I worked as a women in development specialist in the early 1980s and then switched to a more comprehensive approach, in which I tried to include gender. For the past three years, I've been focusing again on gender specifically, because I found that without mentioning it directly, such a focus very easily disappears from view. I do agree that including other marginalized groups is a good idea, paying more attention to the male half of gender (and interactions between genders) are also important; and it's time to attend to the division of domestic labour if we really want change.
I strongly believe that addressing population explicitly has dual advantages, if conducted within a participatory approach. It contributes to empowering women (both men and women if done well)---freeing women's time from reproduction to be used in income generation, education, community service, self-actualization, etc; and it contributes to population stabilization (there's a huge unmet demand out there for family planning! The fact that we're not addressing it quite simply is a crime, for individuals and for the earth).
I worked as a women in development specialist in the early 1980s and then switched to a more comprehensive approach, in which I tried to include gender. For the past three years, I've been focusing again on gender specifically, because I found that without mentioning it directly, such a focus very easily disappears from view. I do agree that including other marginalized groups is a good idea, paying more attention to the male half of gender (and interactions between genders) are also important; and it's time to attend to the division of domestic labour if we really want change.
I strongly believe that addressing population explicitly has dual advantages, if conducted within a participatory approach. It contributes to empowering women (both men and women if done well)---freeing women's time from reproduction to be used in income generation, education, community service, self-actualization, etc; and it contributes to population stabilization (there's a huge unmet demand out there for family planning! The fact that we're not addressing it quite simply is a crime, for individuals and for the earth).