credit, extension services and market participation. It argues that gender-responsive agriculture must influence planning, budgeting, research priorities, technology design, extension approaches, programme delivery and monitoring. The central message is that meaningful inclusion requires institutional change, accountability and redistribution of opportunities, not simply women’s presence in projects.